University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Philosophy

Irish English Varieties of English, Seminar Paper

Authors: Teofilovi Svetlana, Vasiljevi Vanja, Vrani Aleksandra 12/1/2013

2

Introduction

In this paper the phonological, morphological and syntactic features of Irish English will be

presented. Afterwards, the characteristics of Irish English that are present in other varieties of

English will be pointed out. Under the term Irish English we assume the variety of English

spoken in the Republic of Ireland and not the one spoken in Northern Ireland i.e. Ulster Scots. In

the sections about phonetics, phonology and syntax firstly the features that can be found in all

areas of the Republic of Ireland will be specified and subsequently the features of regional

dialects. The phonological and syntactic features are not equally present in regions and that is

why on the phonological basis there are three regions: the Midlands, the south-west and the

south-east parts, whereas on the syntactic grounds there are the east part and the south -west

part. However, such separations of dialects with isoglosses is never so strict in realty, because

there will always be some dialect mixing (Bauer, 2002: 7). On borders people can use even a

feature that is not present in the surrounding varieties in order to avoid being associated with a

variety. As far as the features that are present in other varieties, it can be said that these are

influenced by many historical events in the Republic of Ireland which caused many migrations.

In order to understand the influence of both English and Irish on the development of Irish

English, firstly a brief history of English in Ireland will be given and then the typical

characteristics will be explained.

Historical background of Irish English

There are two most important periods in the development of the Irish variety of English. The

first one began with the Anglo-Norman invasion in the late 12th

century, when the English

language appeared in Ireland for the first time, since the settlers of the east coast were English

and Norman French speakers. This period finished and the second one started with the

plantations of Ireland, in the beginning of the 17th

century, when the land was confiscated and

colonized by the English monarchy and the English language was reinforced in Ireland. In the

first period the Irish language was influenced the Old English, but until the end of the

15th

century it had replaced it. The English attempted to change the situation and stop the

growing Gaelicisation by planting, but they had no success. However, during the reign of James

I, English was reintroduced in the north and became dominant again. In the 17th

century, during

3

the conquest of Ireland by the English Parliament, Oliver Cromwell seized a great amount of

land from the Catholics (who were the majority of the Irish population), passed several laws

against them, and tried to reduce their power by settling the English people in Ireland. The type

of English that developed from the settlement is known as "South Hiberno-English" or "Hiberno-

English", while in the north of the country there was "Ulster-Scots" or "Scottish Irish". Even

though the English language was reestablished as a preferred one, from the east coast and Dublin

down to the south-east and Waterford, there are still the remains of the varieties brought during

the first period and features of south-west English are present there.

The medieval and modern period

Medieval Irish English can be found in Waterford and Dublin city records, in many verse

fragments, and in the collection of 16 medieval poems, called the Kildare Poems. This

collection was probably written in the early 14th

century by the author who says that he comes

from County Kildare, west of Dublin. It is not certain that these poems were written by one or

more people, or if they were written by Irish speakers who used English as a high codified

variety for literary purpose, due to diglossia in Ireland. The language used in the poems has the

characteristics of southern English and general west Midland, but there is also an evident

influence of Irish language.

In the 16th

century, during the early modern period, the Irish variety of English was usually

represented by English authors, who wrote parodies of the Irish. These parodies are of

questionable worth, since they were mostly written by the English speaking authors,

who perceived the Irish in their own way, from an external point of view. However, these

parodies may help us to deduce which were the most relevant and noticeable features, and help

us reconstruct the Irish variety of English of the time. During the late modern period, there were

some other kinds of literary works that represented Irish English. One of the most important is

the first Anglo-Irish novel called Castle Racknet, by Maria Edgeworth, which depicts and

preserves the language of ordinary Irish people of this period.

4

Phonetics and Phonology

In this section, the general phonetic and phonological traits of Irish English and its

vernacular forms will be presented, and then the variations and deviations from them in various

parts of the Republic of Ireland will be pointed out. General features are those that can be said to

be broadly present in the entire Republic of Ireland. The term vernacular Irish English here is

used in the same sense as Hickey explained it meaning that it denotes the typical, local traits of

Irish English which are nowadays put in an inferior position because of the supraregionalisation

or the tendency to use more standard forms in order to make a dialect more open to broader

community. An example of supraregionalisation are that the vowels of Irish English which did

not undergo the Great Vowel Shift, but in the 19th

century the unshifted vowels were substituted

with mainstream English pronunciation. An example of a vernacular form would be a Middle

English unshifted vowel / / in beat [b t] (Hickey,2007:142). The phonetic and phonological

features include the characteristics of consonants and vowels.

Consonants

The characteristics of consonants are: (a) no/ h/ dropping, (b) retention of /r/ in all positions,

(c) fortition of certain consonants, (d) lenition of certain consonants, (e) use of the voiceless

approximant //, (f) bilabial realization of labio-dental sounds, (g) use of clear /l/ in all positions,

(h) /j/ can undergo three processes, (i) alveolarisation of velar nasals.

(a) Because /h/ has a tendency to be lost in some dialects of English, it is important to say that

there is no /h/ dropping in Irish English.

(b) Irish English is rhotic and it retains historical /r/ postvocalically in all positions. The

realization of /r/ is usually the same as in standard English which means that it is an alveolar

approximant and that it is a fricative after alveolar stops /t/ or /d/.

(c) The next feature is the fortition of fricatives // and // into dental stops /t/ and /d/. This

may be an influence of Irish whose speakers used the near native equivalents for the English

sounds // and //. This fortition happened during the 17th century, when many people

learned English as a second language and could not master the pronunciation of these two

sounds which are not present in other languages. // and / / realised in this way are usually

presented as [d] and [t].

5

(d) A complex process that certain sounds undergo in Irish English is lenition. Although the

term lenition can refer to many phonological processes like loss of aspiration, shortening of long

segments, turning of diphthongs into monophthongs, phonologists agree that it

generally denotes weakening or the process when a segment becomes more sonorous or less

occluded (Trask, 1996: 201). In Irish English, lenition is considered to be an influence from Irish

because in Celtic languages lenition is important in morphology since it indicates grammatical

categories such as gender, number with nouns or present or past tense with verbs (Hickey,

2009:116). In Irish English the term lenition refers to several processes and these include (i)

reduction of effort or tapping; (ii) change of a stop into a fricative; (iii) change of a stop into a

continuant, namely into [ ]; (iv) removal of oral gesture and (v) segment deletion (Hickey,

2009: 125). Of these five types of lenition, only the (i) reduction of effort or tapping and (ii) the

change of a stop into a fricative are considered to be features of general Irish English, whereas

the other three are characteristics of Dublin Irish English. Therefore here the first two types of

lenition will be described and the other three in the section about Dublin Irish English.

(i) Tapping or reduction of duration of a segment can occur instead of /t/ or /d/ turning into a

fricative, but only in a word-internal position and in a post-stress environments. e.g. Waterford

[wfd] and better [b] (Hickey, 2007: 146). Tapping is quite popular among the young,

non-local speakers. (ii) Change of a stop into a fricative , also known as /t/ or /d/ lenition,

depending on what sound undergoes the change , denotes the process in which apico -alveolar

stops /t/ and /d/ are realized as fricatives [ t ] and [d ]. The articulation of the

fricative [t] Hickey described as following [ t ] is formed by bringing the apex of the tongue

close to the alveolar ridge as if for the articulation of /t/ but stopping just before contact

(Hickey, 1984:2). This type of change is phonetically conditioned and the conditions could be

summarised into four groups . Firstly, the stops /t/ or /d/ must not be in the onset of the syllable

and they must be in a post stressed position e .g. Italy [it tli] and Italian [tlin] or it has to be

in a post-pausal position when the segment is not a part of a cluster e .g. mad[m: d]. Secondly,

this realization is also dependent on the weakening environment or the sonority value of the

surrounding segments. This means that /t/ or /d/ has to be surrounded by an open environment

both to the left and right . In this sense non -open sounds are fricatives and stops , whereas open

are sonorants and vowels . Vowels represent the weakest environment in Irish English e .g.

[p ti]. The nature of vowels, or the feature that they do not have any closure in their

6

articulation can explain the behavior of some sonorants because not all of them allow lenition .

For example /r/,which in its articulation does not have any oral closure allows lenition e .g.

[pt]. On the other hand, /n/ and /m/ which have complete oral closure in their articulation do

not allow lenition e.g. [plt] and [pnt]. If applying the terms from generative phonology by

Chomsky and Halle, it could be said that non-continuants, or sounds that do have some type of

closure block lenition (Hickey,1984:67). Thirdly, lenition is also influenced by the phonotactics

of Irish English. In Irish English the sequence of two fricatives is prohibited, except in classical

borrowings e.g. sphinx, and in words where between the two fricatives there is a morphological

boundary in the syllable coda e.g. fifths. This is important for words in which yod absorption

occurred and produced an affricate, whose stop onset does not undergo lenition because of this

prohibition of two fricatives rule e.g. attune [ tu:n]. In such instances there is no lenition even

if all other conditions for it are met. Fourthly, if a syllable in a weak environment begins with /s/

and it surrounds the syllable with /t/ or /d/, then /s/ blocks the fricative realization of these

sounds. e.g. obesity [obi:st].

Because lenition of /d/ is not as frequent as /t/ it has not been studied in much detail (Kallen:

2012:33) and there are not many examples with /d/ to illustrate all aspects of lenition of Irish

English. Still, Hickey states that all rules and restrictions for /t/ apply equally for /d/, although its

fricativisation is not as clear as that of /t/ and that consequently the noise of its fricativisation is

slighter (Hickey, 1984: 241). Lenition also depends on the degree of vernacularism, and in

various dialects of Irish English it ranges from non-lenition, meaning that it does not occur at all

to zero, meaning that the lenition has several stages and that finally the deletion of consonants

takes place.

Because phonetic realization of /t/ and /d/ varies considerably it can be concluded that /t/ and

/d/ are realized as in RP either if immediately before a stressed vowel in a word initial position

e.g. tea, or word medially as in e.g. Titanic or if placed in front of or after a consonant e.g.

lightning and bent. In other cases they are apico-alveolar fricatives and are distinct from laminal

fricatives /s/ and /z/ and from alveolar palatal fricatives // and //. If in a post consonantal

position /t/ may be affricated to a slight degree e.g. [bnts ].

(e) Use of the voiceless approximant // in words spelled with wh is a trait shared with

Scottish English. Because of this which and witch are not homophonous ( King, 2006: 38).

7

(f) Labio-dental English phonemes /f/ and /v/ used to be pronounced as bilabial ones [] and

[]. Sullevan considers that this was also an influence from Irish, because the early speakers of

Irish English used Irish bilabials for the English standard phonemes /f/ and /v/. e.g. loaf [lo:]

and veins [e:nz] (Sullevan, 1980: 199). But this trait was lost somewhere around 1750s and was

replaced by the use of the standard phonemes. However, it can still be used by those people who

do not want to adhere to standard forms of English pronunciation.

(g) Use of clear /l/ i.e. palatal or alveolo-palatal in all positions is typical for Irish English

whereas in RP velar /l/ occurs after vowels.

(h) /j/ can undergo yod deletion, absorption and assibilation. In certain positions /j/ is deleted

and this is called yod deletion (Hickey, 1984: 67). Yod deletion occurs after /n/ and /l/ but

never in a non-stressed position e.g. lute [lu:t] vs. venue [ vnju:]. It does not occur after /r/,

nor after labio-dental fricatives e.g. few [fju:]. On the other hand, /j/ can also

undergo absorption. Absorption means that /j/ disappears and that the former segment changes

its articulation into an alveolar-palatal fricative. Absorption in Irish English includes the

following changes: /sj/ into / / and /zj/ into // e.g. azure [u:r]. /j/ can also undergo

assibiliation when it is changed into alveolar- palatal fricatives /t/ or /d/. But then the segment

that precedes it does not undergo any changes like educate [du:ke:t]. Both absorption and

assibiliation must be in accordance with the phonotactic rules of Irish English or otherwise/ /,

//, / t/, /d/ will not be created as results of these two processes.

(i) Alveolarisation of velar nasals implies that // turns into /n/ in -ing verb forms e.g. How are

you gettin on ? That is why there is a tendency to spell the -ing forms with -n.(King, 2006: 38)

But this does not onlt applies for verbs, but also happens with -ing nouns like

buildin and heatin(Hickey, 2001:6).

8

Vowels

There are certain features and phenomena that are characteristic for the vowel system of Irish

English and these include: (a) tendency to create monophtongs where in RP diphthongs can be

found, (b) lack of syncope, (c) varying pronunciation of //, (d) raising of // to /i/, (e) retention

of vowel distinctions before /r/, (f) metathesis, (g) epenthesis and (h) lengthening of the low

vowel /a/.

(a) There are only three phonemic diphthongs in Irish English and these are /ai/, /au/ and /i/ as

in wire /wair/, tower /taur/ and Mire /mir/ (Hickey, 1989: 53). Because there are no other

diphthongs, there is a tendency to create long monophthongs. The most frequent long vowels are

/e:/ and /o:/. e.g. pane [pe:n] and pope [po:p]. However, Hickey states that these can be

diphthongized to a slight degree if they are in a word final position e.g. bay[ be:], bow [bo:

]

(Hickey, 1989: 47). Long /u:/ is found after /j/ e.g. pure is pronounced as /pju:r/ and this also

means that the RP /-(j)/ does not exist in Irish English.(Hickey, 1984: 47).

(b )The lack of syncope is also distinct of Irish English. Syncope refers to vowel loss from the

interior of a word. This is a feature of RP according to which police is pronounced as [pli:s],

whereas in Irish English it is [plis] (Hickey,1984:71).

(c) Lexical set GOOSE is pronounced with [u] unlike in Ulster where this lexical set is

pronounced with a close central vowel e.g. boot [bt]. But in the Republic of Ireland the sets

FOOT and STRUT have different realizations which can vary from [ ] to []. Even an

intermediate vowel [] can be found in words such as bush, push, cushion, pudding, foot, stood

and soot. ( Kallen, 2012: 33)

(d) Vowel // as in DRESS raises to /i/ or // e.g. bench [bn] and devil [divl]. Raising to /i/ is

today generally considered a recessive feature (Kallen, 2012:33). Raising of // to /i/ causes the

existence of many homonyms, typically if // is in front of /n/ like pin and pen, kin and Ken

(King, 2006: 39), but also there are examples of homonyms where // is not in front of /n/ e.g.

mess and miss (Kallen, 2012: 33).

(e) Since Irish English retained a post-vocalic /r/ in all positions, there are sets of short vowel

contrasts especially if vowels are followed by /r/ that belongs to the next syllable. For example,

stirrup /strp/, berry / bri/, tarry /tri/, lorry /lri/ and hurry /hri/ (Hickey,1989: 55) all of

which have a different short vowel in front of /r/. In such cases all vowels can occur with the

exception of //. This is explained as an influence of the Middle English shift of // to // before

9

/r/. On the other hand, the case with tautosyllabic /r/ or the one which belongs to the same

syllable as a vowel, the number of vowels that can occur is restricted because in regions with

supraregionlisation only a central rhoticised schwa is found, but this does not account for the

south-west part of Ireland.

(f) If an unstressed short vowel is followed by /r/ in a syllable which begins with an alveolar

stop, usually there will be an exchange of positions between/ r/ and the vowel. This exchange of

positions of two segments in a word is known as metathesis (Trask, 1996: 222). E.g. modern

/mdrn/ or pattern /ptrn/ (Hickey, 1989: 56).

(g) On the other hand, epenthesis is defined as an insertion of a segment into a word in a

position in which no segment was previously present. (Trask, 1996: 132) It occurs between

clusters of sonorants, especially between a liquid and a nasal. In Irish English the vowels that are

inserted are either // or //. If epenthesis occurs between /l/ and /m/ or between /l/ and /n/ it can

be heard even in middle urban speech or in areas with supraregionalisation e.g. film [film]

(Hickey, 2004: 86) or [film] (Hickey, 1989: 56). Other forms of epenthesis that also occur, for

example between /r/ and /m/ or /r/ and /n/ but these are are stigmatized e.g. arm [a: rm], barn

[ brn].(Hickey, 1989: 56). Epenthesis can also occur between /r/ and /l/, but this is an example

of the most stigmatized form and is used by the urban population to ridicule the rural population.

E.g. Charles [t:rlz] or girl [grl]. (Hickey, 1989: 57)

(h) Another characteristic is that the low vowel /a/ is always lengthened in monosyllabic

words or when it is under full stress and it is pronounced as [a:] e.g. aunt [a: nt]. Its short

opposition is //. However, // can be slightly lengthened in some situations. If suffix -ie is

added, then /i/ shortens the previous [a:], but still the newly created vowel is not as short as //.

Hickey presents this sound as [.] e.g. in auntie [.nti] ( Hickey, 1986: 147).

The phonological features vary in various parts of the Republic of Ireland and certain areas

have their own characteristics. These areas include the Midlands, the south-west part and the

south- east part of Ireland.

Characteristics of the Midlands

This region encompasses the north-central part of the Republic of Ireland, its west boundary

is the County Dublin on the north-east and its south boundary is the County of Tipperary. The

10

counties that are part of the Midlands are Westmeath, Longford, Offaly, Laois, Kildare, Meath,

Roscommon and north Tipperary. Geographically, the Midlands area also includes the counties

of Monaghan and Cavan, but here they are not included here because the traits of vernacular

speech which account for the other counties are not typical for these two since there is a great

influence of Ulster Scots in the northern part of the Republic of Ireland and the traits that are to

be presented next and also the general features of Irish English would completely apply to these

two regions.

The features of this dialect could be said to be somewhere in-between the features of the

north and the south. These features include: 1. /u/- fronting as in the GOOSE lexical set which is

an influence of Ulster Scots, this sound is presented as []. 2.In this region a retroflex r [] can

be heard and this is also a feature shared with Ulster Scots. 3. If /tj/ is placed between two

vowels it turns into /k/ e.g. fortune [frku:n] (Hickey, 2006: 79).

Characteristics of the South-West

This area spreads form the County of Cork to the County of Mayo, and it is here that Irish

managed to exist longest. It includes the counties: Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick, Cork and

Kerry. The trait that can be found in the entire south-west area is that two short vowels are

distinguished before tautosyllabic /r/ and those are // and // e.g. tern /trn/ and turn /trn/

(Hickey, 1989: 47). On a phonological ground the south-west area can be separated into two

separate regions because each of these regions have their own phonological traits.

Characteristics of the South include: 1. no distinction between // and //, not even before /r/,

which is a trait of general Irish English. In this way fir and err are both pronounced with

//.(Hickey, 1989:55) Today // turns into // only before a nasal, earlier // raised also in non-

nasal environments.This implies that with new words // turns into // only before a nasal, even in

this region. 2. There is a drop in pitch on stressed syllables, which is most noticeable in Cork.

3.Very open realization of // in the LOT lexical set, which also most prominent in the city of

Cork. 4.Tense, raised realization of //is also typical for this southern area.

The trait that is typical for the west part and is not found in the south is a low central onset

for the diphthongs /ai/ and /au/.

South- East Part of Ireland

This area encompasses the counties Waterford, south-east Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford,

Carlow and the east coast that includes the counties of Wicklow, Meath, Louisa and Dublin.

11

But on phonological grounds Dublin can be considered to be a separate entity because it has

many traits that are spreading out of it and not present in regions far from it . Therefore Dublin

is here, as well as in most literature about Irish English, treated as a separate area from the

south-east part. Generally the phonological features of the south-east can be divided into the

features of consonants and vowels.

The features of consonants include varying realizations of /r/ and stop assimilation before

sonorants.

In some parts of this region a velarised /r/ is found (Hickey, 2001:6). In west Waterford and

southern Tipperary a uvular r [] can be heard, but this is a highly recessive rural feature

(Hickey, 2001:6).

Another characteristic typical for south -east Irish English is the stop assimilation before

sonorants. This most frequently can be heard in the contracted negative auxiliary verb

forms wasnt [wdnt] and isnt [idnt].This process can also be referred to as a type of fortition

which happens in a pre-nasal environment, but it is important to say that in Irish English it can

be found only with these two verb forms and not in other words e.g. business is not pronounced

as [bidnis] (Hickey, 2007:9).

Features of vowels include unshifted /:/, no long/a/ in certain environments, distinction

between the NORTH and FORCE lexical sets, two short vowels are distinguished before

tautosyllabic /r/, different onsets for diphthongs and reduction of post-stressed syllable vowels.

In Waterford still unshifted Middle-English /:/ can be heard, but only in words beat and

leave and many stages of the Great Vowel Shift did not take place in the east coast of

Ireland.(Hickey, 2001:4) But the mainstream features were superimposed later. Therefore

in Waterford there is a distinction between // and/i/ so that pin and pen are pronounced

differently.

Also, there is no /a/ lengthening if /a/ is found before voiceless fricatives e.g. path [pat] vs. bath

[ ba:t] (Hickey, 2001:4).

In Southern Irish English the lexical sets NORTH [a:] and FORCE[o:] are kept apart and this

is considered to be conservative feature of this dialect.

In this region two short vowels are distinguished before tautosyllabic /r/ and those are // and

// e.g. tern /trn/ and turn /trn/.(Hickey, 1989: 54) In supra-regional varieties there is a

rotacized schwa in both cases.

12

As far as diphthongs are concerned, there is a tendency to pronounce /ai/ with a centralized

onset i.e. as // e.g. quite [kwt] (Hickey, 2007: 142) and a tendency to a front onset in /au/ e.g.

town can be pronounced either as [tn] or [tn] ( Hickey, 2007: 142).

A process related to vowels and which is typical for this region is the reduction of post-stress

syllable vowels. Most frequently a mid-back vowel is reduced to schwa e.g. window [wind],

fellow [fl] (Hickey, 2001: 8).

Dublin Features

Also the properties of Dublin speech embody the peculiarities of consonants and vowels.

The hallmarks of consonants are the realizations of /r/, leniton, /l/, // that all vary from the

general features of Irish English; the slight affrication of /t/ and post- sonorant or fricative stop

deletion.

Some areas of Dublin are non-rhotic and this is typical of conservative speakers. However,

rhoticity is spreading and becoming more popular among Dubliners. In Fashionable Dublin

speech even a retroflex [] can be heard. A retroflex[] influences the articulation of vowels

which precede it, so if /a:/ is found before[ ] it is realized either as [:] or as [:].

Lenition in Dublin has a scalar manifestation. As already pointed out in the general section

about lenition here the remaining three types of lenition will be described and those are the

change of a stop into a continuant, removal of oral gesture and segment deletion. However,

glottalisation can also occur as a stage on the path to segment deletion. Although there is no

glottalisation in Irish English, it appears in vernacular Dublin English and it is the first step

towards deletion of an intervocalic segment in a word-final, pre-pausal position. According to

Hickey glottalisation can also be considered as lenition or weakening (Hickey, 2009: 120).

Firstly glottalisation occurs, then the glotal stop turns into /h/ which is finally deleted. e.g.

but [bt] [b] [bh] [b] (Hickey, 2007:4). On the other hand, there is also a different trajectory

for weakening in Dublin and it implies that firstly change from a stop to a fricative occurs , then

change of [t ] into a continuant namely [] takes place which is then followed by the removal of

oral gesture. The removal of oral gesture implies that either a glottal fricative /h/ or a glottal

stop [] could be created. Finally the /h/ or the glottal stop is deleted . e.g. water [w t]

[w ] [w h] or [w: ] [w ] (Hickey,2009: 178). An alveolar r [] as a reduction

of a glottal stop or of [t ] can occur especially as an external sandhi phenomenon i.e. it

13

occurs across word boundaries. e.g. Get off, will you! [g f wl j] (Hickey, 2007:9) or sit

up [s p] (Hickey, 2009: 127).

Dublin is also known for the use of velarised l []. During the 1990s this feature spread widely

out of Dublin and today it is used in the entire Republic of Ireland, but it is the main difference

between older and younger speakers, since velarised [] is fashionable among the youth.

The voiceless approximant // is voiced and it is spreading outside Dublin.

If /t/ is followed by a vowel in an initial position, it may be slightly affricated e.g. town

[tsun], but this is used only by young females.

Post-sonorant or post-fricative stop deletion implies that consonantal syllable codas tend to be

simplified especially if a cluster consists of a stop followed by a fricative or sonorant. A glotal

stop may occur as a trace of the stop e.g. last [ls()] (Hickey, 2003:364).

The hallmarks of vowels include the breaking of long vowels, vowel lengthening, no

distinction between // and //, fronting of /au/ and the Dublin vowel shift.

Breaking of long high vowels implies that long high vowels are realized as two syllables with

a hiatus element either [j] with front vowels or [w] with back vowels if the two created vowels

are in closed syllables. e.g. clean [klijn] or fool [fuwl]. (Hickey,2003: 363) This

disyllabification is sometimes even extended to diphthongs if they are found in a syllable ending

with a consonant, in a word- final position . e.g. time [tjm] and there is no breaking in

fly [fli].(Hickey, 2003: 363)

In Dublin there is low vowel lengthening even if vowels are found before voiceless fricatives.

e.g. path [pa:t]. Besides this, lengthening occasionally occurs even with the vowel of the LOT

lexical set which is realized as an unrounded /a/.

There is no distinction between // and //. Therefore, the name of the town is pronounced as

[dbln].

Fronting of /au/ to /e/ or // is found also in Dublin English together with unshifted vowels

before /r/, but unlike in Waterford in Dublin these vowels are lengthened e .g. circle

[s:kl] (Hickey, 2003:363).

In the last two decades of the 20th

century there were many migrations to the capital of the

Republic of Ireland, which was a result of the economical boom and many people came because

of new job opportunities. This huge change of population lead to changes in language as well.

The most perceptible change was the unrounding and lowering of vowels that were typical of

14

Dublin English of the time. This change is systemic in nature, but because it started around 20

years ago it still has not achieved phonetic stability but its most prominent vowel modifications

can still be specified and these include the retraction of diphthongs with a low or back starting

point [ai] to [i] and [] to [] or [o] e.g. rice [rais] changed to [riz] (Hickey, 2003:368) or

toy [ t] to [t] or [to] (Hickey, 2003:377). The Dublin vowel shift also implies the raising of

low back vowels. Namely //, /:/ and/ // have a lower realization than in RP e.g. // in boy is

realized as [b], // in pot is realized as [pt] and /:/ in law is realized as [l:] (Hickey,2003:

368). It can be concluded that the vowel shift is actually a chain shift since it takes into

consideration several sounds that are retracted and raised.

Morphology

The morphological traits typical for Irish English are concerned with personal pronouns, plural

marking and demonstrative pronouns.

In Irish English there is a distinction between the second person singular and second person

plural. In Waterford the pronouns are you and ye. Also plural forms are found with an inflection

-s and these vary from youse to yez. These two forms are most typical of Dublin.

If a number or certain quantifiers precede a noun then plural is not marked. e.g. That is six year

ago now.

The demonstrative pronouns these and those are replaced with an all-purpose demonstrative

them. e.g. Them ones here are not good, try them there instead. It can be concluded from the

example that adverbials are used for deictic purposes.

15

Syntax

In this section firstly the general vernacular syntactic traits will be presented, then their

variations in two regions, namely the east coast and the south-west, which are here divided so on

syntactic grounds. Finally the origin of certain structure will be explained.

Many characteristics of syntax have entered Irish English either from the Irish language or

the English language. There are obvious parallels in structures among Irish English and Irish.

Most perceptible influence of Irish is in areas in Ireland where bilingualism is frequent and in

areas where Irish has recently stopped being used as a first language. However, many of the

nonstandard Irish English characteristics started to gradually disappear in those areas where

increased urbanization supports the separation from the Irish language.

There are some characteristics that are common for all vernacular varieties. They do not exist

only in Ireland, but they take place in Britain as well. For example, r-lessness and h-dropping

clearly show that the person who uttered these constructions is not Irish.

These characteristics include: 1. perfective aspect with two sub-types: a. immediate

perfective, e.g. John is after eating a sandwich, meaning: John has just eaten a sandwich; b.

resultative perfective, e.g. Mary has the dishes cleaned, meaning: She has cleaned the dishes. (As

it is obvious, the word order is not typical, since in this sentence the order is SOV instead of

SVO); 2. habitual aspect is expressed by do + be or bees or inflectional -s in the first person

singular, e.g. a. He does be going to school. b. They bees tired every Friday after work. c. I reads

books every now and then; 3. reduced number of verb forms e.g. given and rung as

preterite, drove as past participle; 4. negative concord, e.g. I am not interested in no jackets; 5.

clefting for topicalisation purposes, e.g. It is tomorrow we are moving; 6. greater range of the

present tense, e.g. We know each each other for almost twelve months now; 7. be as auxiliary,

e.g. John is washed the dishes; 8. till is used with the meaning "in order that", e.g. Don't forget to

buy the newspapers till we can read what is going on; 9. singular time reference for never, e.g.

They never showed up last weekend; 10. for to infinitives of purpose, e.g. We looked for him for

to ask him something; 11. subordinating and which is frequently concessive, e.g. She walked

16

through the city and it snowing; 12. preference for that as relative pronoun, e.g. these are the

pictures that he painted.

It used to be believed that the southern part of Ireland had some or even none of regional

variation. If we compare it to the northern part, less differentiation will be present. However, it

would be a mistake to conclude that the south of Ireland does not have any regional

differentiation.

The south could be said to consist of two big halves, one of them being the east coast,

including the capital, Dublin, and the second one including the south and the west. This partition

happened due to the several historical reasons, such as the east coast being the place of the first

settlement by the English in the late Middle Ages. English in that part, from Dublin to

Waterford, reflects marks of the south-west to

the region (Hickey, 2001:7). However, it is the southern and western part of the country where

the Irish language remained for the greatest amount of time and where it had the major effect.

Characteristics of Irish English from Dundalk to Waterford, including Dublin

In this area, main features of syntax include: 1. the use of uninflected auxiliaries such

as do, be and have; 2. deletion of verbs in various contexts such as copulas or existential

sentences e.g. John a singer in a bar; 3. clicitisation of do on be e.g. We [dq/bi] studying hard

for exams. This feature is used for habitual aspect; 4. variable use of the suffix -s in the present

tense, particularly with the third person plural. This feature depends on the type of the subject,

number and person e.g. They goes to cinema

every weekend.

The main characteristic of Irish English from the south and west from Cork through Limerick up

to Galway and Sligo (transition to north) is preference for do + be which is used in habitual

aspect constructions.

17

Sources of Syntactic Constructions in Irish English

Many characteristics of syntax in Irish English come from Irish or in other case, they converged

with English regional input in order to create firm structures in Irish English which developed

later. It is important to be aware that grown-up users of a non-native language, particularly in

uncontrolled situations, look for similar constructions in the grammar of their native language.

This search of theirs is greater if their competence of the second language is lower. We may take

the example of habitual aspect in Irish. First we need to provide the definition of this term:

habitual aspect is the prominent category of aspect expressed by a particular form of the verb to

be in combination with the lexical verb being realized in its non-finite form. Since in English

there is no such construction which would correspond to this one in the exact number of words,

the Irish used afunctional do of declarative sentences still evident in English at the beginning of

the 17th century, in order to make a matching construction to the habitual aspect in the Irish

language.

This example of using a structure from English in order to find the equivalent structure in Irish is

particularly dependent on the difference between the presence of a category and its exponence.

Exponence refers to the actual form used, and it is because of the difference in the actual forms

used between the habitual aspect in Irish and the habitual aspect in Irish language, Irish was

rejected as the source for this occurrence in Irish English.

However, if one tries to make the existence of a category and its exponence in grammar

separated, the search for equivalent structure becomes more obvious.

When dealing with syntactic features, it is possible to determine their origin, or, in other

words, from which language have they entered the Irish English language. For instance, habitual

aspect is said to be transfered from Irish. Since there are other syntactic features originating

from Irish, we will present them altogether: subordinating and, immediate perfective aspect

with after; syntactic features entering from Irish with some possible convergence: greater range

of the present tense, clefting for topicalisation purposes, resultative perfective with OV word

order; syntactic features with English input only: reduced number of verb forms, the use of be as

auxiliary, variant use of suffixal -s in present; syntactic features with convergence of English

18

input and Irish: negative concord, for to infinitives which indicate purpose, single time reference

for never.

Irish English Abroad

There were many emigrations of the Irish people to other countries in the last 1500 years.

During the the colonization, from 1600 up until 1900, these movements of people were caused

by various problems they had in Ireland, such as economic instability and religious intolerance,

and some were deported by English authorities. Large groups of people were deported overseas

on two occasions. One was deportation to West Indies, to Barbados and Montserrat, which was

ordered by Oliver Cromwell, in the 17th

century. The other was the deportation to Australia and

New Zealand, very soon after they were discovered and settled in the late 18th

and early

19th

century. The people were deported as punishment or to serve as labourers.

Ulster Scots who mainly migrated in the 18th

century, wanted to find the economic prosperity

and religious freedom abroad. During the 18th

century, there was a growing hostility between the

Anglican Church (mainstream) and the Presbyterians in Ulster, because the Anglican Church

was forcing Presbyterians who held military, civil or municipal office to take oath and

sacramental test in Anglican Church, and give up the belief in transubstantiation. The result was

that Presbyterians and Catholics were kept out of public office, which led many people to

migration. Other emigrants were forced to moved abroad, because they needed to escape poverty

and famine in their homeland, during the 19th

century. In that period, large groups of Irish people

emigrated to Canada, USA and Britain in order to find better living conditions.

These migrations of Irish people to various parts of the world were followed by their blending

with the native population of these continents, and thus, significant changes happened to Irish

English in different locations. In this paper, the most important features of Irish English that

influenced other varieties of English will be described.

Irish English in USA

After the migrations of Irish people across the world, the Irish variety of English was usually

seen in a negative way, as a primitive one. The Irish voluntary abandonment of their mother

tongue and quick assimilation happened due to their desire for social progress and economic

19

betterment. In the east of USA, there are very few remains of Irish English of the 19th

century,

such as the words: finne ("ring"), dig ("grasp"), tuigim ("I see/understand"), so

long ("goodbye"), phoney ("not genuine") and in the case of the word sln ("healthy") there is a

velarized [] that would suggest an additional syllable to the speakers of English.

Irish English in Newfoundland

The eastern Canada was first settled in the 17th

century, during the seasonal migrations of Irish

fisherman to the shores of Newfoundland, which was rich with fish. Then, in the 18th

and

19th

century, a few thousands of Irish people founded the Irish community in Newfoundland and

permanently settled there. Some features of Irish English still can be found in Newfoundland

English. For example, the word "you" in plural. Another feature of Irish English is the perfective

use of the temporal adjective "after", as in She is after a new bicycle; or with retrospective

use They are after breaking the window (meaning: They have just broken the window).

Also the uninflected form do+be is used in today's general English of Newfoundland in the

places where the settlers were of south-eastern Irish origin; e.g. That room do be really

crowded (Clarke, 1997:287). The use of demonstrative pronoun "them" instead of

"those"(e.g. Them hats are expensive) is another feature of Irish English that remained in

vernacular speech of Newfoundland. The phonological features, like using the stops for dental

fricatives, syllable-final /r/, the weakening of post-vocalic t in word-final position, and low

distinctiveness between /i/ and /ai/ (cf. boil vs bile), breaking a cluster of nasal and liquid by

using epenthetic vowel, as in the word "film" [flm]". Lexical items of Irish origin

are sleeveen (meaning: rascal), pishogue (superstition) and crubeen (cooked pig's foot), and

others (Kirkpatrick, 2010: 89).

Irish English in Mainland Canada

The Irish were one of the first immigrants to settle the Mainland Canada. During the 19th

century

the Irish settled quite evenly across the mainland, but there was a considerable settlement in the

Ottawa Valley, where some remaining features of Irish accent could be found in the 20th

century,

as well. Canadian English was not as obviously influenced by immigration of the Irish, as

Newfoundland was. Still, there is a remaining feature of Irish English in today's Canadian

20

English, and that is Canadian Raising. "The essence of this phenomenon is a more central

starting point for the diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ before a voiceless consonant than before the

corresponding voiced one", as in pronunciation of the words house, lout [hs, lt] and houses,

loud [hauzz, laud] (Kirkpatrick, 2010: 90).

Irish English in Australia

In the 19th

and 20th

century, a large number of people emigrated from Ireland to Australia. The

first settlers were forcibly deported as convicts and used for free labour, and later settlers were

the colonizers. Even though the migrations were numerous, the influence of Irish English on the

Australian variation of English is not that great. The features of Irish variety of English were

avoided, because of the low prestige that Irish people had in the communities of Australia and

New Zealand. However, the influence of Irish English is still present in Australian variation, and

it is mostly evident in some slang words and in the Australian accent. The plural form "youse" of

the pronoun "you" is used in vernacular speech. "Youse" is a form of Irish origin, that consists

of you+s (for plural), and was probably adopted by the English speakers in Australia from the

Irish immigrants. Also, a feature coming from Irish English appears in inflectional endings, when

shwa is used instead of the short unstressed vowel that is used in British pronunciation. So, in

British English the word naked is pronounced as ['neikd], and in Australian English as ['nikd].

Another outcome of the Irish English influence of Australian English is evident in the usage of

the sound /h/ in the initial position in words like home, hat, humour, even though this feature is

no longer used in British vernacular speech. Furthermore, due to the influence of Irish and

possibly Scottish English, Australian English uses epistemic mustn't for negation, instead

of can't(Kirkpatrick, 2010: 91).

21

Conclusion

From the above explained traits it can be concluded that Irish English has many features in

phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax which are different from RP. This may be due to

the influence of Irish, which is obvious in some phonological phenomena like lenition, or this

can be even supported by various syntactic structures that are similar to those in Irish. However,

nowadays there is a dispute about the fact that this is not an influence imposed by the Irish

language, but instead that these are processes created naturally through language contact.

Various historical events that caused migrations made certain traits of Irish English to be present

around the world and in other Englishes.

22

References

Bauer, Laurie. An Introduction to International Varieties of English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh

University Press, 2002.

Filppula, Markku.Irish English: Morphology and Syntax. in Handbook of varieties of English.

Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax. ed. Kortmann, Bernd et al. 68-97. Berlin: Mouton de

Gruyter, 2004.

Harris, John. Syntactic Variation and Dialectal Divergence. Journal of Linguistics 20, no. 2

(1984): 303-327.

Hickey, Raymond. Assessment of Language Contact in the Development of Irish English,

in Linguistic Change under Contact Conditions. ed. Jacek Fisiak, 109-30. Berlin: Mouton de

Gruyter, 1995.

. Coronal Segments in Irish English. Journal Of Linguistics, 20 (1984): 233-250.

.Dublin English: Current Changes and their Motivation, in Urban voices. eds. Paul

Foulkes and Gerry Docherty, 265:81. London: Edward Arnold, 1999.

. The Englishes Of Ireland: Emergence and Transportation, in The Routledge

Handbook of World Englishes. ed. Andy Kerkpatrick, 76-96. New York: Taylor & Francis

Routledge, 2010.

.Length and Frontness with Low Vowels in Irish English. Studia Linguistica 39, no.2

(1986): 143-56.

.Lenition in Irish English in Papers from the International Conference on Language in

Ireland. Belfast Working Papers in Language and Linguistics, 13. eds. Alison Henry, Martin

Ball and Margaret MacAliskey, 173-93. Belfast: University of Ulster, 1996.

23

. The Phonology of Irish English in Handbook of varieties of English. Volume 1:

Phonology. ed. Kortmann, Bernd et al. 68-97. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2004.

. R-coloured vowels in Irish English in Journal of the International Phonetic Alphabet,

(1989): 44-58.

.The South-East of Ireland in Language links: the languages of Scotland

and Ireland. Belfast Studies in Language, Culture and Politics, 2. eds. Kirk, John and

Dnall Baoill, 1-22.Belfast: Queens University, 2001.

. Southern Irish English in Language in the British Isles. 2nd edition. ed.

David Britain, 135-51. Cambidge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

. Syllable Onsets in Irish English. in Word, 35 (1984): 67-74.

.Whats cool in Irish English, in Celtic Englishes III. ed. Tristram, Hildegard L. C, 357-

73. Heidelberg: Winter, 2003.

. Weak Segments in Irish English,

in Phonological Weakness in English. From Old to Present-day English. ed.

Donka Minkova, 116-29. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Kallen, L. Jeffrey. The English Language in Ireland, An Introduction, International Journal of

Language, Translation and Intercultural Communication, 1(2012): 25-41.

King, D. Robert. First Steps: Wales and Ireland in The Handbook of World Englishes. eds.

Kachru B. Braj, Kachru Yamuna and Nelson L. Cecil, 30-41. Singapore: Blackwell Publishing,

2006.

24

Sullivan, P. James. The Validity of Literary Dialect: Evidence from the theatrical portrayal of

Hiberno- English forms , in Language in Society 9, no.2 (1980): 195:219.

Trask, L. Robert. A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology. London: Taylor & Francis

Routledge, 1996.