Hiberno-English

Hiberno-English
Slang
Colloquialisms

References: www.dho.ie (Hiberno-English)

Podcasts of T. Dolan on Newstalk 106
A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: the Irish use of English 2006 by Terence Patk. Dolan

Brewer’s dictionary of Irish phrase & fable 2004

Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland, Good section on the Irish language

Session Title: Hiberno-English ‘The Irish use of the English language’

Intro: This session will focus on how Irish people use and speak English in a distinctive way and
why, and will show how the spoken word in Irish culture has been affected over the centuries by
particular events. The English spoken by Irish people is called Hiberno-English. It is not the same as
standard English which is what you have studied, what you are able to speak and understand and
what you use as teachers in your classrooms. HE is distinctive. The writer Joseph O’Connor has said,
‘ever since English was forcibly introduced to this island, the people who live here have defiantly
spoken it in their own way, with their own rhythms and cadences and meanings and nuances’ (refer
to slide). Foreign people and immigrants in Ireland who have been taught standard English grammar
often find Hiberno-English incomprehensible. This is because Hiberno-English has its own grammar,
vocabulary and pronunciation which we will explore in this session. I hope that the session will help
you to better understand what Irish people are saying (I can’t guarantee you’ll ever fully understand
Irish speech), and why the Irish use particular grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation whether in
conversation or in literature.

The term Hiberno-English

First, let’s look at what is Hiberno-English. Hiberno-English is the name given to the language of
everyday use in Ireland, a mixture of Irish (which is enshrined in the Constitution as the ‘first official
language’) and English (‘a second official language’). The Latin name for Ireland was Hibernia, and
from that word is derived the prefix Hiberno- to describe things concerned with Ireland.
School books don’t use Hiberno-English. It should be included in texts and taught because it is part
of our language.

Examples
Here’s some examples (Slide).

History
To understand and appreciate why Irish people speak Hiberno-English, we need to look at a brief
history of the English language in Ireland. English has been used in Ireland since the twelfth century
when the English started to invade Ireland. But from the twelfth century until the end of the fifteenth
century it was not widely spoken and was mainly restricted to a few towns and parts of Dublin.
However, in the sixteenth century, when Queen Elizabeth I and then King James I took land from the
Irish and gave it to their loyal English speaking subjects in the south and north of Ireland adopting a
policy called plantations, the English language began to dominate. Native speakers of English were
settled or ‘planted’ in what had been exclusively Irish-speaking localities. For practical reasons Irish
people had to learn the language “in order to get the instruction from their owners…the lords and
ladies of the big castles.” There was also the factor of prestige. English became associated with the
image of the Big House. This factor encouraged ambitious or job-seeking Irish speakers to learn
English to secure employment or promotion. Because their mother tongue was still Irish, learnt
English with Irish pronunciation made it a very different form of the language. The pronunciation
system of the Irish language was used with the vocabulary of English and Irish together. So the
origins of Hiberno-English date to the 1650s.

Particular developments and occurrences, assisted the progress of English. With the founding of
Trinity College (1592), St Patrick’s College Maynooth (1795) and the national school system (1831),
English gradually became the norm. Penal Laws introduced by the English from the 1690s to the
early 18th Century to suppress Irish Catholics encouraged the native Irish-speaking population to
regard their own language and culture as symbols of failure. Any aspiring Irish politicians had to
learn English to speak on Irish matters at Westminster in London. Then the Irish language declined
significantly with the Great Famine and subsequent mass emigration to Great Britain or the U.S.
(1845-48), and English became the language of commerce and politics thereafter.
Hiberno-English was also influenced by Latin through the hedge schools (of the 18th and 19th
century).

Grammar
Hiberno-English has its own grammar, so obviously different in several ways from Standard English
grammar that it may appear to be a ‘wrong grammar’ as poet Seamus Heaney describes it in his poem
‘Clearances’. The grammar books from which Irish children are taught English grammar at school
deal with Standard or British English. The majority of the rules contained in these grammars are also
suited to Hiberno-English, but in a number of significant ways Hiberno-English departs from British
English. This is because Hiberno-English is based on Irish grammar so it could be claimed that its
apparently ‘wrong’ use of English grammar is actually ‘good’ Irish grammar (but translated into
English).

Some examples:
There’s no verb for ‘have’ in Irish, so you can’t say ‘I have written the book’ in Irish,” hence the
Hiberno-English: ‘I’m after writing the books’. A common construction with ‘after’ in place of the
English ‘have’.

In Irish the verb ‘be’ has a distinct form for expressing the habitualness of an action or state. HE uses
an approximation/version of this verbal form, e.g. ‘I do be here every day’. ‘I do be sad thinking
about her’. Also, ‘Don’t be talking.’ ‘Don’t be worrying.’

There is no indefinite article in Irish (‘a’ or ‘an’) so the definite article in HE has some distinctive
uses that mark it out from standard English. E.g. ‘She came home for the Christmas’, ‘My sister has
the cancer’, ‘The mammy (i.e. my mother) will be waiting for me’.

‘That’ and ‘who’ are often omitted in sentences that begin with the formula ‘It is’ or ‘It was’. E.g. ‘It
was Mary bought the new car’, instead of ‘It was Mary who (or that) bought the new car’ as in SE.
The use of ‘on’ to indicate loss or injury: ‘He lost my knife on me’, ‘The bag was stolen on me’, ‘The
dog died on me.’ These constructions come from Irish.
HE tends to add a personal pronoun where it would be used in Irish, e.g. to indicate possession: ‘Put
your coat on you’ (SE: ‘Put your coat on’), ‘He had his jacket on him.’

The use of ‘whether’ to introduce indirect questions (e.g. ‘She asked whether I was all right’) is much
rarer in HE than in SE, because HE-speakers (following the way that indirect questions in Irish
simply repeat the inverted order of the original direct question) retain the inversion: the question ‘Are
you all right?’ becomes ‘She asked was I all right.’ ‘They don’t know where is he.’

The word ‘no’ is less common in HE than in SE because there is no separate Irish word for ‘no’. E.g.
‘Did you read the book?’ ‘I did not read the book.’ ‘Were you at school?’ ‘I was.’

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‘And’- In HE this word has a much wider range of use than in SE because in Irish ‘and’ can be used
to mean ‘when’, ‘because’, ‘although’ or ‘if.
E.g. ‘She came in and I dressing’ – the ‘and’ here makes the statement ambiguous, it can mean ‘She
came in when I was dressing’ or ‘although I was dressing’ or ‘because I was dressing’ or ‘if I was
dressing,’ etc.

‘Amn’t – HE uses the inversion of ‘I am’ in negative first person questions instead of SE ‘aren’t I?’
E.g. ‘Amn’t I working every day to pay the bills?’ ‘Amn’t I going now?’

Vocabulary
The revival of Irish as a language of everyday communication in the last few decades has resulted in
Irish words and phrases being used in predominantly Hiberno-English contexts.
Examples:
-‘Cúpla focal’ = a couple of words. ‘She addressed the group with an opening cúpla focail,’ ‘Give us
a cúpla focal John’.
-‘Ceol agus craic’ (slang) = music and entertainment/good times. ‘Craic’ means high-spirited
entertainment. It is a pure English word from the 12th century. The spelling is false, it should be
‘crack’. It comes from an old English verb (1000 years ago) ‘to make an explosive noise for
entertainment purposes’. The word began to be used a lot by the Irish.
‘Let’s go to the pub for some ceol agus craic.’
‘The craic was ninety (brilliant, great).’ It was great craic.’ (slang expressions)
-‘Siopa’= shop. ‘Anybody want anything in the siopa?’
-‘ciotóg’= the left hand, a left handed person. ‘She’s a ciotóg.’
-‘mé féiner’ (from the Irish, myself alone) = selfish person. ‘She’s a mé féiner.’
-‘sin scéal eile’= that’s another story. ‘I could go on but sin scéal eile.’
- ‘sin sin’= that’s that. ‘That’s the last I want to hear about it, sin sin.’
Common expressions, ‘Céad míle fáilte’, literally, ‘a hundred thousand welcomes’. ‘She gave me
such a céad míle fáilte.’
‘Slainte’ = health, used as a toast.

Comment on examples of H-E from slide used near beginning

Language Exercises – Part 1 (Phrases, words and verbs)

We’ll look now at some examples of Hiberno-English vocabulary typically used in the spoken and
written word by the Irish. Many examples are slang words and expressions. By the term ‘slang’ I
mean certain vocabulary that is conversational or informal. On occasions, slang can be offensive
because it singles out a particular group of people in an insulting or condescending way, or because it
breaks taboos about permissible objects of reference in everyday speech. Of course, the vocabulary
of slang changes quickly and what is new and attractive for one generation may be old-fashioned for
the next.
Note: I have a handout containing the examples we’re going to look at and others as it isn’t possible
to consider every word here.

Phrases
All done and dusted = satisfactorily completed. E.g. ‘When the paperwork was all done and dusted I
went home.’
At the races = unsuccessful, uncompetitive. E.g. ‘The Irish are not at the races at all when it comes to
providing job opportunities for the long term unemployed.’
In the heel of the hunt = eventually. E.g. ‘We searched all day for the missing keys but in the heel of
the hunt we had to admit defeat.’
Put on the long finger = postpone indefinitely. E.g. ‘I’m so busy that I will have to put the project on
the long finger.’
Put years on = cause distress/tiredness/anxiety. E.g. ‘Trying to teach that class would put years on
anybody.’

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Put manners on someone = discipline. E.g. ‘Somebody needs to put manners on that child before
things get worse.’
Put to the pin of one’s collar = be stretched to the limit. E.g. ‘Things are bad enough but further pay
cuts and tax increases will definitely put me to the pin of my collar.’
Chance one’s arm = take a risk. E.g. ‘I’m going to chance my arm and apply for the job even though
I haven’t got all the qualifications required.’
Fit to be tied = very angry. E.g. ‘I was fit to be tied when I discovered I had missed the course start
date.’
Lose the run of oneself = lose control. E.g. ‘I lost the run of myself when I arrived at the shopping
centre and saw this season’s new clothing.’
Behind the door = slow. E.g. ‘She wasn’t behind the door about putting herself forward for the job.’
On the pig’s back = enjoying good fortune. From the Irish phrase ar mhuin na muice. E.g. ‘With his
pay increase and the new baby, he’s certainly on the pig’s back.’
Celtic Tiger = booming Irish economy. E.g. ‘Ireland had low unemployment figures during the Celtic
Tiger years.’
Soft spot = indulgent attitude/affection. E.g. ‘I have a real soft spot for him, he’s so good.’
Your man = any specific individual. E.g. ‘It was your man over there who started the rumour.’ ‘It’s
your man’s problem.’

Words/verbs
Jaded = physically and /or emotionally exhausted. E.g. ‘I was jaded after the aerobics class.’
Bold = mischievous (generally in relation to children/young people). E.g. ‘When I was bold I wasn’t
allowed out to play.’
Messer = somebody incompetent or irresponsible. E.g. ‘He’s a messer, he wouldn’t pay me for the
job.’
Chancer = a crafty person who will try anything to get an advantage over someone. E.g. ‘He’s some
chancer.’
Give out (verb)= complain strongly. E.g. ‘I gave out to the class for not having their homework
done.’
Mitch (verb) = to play truant from school. E.g. ‘He was caught mitching yesterday by his teacher.’
Character = individual slightly larger than life with distinctive qualities. E.g. ‘She was a real
character, I’ll never forget her.’
Carry-on = unacceptable behaviour. E.g. ‘The class were carrying-on when I arrived at the room.’
Black = crowded. E.g. ‘Town was black with people in the days before Christmas.’
Gaff = a house or home. E.g. ‘I was in my gaff when he phoned.’ ‘Free gaff tonight.’
Passremarkable = likely to make critical observations/comments about somebody/something. E.g.
‘She was very passremarkable about him.’

Pronunciation
Because the Irish language has no consonant equivalent to the English ‘th’, either spoken or written,
you will often hear Irish people using ‘t’ at the end of a word, eg. ‘nort’ for ‘north’ or substituting ‘d’
for ‘th’- ‘de’, ‘dat’, ‘dose’ instead of ‘the’, ‘that’, ‘those’ eg, ‘De news is on de TV’, ‘dat wedr is
awful’, ‘dose politicians don’t care’
The Irish find it hard to pronounce ‘th’ – they often say ‘tree’ instead of ‘three’ etc.

In Irish,‘d’ and ‘i’ are pronounced as ‘e’ in such words as ‘Dia’ meaning God. So the word ‘eejit’
meaning a silly person, represents an approximation of the way the letters ‘d’ and ‘i’ are pronounced
in Irish.

Frequently, the final ‘g’ at the end of a verb in the continuous present tense is dropped, e.g. ‘goin’
‘walkin’, ‘runnin’ etc.

The pronunciation of ‘h’ as ‘haitch’ (SE ‘aitch’) is a distinctive feature of HE.

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From the 17th and 18th centuries, some Irish people added an ‘s’ to the plural second person pronoun,
that became an aspect of the spoken word and today you will still hear some Irish people say ‘Yous
better behave’, ‘Yous don’t understand.’

The suffix ‘er’ is common in the HE of Dublin in the coining of nicknames, frequently accompanied
by the definite article. ‘Croker’, Croke Park, ‘Ballyer,’ Ballyfermot, ‘the Brunner’, North Brunswick
Street Christian Brothers’ School.

In HE an extra vowel is put in between r and m,” e.g. ‘farim’, farm, worim’, worm, ‘filim’ instead of
‘film’ etc.

Language Exercises Part 2 - Slang exercises for teachers

Recap

Conclusion: The future of Hiberno-English.

Hiberno-English continues to grow as a language with new words and phrases being added to it all
the time. Changes in the language are due to increased mobility within the country and the growing
multicultural nature of Irish society, a pervasive youth culture and the influence of the mass media.

In more recent times in Dublin, an accent called the Dart accent has developed, originating on the
southside of the city, within privileged middle-class communities served by the Dart train. This
accent features strangulated vowels, eg. ‘dyne tyne’ for ‘down town’, ‘ryndabyte’ for roundabout,
and Anglo-American slang. The Dart accent features a mid-Atlantic accent and American
English. Everything is, like, so cool, whatever. Everybody is a guy. Only some know where it’s at.
When required, they step up to the plate. ‘Absolutely’ has replaced ‘yes’. All these Americanisms are
widely used by the Irish across the country and it reflects the feeling that our own
expressions/phrases are too rural, not contemporary and ‘with it’. There is no doubt that with the
dominance of American English, Hiberno-English in the future will become more Americanised.
Apart from Americanisms, Irish people have also imported an Australian speech pattern called
‘upspeak’. This is where they make questions out of sentences that really shouldn’t be questions in
the first place, in other words, they speak “up” at the end of a sentence. Example, ‘It’s like … €5
cheaper?’ a statement voiced as a question. So the reality is that English is changing and will
continue to change through its sheer power. Currently a thousand million people speak English every
day and English itself has one million words in its vocabulary. It is a very flexible language.

Language experts like Professor Terence Dolan believe that increasingly Irish people will speak a
Chinese type of Hiberno-English with the increased influence of China in the world. What form that
will take, nobody knows yet. Ultimately, it is Irish people who will dictate the extent of change and
in what directions Hiberno-English will go. In the words of the Australian lexicographer Sidney
Baker:

The extent to which a country absorbs the language of another country is not governed by
lexicographers or academics … The instinct of the people as a whole governs it. They accept what
they like, they reject completely words which have no useful application or which do not appeal to
them, they modify others.