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ТФ Lecture 18 Northern Ireland English pronunciation

The document discusses the differences in English pronunciation standards between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, highlighting historical influences from Irish and Scottish languages. It outlines distinctive features of Irish English, including unique vocabulary, grammatical structures, and phonetic peculiarities. Additionally, it notes the use of archaic terms like 'ye' to denote plural forms in Irish English.

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16 views6 pages

ТФ Lecture 18 Northern Ireland English pronunciation

The document discusses the differences in English pronunciation standards between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, highlighting historical influences from Irish and Scottish languages. It outlines distinctive features of Irish English, including unique vocabulary, grammatical structures, and phonetic peculiarities. Additionally, it notes the use of archaic terms like 'ye' to denote plural forms in Irish English.

Uploaded by

acaciajack2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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NORTHERN

IRELAND ENGLISH
PRONUNCIATION
Lecture 18
It should be stated first of all that English pronunciation standards in Northern Ireland and
in the Republic of Eire (Republic of Ireland) are different. The explanation lies in history.
In the Middle Ages almost the whole of Ireland was Irish speaking. Nowadays, however,
native speakers of Irish are few in number and are confined to rural areas even though
Irish is the official language of Ireland and is taught in schools. The English language in
Southern Ireland was originally introduced from the West and West Midlands of England
and still shows signs of this today. This kind of English has spread to cover most of the
Irish Republic. Naturally the pronunciation of these areas retains features of western
parts of England.
The English of northern parts of the island with its centre in Belfast has its roots in
Scotland, as large numbers of settlers came to this part from the south-west of Scotland
from the seventeenth century onwards. Areas of the far north are heavily Scots influenced.
Other parts are marked by less heavily Scots-influenced varieties of English. Some areas
of the Republic, Donegal, for instance, speak N.Ir.Eng. (Northern Ireland English), while
some of the northern provinces speak S.Ir.Eng. (Southern Ireland English)
Irish English is considered the variant of the English language used in
Ireland. It is also widely referred to as Hiberno-English or Anglo-Irish.

The Irish English vocabulary is characterized by the following distinctive


features:
1) the presence of words with the same form as in British English but
different meanings in Irish English,
e. g. backward – 'shy'; to doubt – 'to believe strongly'; bold – 'naughty’;
2) the use of most regionally marked words by older, often rural people,
e.g. biddable – 'obedient'; feasant – 'affable’;
3) the presence of nouns taken from Irish which often relate either to food
or the supernatural, e.g. banshee – 'fairy woman' from bean sidhe;
4) the presence of words typical only of Irish English (the so-called
Irishisms), e.g. begorrah – 'by God’;
5) the layer of words shared with Scottish English,
e.g. ova – 'at all'; greet – 'cry, weep'; brae – 'hill, steep slope'.
Besides distinctive features in lexis Irish English has
grammatical, phonetical and spelling peculiarities of its
own, e. g. the use of 'does be/ do be' construction in the
following phrase: "They do be talking on their mobiles a
lot".

In Irish English the plural form of you is distinguished


from the singular, normally by using the archaic English
word ye to denote plurality,
e.g.: "Did ye all go to see it?".

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