CORRESPONDENCE.
ENGLISH AS SPOKEN IN IRELAND.
[To THE EDITOR 01 THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—It is a noteworthy and remarkable fact that outside Ulster (in which province a regular Scotch patois prevails, such as you find in the poems of Burns) there is in Ireland no change or corruption of the English language prevalent. The English that is spoken is remarkably pure and good, and is generally what some people call " dictionary English." Certain words are used in a somewhat different sense from their strict one, but they are not often mispronounced or mis- applied. In a word, there is nothing in Ireland outside Ulster to resemble the English spoken by the lower classes in Yorkshire or Devonshire. This is a remarkable fact ; all or most Irishmen speak with a rich mellifluous brogue, but they speak very pure, correct English. This is partly owing to the instruction received in national schools ; and yet this can- not be the complete account of the matter, for these schools have not banished the Scotticisms from Ulster. In Ulster, for example, you find such expressions as "far through," " redd up," " rain in," " donsy," " has," &c.—all from Scotch sources—in common use. In the South, Centre, and West of Ireland you occasionally find purely Irish words in use, such as " caulaogue," " caubeen," " boreen," " faheen," " omadhaun," to give point to an observation ; and as the study of Irish is being revived, these will become more numerous. But these are not corruptions of English words, such as " hae " for " have " in Ulster. The use of long, and even learned, terms in conversation by the lower classes in Ireland is noteworthy ; e.g., I have observed the word " corroborate " frequently used by a person in humble life. A friend of mine, an Irish Resident Magistrate, was driving one 15th of August, the Feast of the Assumption, in the neighbourhood of Ennis, the county town of Clare, and meeting large numbers of people on their way to Mass, he asked the driver what holy day it was. " I disremember, Sir," he said, "but, anyway, the Blessed Virgin is implicated in it." There
is a fondness for such words as these now quoted, "implicate" and "corroborate." The ordinary Irishman in conversation also frequently punctuates his remarks with a pause and the query, " You understand now ?" or " There's the truth for you now!"
Another source of this love of high-sounding terms is
probably this : every Irishman is a born politician from the cradle to the grave ; he talks politics ; he reads political speeches delivered in Parliament, goes to hear them delivered in his own district at League meetings, or on other occasions by candidates for the County Council or the Rural District Council. I have myself heard a
County Councillor use such language as the following :— " Gentlemen,—I tell ye that for you to support me opponent in this contest would be perfectly preposterious "—there is an Irish pronunciation of " perfectly " that is peculiar, the emphasis being placed on the second syllable—" I tell ye he is not illegible [? eligible] for the position : there isn't a saint in the Calandre [? Calendar] "—again with the accent on the second syllable—" that I can't draw down on the head of that man, and that's as sure as the man's name is Natanel [? Nathanael] " —here the emphasis was thrown on the first syllable. Mr. Silas Wegg, who filled the office of reader for Mr. Boffin, declared that " there was no piece of English he could not collar and throw," and he consequently undertook to read " The Decline and Fall." The ordinary Irishman has exactly the same feeling ; he undertakes to " collar and throw" such words as " preposterous," but as we see, not always with a satisfactory result. There is a peculiar use of the word "good " in Ireland, ithich Mr. Rudyard Kipling has noted, and always puts into the mouth of the Irishman Mulvaney in " Soldiers Three." It is this: " good" is used as the equivalent of "well," or "in good health,"—always physically, not morally, good. I ono met a man driving a very troublesome, angry bull through a square in a country town, and asked him why he had the animal there. The reply was : " I'm getting him home as good as I can, yer reverence," that is, " as well as I can." This is always Mulvaney's use of " good," and shows how accurate Mr. Rudyard Kipling is even in such a small detail as this. The word " coadjutor" is another long term in common use in Ireland, but this is accounted for by the fact that it is the official title given to the Roman Catholic curate or assistant-priest of the parish. I have heard a very poor woman use the word " mellified," mean- ing " vilified," thus : "I couldn't stand by and hear me poor husband mellified, and he giving the grass in the church- yard," the expression " giving the grass " meaning that he was in his grave. A parishioner once accused another to me as being the most " insipid " drunkard in the place. I never quite understood what this meant, whether it was intended for " incessant," or for " stupid." It seemed capable of either application. But what is remarkable in Ireland under this head is the use of such words as " corroborate," " impli- cate," "vilify," "insipid," by people in humble life.
The word almost universally used by them to describe the state of their health or of the weather is " grand." " It's a grand day, glory be to God." " I'm grand." " Ye look grand yerself." A local nobleman is always described as "the Lord." You hear people speak of the Lord's horses, his cows, his geese. Some years ago a young gentleman who was badly hurt racing was taken home by a Peer who lived hard by. The onlookers said: "Sure, he's all right, since the Lord took him.'' A landlord who lives in a fine house situated within a walled demesne is often described " as the man inside,"—i.e., the man within the walls. The word " man " is not used here in any derogatory or disrespectful sense, for our Saviour is often spoken of in Ireland most affectionately and reverently as " the Man above." There is a peculiar use of the word " abroad " in Ireland, not to designate foreign parts by any means, but even next door. A person who has gone out for a walk is said to have "gone abroad" if not at home when called for. An emigrant is said to have " gone ,foreign." People in the Church speak of "the dead abroad in the churchyard." One more instance. You are often told in Ireland, " I think worse of you than of So-and-so." This seems not at all complimentary. You expect to hear the word " better," not " worse," but the mean- ing is, I think, "worse of any ill-luck or misfortune happening to you than to any other " ; and does not this expression apparently indicate the sadness of the Irish outlook, which seems to dwell upon and anticipate evil rather than good, as if it were the reflection and outcome of a painful past ?—I
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