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Irishisms add flavour to English language By Trevor
O ’Sullivan
A language expert with Co. Donegal roots has revealed that the foundations
of Irish-American slang lies with Ireland’s Diaspora.
And closer to home it seems that the Irish in Britain have also created
their own unique lexicon.
How the Irish Invented Slang by 64-year-old Professor Daniel Cassidy outlines
how American words from hit shows like The Simpsons and Friends may have
emanated from the Irish who immigrated in droves to the United States.
And examples include the word ‘dude’ which the book claims
is simply the Irish word ‘duid’, which means a foolish looking
fellow or numbskull.
Most Irish people grow up speaking what linguists call Hiberno-English,
an Irish dialect of English.
And how does it differ from standard English?
Well, it is full of words and phrases from the Irish language imported
directly or Anglicised.
Take ‘galore’ which means plentiful.
It is a word that is now part of standard English usage. It’s an
Anglicisation of the Irish ‘go leor’ — meaning in abundance.
The Hiberno-English vocabulary also comprises words now obsolete in standard
English.
So a verb like ‘cog’ — meaning to cheat in an exam —
is still widely used in Ireland.
Similarly, words such as ‘bowsey’ (ruffian) and ‘delph’
(crockery) have not been used in Britain since around 1800 but survive
in Hiberno-English.
One of the most misrepresented words in the Hiberno-English vocabulary
is ‘craic’.
In Ireland it’s a simple Irish word that is a distillation of the
energetic and insane atmosphere of a socially successful night on the
town, specifically, in a pub.
It has nothing to do with illicit white substances and many an Irish person
has got into a panic when their use of the colloquialism engenders panic
amongst the uninitiated.
An individual reputed for his or her good humour and charming wit may
be referred to as being great craic.
Another element of the Hiberno-English which has effortlessly re-entered
the vocabulary is ‘feck’.
The cult popularity in Britain of legendary sitcom Father Ted —
the surrealist escapades of three Irish Catholic priests exiled to a remote
island off the west coast of Ireland — brought several Irishisms
into common use over the water.
It also put one in particular back into common usage in Ireland —
‘feck’.
This word doesn’t mean the same as ‘f*ck’ but can be
used as a more polite version.
The archetypal Irish mother was at ease with slipping feck in front of
the kids rather than use an expletive.
Father Ted writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews were quick to call
on childhood memories and exploit it for comedic effect.
‘Feck off!’ doesn’t mean ‘f*ck off’ but
rather ‘You’re kidding me’ or ‘Get outta here’.
So if you use the word ‘press’ for cupboard, ‘amadán’
for fool or ‘banjaxed’ for broken it’s something to
be proud of.
It’s centuries of the Irish dialect mixing with the Queen’s
English to create something entirely original and uniquely Irish —
and that’s no gobshite! |
