Irish English

finally defeated the Catholic armies at the Battle of the Boyne.

the cities and towns, where it flourished among the ambitious classes in particular. The Irish ruling classes were quite pragmatic about their Anglicization: they wanted to influence their English overlords (called ,,Ascendancy") In the 18th century the large majority of the Irish Catholics lived in extreme poverty because of the Penal Laws, introduced by William III. These laws prevented the people from voting, holding any important office and from buying land or owning it for more than 31 years. During the last 20 years of the 18th century the Irish Protestants demanded political independence from England. But after the rebellions had been crushed by British troops, the spirit of independence died and the Act of Union, which made Ireland a part of Britain, was

Irish peasants and had great influence on the national consciousness. More than a million Gaelic speaking Irish died and even more emigrated mainly to England and America were they were forced to speak English and where they spread their Irish accent. What is more important: many Irish rejected their old language as the cause of all their trouble and throughout learning the English speech they hoped to have a better future.

In the 19th century Charles Stewart Parnell, leader of the Irish Nationalist Party at

Westminster, forced the British Prime Minister Gladestone, to pass a Land Act, which guaranteed the tenant farmers fair rents, security and the right to sell land. Parnell´s political career was cut short by a scandal in 1890 before he could achieve his ultimate objective- Home Rule.

Finally in 1913 a Home Rule Act was passed which did not take effect immediately because

of the war. In 1916 the Easter Rising, led by Irish Republicans who became impatient with Home Rule movement, was defeated. The execution of the leaders causes public uproar and years of fighting between Republicans and British forces. The war ended with a treaty creating an Irish Free State excluding Northern Ireland, which stayed in the United Kingdom.

aiming to end discrimination against Catholics met with the resistance of extremist Protestants. Because of the troubles British soldiers were sent to Ireland in 1972. The Northern Irish parliament was abolished and Northern Ireland was ruled directly from Westminster. On Bloody Sunday 13 civilians were shot by British troops during a

demonstration. Today the Gaelic language is revived. In the conflict it is used as a political wapon.

In 1992 the first talks between Ireland, England and the four biggest parties of Northern Ireland failed. The British and Irish governments agreed on a cease-fire of the IRA as a requirement for further negotiations. In August 1994 the IRA promised this cease-fire. One year later an agreement was passed between England and Ireland which allowed self-

the Sinn Fein (the political wing of the IRA) took place.

But in 1996 the IRA broke the cease-fire- and all the troubles have started anew.

The Irish English language

Irish English today is devided into two kinds:

Anglo-Irish (The English of those whose ancestral mother tongue is English)

Irish English

Hiberno-English (The English of those whose mother tongue is Gaelic)

The chief influence on English in Ireland was Irish Gaelic, the language of the Irish Celts, part of a family of Gaelic languages stretching from Scotland to Brittany. Standard English speakers can find Irish English amusing, or charming, or xenophobically, evidence that Irish are under-educated. In fact it is the linguistic product of British colonialism. Partly it is to do with the sense of English being a learned language for the Irish, and with the eight centuries of interbreeding between the Celtic and the Anglo-Saxon traditions. Partly Gaelic-speaking Ireland, isolated of the influences that helped to transform English on the

mainland, has shown a remarkable power on the one hand to fossilize, and on the other hand to reinterpret the English language.

Unlike the Scots and the English, the Irish have never had a dictionary of Hiberno-English. The condition of English in Ireland (mirroring the politics) is still Elizabethan. It is underrepresented, non-standard, and it has no official voice.

perpetuating education backwaters in which the teachers of English acquired their expertise from their Irish predecessors. Even the English of the landlords was influenced by the speech

of their servants. The language was certainly transmuted into English, but it found, in another language, ways of expressing the cultural nuances of Irish society, of making English its own image.

· Direct translations of Gaelic idioms: e.g. ,,He´s in bed with the leg"/ ,, I do be living in Dublin"/ ,,He is after writing"

· Borrowings from Irish Gaelic: bother, unwell or destroyed

· Different stress syllables: disci`pline instead of `discipline, archite`cture instead of a`rchitecture

· Local differences in words and grammar: like sevendable for wonderful (literally ,,seven- double" meaning double lucky)/ use the word formularies instead of formalities (Dublin)/ windystool for windstill/ rosy dandrums for rhododendrons, piano roses for peonies (countryside)/ neape for turnip (Wexford region)/ use of four kinds of present tense (I go to school, I am going to school, I be going to school and I do be going to school)

· Malopropism (named after Mrs. Maloprop, the character in RB. Sheridans`s play ,,The Reveals"): selecting words whose choice is often slightly ludicrously inappropriate e.g.: ,,an allegory on the banks of the Nile"

· Reluctance to say ,,yes" or ,,no": partly to do with not wishing to sound rude or abrupt and partly because in Gaelic there are no specific terms for ,,yes" or ,,no". Instead of ,,yes" many Irish say ,,indeed" or ,,sure"

· Absence of regional variations: there is only a slight difference between the Hiberno- English of the cities, which is more standard because of the school system and the radio, and the speech of the countryside

· Pronunciation: a certain breathiness and aspiration of consonants (pronounce tea sea, please as tay say and plays/ pathron for patron, datha for data, stathus for status/ bailey for bareley/ ting for thing/ blesh for bless, shecretary for secretary (in Irish Gaelic an s followed by an i or e is pronounced sh)