ENGLISH AS SPOKEN IN IRELAND.
[To THE Roma OF TEE "SPECTATOR."] Sia,—The writer of a letter in the Spectator of August 15th on "English as Spoken in Ireland" has fallen into a very natural mistake with respect to the use by Irish people of the to him unintelligible expression "How well !" He is misled by the pronunciation of the words. What the Irish say is " Ah ! Well!" The phrases quoted are in reality : " Ah I Well! your Reverence, you didn't go to the races," and " Ah I Nv ell! the Kellys stole the nuns' ducks all the same." It is the slight aspiration—a breath, not the faintest suggestion of an " h" that never occurs—which gives the effect taken by your correspondent for the word "how." The " Ah I Well!" is familiar to every Irishman in all classes,—sometimes used in the sense of a remonstrance or appeal, as ".A.h, well then," but most frequently in the sense of the French guand
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