Irish English

freekarol

I don't live in Ireland but I'd like to know something about Irish English but it seems there's nothing to buy about it. All what I found is a Hiberno English dictionary and a book 'The English As We Speak It In Ireland'. But that's not a course of Irish English...

Aard

Look at the wikipedia article; it basically explains it all. There's no difference as such between it and regular English. Some words are unique to Ireland, as are some grammatical expressions. But really, it's not so different as to warrant buying a book on it, unless it's for in-depth study.

Jay Pentatonic

Most of the stuff that's different is just slang.

Captain Havoc

I think some of the things we say come from the Irish language and I'm not talking about vocabulary I'm talking about grammar. Don't ask me what though as any language I speak, I just picked up on what the locals said and never worried about if it's proper or not.

freekarol

It seems that people can learn just UK, U.S., Canadian and Australian English. People interested in Scottish, New Zealand or Irish English have to live in those countries to learn those accents of english... When it comes to IRL English there are just a couple of books on grammar and slang. No audio I could learn pronunciation from. Of course, I can learn Irish pronunciation listening to Irish radio stations or watching Irish TV channels but not everyone can do that especially if someone is a beginner learning English. So it seems the best way is to learn British English and then to reorient to Irish English.

Aard

OK, first off -- are you talking about dialect or accent? Accent is basically pronunciation differences, whereas dialect is to do with vocabulary and grammar. If you want accent, then yeah you'll probably have to live in Ireland in order to learn it properly. For dialect, the wiki page should suffice, if not then a google search.

dlofnep

freekarol wrote: »

I don't live in Ireland but I'd like to know something about Irish English but it seems there's nothing to buy about it. All what I found is a Hiberno English dictionary and a book 'The English As We Speak It In Ireland'. But that's not a course of Irish English...

Hiberno-English is 'Irish English'.

Aard

I think he meant that he want a course in it, like "Teach Yourself Irish-English" or something.

freekarol

Aard wrote: »

I think he meant that he want a course in it, like "Teach Yourself Irish-English" or something.

This is exactly what I'm looking for.:) Just a classical course of English=something about grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. I think I could have a look at textbooks+CD's used by immigrants learning English in Ireland or I could learn Irish English here in Irish pubs.:D

franc 91

There's this that might interest you -
http://www.greenspeak.info/

looksee

Irish English is very different from English English. On the whole you apparently use the same words and sentence construction, but you would find it difficult to learn Irish English from a book as it is very subtle.

There are many expressions that are in use here that have a particular construction because they are 'translated' from Irish. So you get phrases like 'I'm after going to the shop' which means 'this is an action I have performed', rather than in the sense of 'one action has followed another'.

Or 'would you ever...do something' which is used to mean 'please would you' instead of 'is it likely that you would ever... do something'. The difference between 'would you ever pass me the sugar' and 'would you ever climb Mt Everest?'

Another is 'how long are you here?' which an English person would interpret as 'how long do you intend to be here' but to an Irish person means 'how long have you been here?'

There are hundreds of examples, but as language becomes more homogenised they are used less and less. I came to Ireland 40 years ago and it took me a long time to realise that I was not actually speaking the same language as the people around me (in an English speaking rural area). I think that an English person coming to Ireland now would not notice the difference nearly as much.

There is another layer of difference which I would have difficulty explaining, it has as much to do with inflection and intention as actual words. The only explanation I can get near is when a person does not want to say 'no' to you, in the sense that it would be discourteous or disappointing - as in the words of 'Are you right there Micheal' where the good humoured refrain 'and we might now Micheal, so we might' can be interpreted as 'there isn't really much chance, but we can hope'.

The difficulty is that all these examples only become obvious when compared to standard English English, doing that implies that there is a 'right' and a 'wrong' way to say things. In Britain (ie the island) there are hundreds of variations of colloquial speech, these are only 'wrong' if you hold the view that, say, BBC (as it used to be) English is the 'correct' version. Since Ireland is not only separated by sea from 'mainland' English, but also has the influence of the Irish language it would be surprising if it did not have its own variations. And as I have said, nowadays many of these phrases are simply not used as language has moved on to mid-Atlantic/Internet English.

I am not familiar with the book, but I guess that 'English as we speak it in Ireland' is as near as you are going to get to the kind of information you are looking for.

franc 91

There has been a lot of research on this by those who work in linguistics and I think one thing is clear - Irish (Gaeilge) has for all the obvious reasons a important influence on how English is spoken in Ireland - I'm after my dinner, wasn't it me that.. (which comes from 'fronting') and me being.....are a few of the many examples. Another book that you might find useful is the Lonely Planet Irish Language & Culture - and going the other way (shall we say) there's - Kiss my...Dictionary of English Irish Slang by Garry Bannister (New Island.ie).

freekarol

Both book(Greenspeak and English as we speak it in Ireland) are great but unfortunately, they're without audio. This guy offers a course that could be great for people interesting in IRE English:

http://englishharmony.com/

For now, the best way to learn IRE English is to go to Irish pubs.

franc 91

Have you seen this on YouTube?
Irish Language Lab 1 - How to speak with an Irish accent (with potatoes) and Irish Language Lab 2.wmv

tac foley

franc 91 wrote: »

There's this that might interest you -
http://www.greenspeak.info/

You'd need to be eu60 + shipping interested......

tac

franc 91

Do you see that the reviews were carefully written by people who went along to the library to get it? so I'm sure that in the interests of culture there must be an Irish Expat Association or a library near you that you can persuade to buy it. But then again there are others for whom culture is priceless.....

freekarol

This site could be helpful(thanks to u guy with an username an langer):

http://www.uni-due.de/~lan300/HICKEY.htm

franc 91

You might like to know that there is a Centre for Irish Studies at the Charles University in Prague.
http://ualk.ff.cuni.cz/centre-for-irish-studies
as well as the Czech-Irish Business Association (CIBA) -
http://ciba.cz/
There's also - A Dictionary of Hiberno-English - Compiler & Editor Terence Patrick Dolan - Gill & Macmillan Ltd 2006 ISBN 978 07171 4039 8 +(Google online books)

somairle

There is no standard for Irish English, Ireland doesnt maintain one in the way other countries do, probably to do with the fact they view Irish Gaelic as the native language and they do have an official standard to that.

If its study your after Id suggest learning British English as its the closest, but to a non native English speaker Irish English would be difficult to understand even when youve studied british english.

Watch some irish films/ tv