Hiberno-English: Encyclopedia II - Hiberno-English - Grammar derived from Irish

Hiberno-English - Grammar derived from Irish

The Irish language has no words which directly translate as "yes" or "no", instead the verb in a question is repeated in an answer. People in Ireland have a tendency to repeat the verb, positively or negatively, instead of using "yes" or "no."

• "Are you finished debugging that software?" "I am."
• "Is your mobile charged?" "It isn't."

Alternatively, it is common for Irish English-speakers to use the word "aye" as a weak form of "yes" (somewhat akin to "sure" or "yeah").

• "It's getting late, is it?" "Aye, it is." or " It is, aye. " in Donegal.
• "Is that okay with you?" "Aye."

Irish verbs have two present tenses, one indicating what is occurring at this instant and another used for continuous actions. For example, 'you are now' is tá tú anois (literally 'are you now'), but 'you are every day' is bíonn tú gach lá (literally 'be you each day'; or, 'you do be every day').

Irish speakers of English, especially in rural areas, especially north Mayo/Sligo, use the verb "to be" in English similarly to how they would in Irish, using a "does be/do be" (or "bes", although less frequently) construction to indicate this latter continuous present:

• "He do(es) be coding every day."
• "They do be talking on their mobiles a lot."
• "They bes doing a lot of work at school." (rare)
• "It's him I do be thinking of."

Irish has no pluperfect tense: instead, "after" is added to the present continuous (a verb ending in "-ing"). The idiom for "I had done X when I did Y" is "I was after doing X when I did Y", modelled on the Irish usage of the compound prepositions i ndiaidh, tar éis, and in éis: bhí mé tar éis/i ndiaidh/in éis X a dhéanamh, nuair a rinne mé Y. This can most commonly be heard used by Dubliners.

• "Why did you hit him?" "He was after insulting me."

A similar construction is seen with the 'hot news perfect', used to express extreme excitement at something which has happened recently:

• "Jaysus, I'm after hitting him with de car!"
• "Would ya look at yer one — she's after losing five stone in five weeks!"

Less explosively, using what might be termed the 'warm news perfect', the Irish perfect can indicate a recent action of less stellar importance, strongly resembling the German spoken perfect in structure:

• "I have the computer rebooted." Tá an ríomhaire atosaithe agam.
• "I have me breakfast eaten." Tá an bricfeasta ite agam.

Mirroring the Irish language and almost every other European language, the plural 'you' is distinguished from the singular, normally by use of the otherwise archaic English word 'ye' (the word 'yous' (sometimes written as 'youse') also occurs, but primarily only in Dublin and north Ulster, from Co. Donegal across to Co. Antrim):

• "Did ye/youse all go to see it?"

Also, in some areas in Leinster, and also north Mayo/Sligo, the hybrid word 'ye-s', pronounced 'yis', may be used.

• "Are yis not finished yet?"

In rural areas the reflexive version of pronouns is often used for emphasis or to refer indirectly to a particular person, etc., according to context:

• "Was it all of ye or just yourself?"
• "'Tis herself that's coming now." Is sí féin atá ag teacht anois.

- where 'herself' might, for example, be the boss or the woman of the house. Use of 'herself' or 'himself' in this way often indicates that the speaker attributes some degree of arrogance or selfishness to the person in question. Note also the indirectness of this construction relative to, for example, 'She's coming now' and the use of "'Tis" rather than the more standard contraction "It's".

It is also common to end sentences with 'no?' or 'yeah?'

• "He's not coming today, no?" Níl sé ag teacht inniú, nach bhfuil?
• "The bank's closed now, yeah?" Tá an banc dúnta anois, an bhfuil?

Though because of the particularly insubstantive yes and no in Irish, (the nach bhfuil? and an bhfuil? being the interrogative positive and negative of the verb 'to be') the above may also find expression as

• "He's not coming today, sure he isn't?" Níl sé ag teacht inniú, nach bhfuil?
• "The bank's closed now, isn't it?" Tá an banc dúnta anois, nach bhfuil?

Irish English also always uses the "light l" sound, and the naming of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' is standard. A is often pronounce "Ah" and Z as "Ezed"

When describing something, rural Hiberno-English speakers may describe this as something that is 'in it', which can also be translated into English as 'so it is', or for comical effect 'that it be'.

• The day that is in it. An lá atá ann.
• That's John, so it is. Is Seán é, atá ann.

It ought to be noted that this construction is generally limited to the northern half of the country. This isn't limited only to the verb 'to be': it's also used with 'to have' when used as an auxiliary; and, with other verbs, the verb 'to do' is used. This is most commonly used for intensification.

• This Wintel box sucks, so it does.
• I've finished debugging, so I have.
• He's a right geek, so he is.

There are some language forms that stem from the fact that there is no verb 'to have' in Irish. Instead, possession is indicated in Irish by using the preposition 'at,' (in Irish, ag.). To be more precise, Irish uses a prepositional pronoun that combines ag "at" and me "me" to create agam. In English, the verb "to have" is used, along with a "with me" or "on me" that derives from Tá ....agam. This gives rise to the frequent

• The book, I have it with me.
• Do you have the book? I have it with me.
• Have you change for the bus on you?
• I have my phone on me, if you want to use it.

Somebody who can speak a language 'has' a language, in which Hiberno-English has borrowed the grammatical form used in Irish.

• She doesn't have Irish. Níl Gaeilge aici. literally 'There is no Irish at her'.

Another idiom is this thing or that thing described as 'this man here' or 'that man there', which also features in Newfoundland English in Canada.

• This man here. An fear seo.
• That man there. An fear sin.

The reported clause is also often preserved in its direct form, for example 'John asked me to buy a loaf of bread' becomes 'John asked me would I buy a loaf of bread'.

Bring and take: Irish use of these words differs from that of English, because it follows the Gaelic grammar for beir and tóg. English usage is determined by direction; Irish usage is determined by person. So, in English, one takes "from here to there", and brings it "to here from there". But, in Irish, a person takes only when accepting a transfer of possession of the object from someone else — and a person brings at all other times, irrespective of direction (to or from). Thus someone might say "Don't forget to bring your umbrella with you when you go" or, to a child, "Hold my hand: I don't want someone to take you."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Grammar derived from Irish", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki