Irish people and "th"

ScumLord

I remember when Dublin cousins used to call down during the summer as a young lad. We always used to make fun of the fact they couldn't pronounce "T" and say things like, in Dublin Mr T is just called Mr.

You would half expect the Dublin accent should be easier to understand being the most international town in Ireland but they went the other way with it. I've found too most foreigners there's no difference to their ears between a thick Kerry accent and a thick Dub accent. Both are illegible to foreigners.

jimgoose

Most Irish people speak English with an Irish accent. An Irish accent includes things like pronouncing "th" like "d", because in Irish "th" is pronounced like "h" in English. Similarly with many "s" sounds, e.g. "shtick the kittle on dere, Bridie!". It is not because we're thick, it is not because we're from the Cun-tray, or anything like that - it is simply a small matter of dialect. "Howay tha-day, wor lad!", as they say in the Queen's own English. :cool:

salacious crumb

To be fair, there's quite a broad spectrum of accents from one end of Dublin to the other, for example someone from Balbriggan would not sound very much like someone from Bray.

salacious crumb

jimgoose wrote: »

Most Irish people speak English with an Irish accent. An Irish accent includes things like pronouncing "th" like "d", because in Irish "th" is pronounced like "h" in English. Similarly with many "s" sounds, e.g. "shtick the kittle on dere, Bridie!". It is not because we're thick, it is not because we're from the Cun-tray, or anything like that - it is simply a small matter of dialect. "Howay tha-day, wor lad!", as they say in the Queen's own English. :cool:

Indeed, it's a dialect called Hiberno English.

kevthegaff

was over in southampton, when i said eight inch pizza they couldnt understand me a well

P. Breathnach

salacious crumb wrote: »

To be fair, there's quite a broad spectrum of accents from one end of Dublin to the other, for example someone from Balbriggan would not sound very much like someone from Bray.

I accept the general point, but you have overlooked the fact that Bray is in Co. Wicklow.

jimgoose

con1421 wrote: »

...I recently moved to New York and for the first time in my entire life I am not surrounded by Irish people. My workmates are all American and they correct me every time that I try and pronounce...

Is there a smiley on here for "In the corner in the foetal position trying to piss myself, sh!t myself and have about four simultaneous heart-attacks laughing"?? :pac::pac::pac:

salacious crumb

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I accept the general point, but you have overlooked the fact that Bray is in Co. Wicklow.

Yes, my bad :pac:

SoulTrader

con1421 wrote: »

Hi guys,
I recently moved to New York and for the first time in my entire life I am not surrounded by Irish people. My workmates are all American and they correct me every time that I try and pronounce certain "th" words (three being the exact same as tree,thunder,third,thrift.....). I really only began to notice that I can't say th's. Is this the case with most Irish people or is it just a Dublin thing? It's beginning to annoy me and its funny that I really only noticed now with the fact that I live in a foreign country. It's as if the th sound doesn't exist in our pronouncation or even possibly in the same way that British people can't or don't pronounce the letter r

I would love to know if anyone else noticed this or if its just a minority of Irish people that can't find the th?

Tinly veiled 'I live in NY' tread.

CroatoanCat

My mind is blown- blown! - by the revelation that the "h" is silent in proper nouns beginning with "Th", like Thomas and Thailand. I did so much tutting at the Brown Thomas ad last Christmas in which the voiceover lady kept saying "Tomas". And it was I who was wrong!! I love finding out stuff like this, after nearly 40 years on this earth :eek:. Thank you, AH !

shankespony

Phoned up Revenue Commissioners and they ask you automatically to say your pps number, i am not from ireland and it kept asking me to repeat it, i eventually said tree instead of three and it recognized it wtf!!!

Osborne

CroatoanCat wrote: »

My mind is blown- blown! - by the revelation that the "h" is silent in proper nouns beginning with "Th", like Thomas and Thailand. I did so much tutting at the Brown Thomas ad last Christmas in which the voiceover lady kept saying "Tomas". And it was I who was wrong!! I love finding out stuff like this, after nearly 40 years on this earth :eek:. Thank you, AH !

If this thread leads to only one person pronouncing those words properly, it will have been a success.

Precious flower

It really gets on my nerves when people can't pronounce their 'th's'. I don't think it has anything much to do with Irish, my father's from Connemara and he can pronounce his th's and all my relatives in Connemara are the same. Also my mother is from West Clare and she can pronounce her th's. I think some children and parents just somehow are not taught to say it properly or just hear it from their parents. To be honest I think it make a person sound less professional. But still those Americans can't talk, when they can't even say the word herbs.

Martin567

What about the 'wh' sound? Lots of English people in particular seem to say 'wat, 'wen' and 'wy' rather than 'what, 'when' and 'why'. Also, 'which' would be pronounced like 'witch'.

Some pronunciations on RTE are funny, even with the better known people. Gay Byrne has always been a stickler for words being pronounced properly but I've never heard him criticise the most high profile woman on RTE for the way she speaks. It's all 'pardy' and 'ciddy', etc. You'd swear she never heard of the letter 't'.

A Dub in Glasgo

My two sons don't pronounce their 'th' in three or the and they were born in Glasgow! My youngest can now switch his accent from Dub to Glaswegian quite comfortably, he tells me that his teacher pulled him up on the 'th' thing a few times.