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Hiberno-English is the form of the English language used in Ireland. Also called Anglo-Irish or Irish English.

The type of English spoken in Ireland is sometimes said to be a mixture of the language of Shakespeare and the Irish of the Gaelic earls. This assumption can in a sense be true. Modern Irish English does bear the marks of two major historical events. First we have the various types of English and Scots that were brought to Ireland during the English and Scottish colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Secondly there is an early hybrid jargon which arose as a result of the contact between the Irish and English languages. The linguistic impact of the contact between Irish and English is most clearly seen in those areas where Irish is still spoken as a mother tongue or where it has survived until recently.

The standard spelling and grammar are the same as British English, but especially in the spoken language, there are some unique characteristics, due to the influence of Irish on pronunciation.

Grammar Derived From Irish

Like other Celtic languages, Irish has no words for "yes" and "no", instead the verb in a question is repeated in an answer. People in Ireland have a tendency to use this pattern of avoiding "yes" or "no" when speaking English:

• "Are you finished debugging that software?" "I am."
• "Is your mobile charged?" "It is."

Irish verbs have two present tenses, one indicating what is occurring at this instant and another used for continuous actions. For example, 'you are now' is tá tú anois (literally 'are you now'), but 'you are every day' is bíonn tú gach lá (literally 'be you each day').

Irish speakers of English use a "does be/do be" (or "bes", although less frequently) construction to indicate this latter continuous present:

• "He do(es) be coding every day."
• "They do be talking on their mobiles a lot."
• "They bes doing a lot of work at school." (rare)

Irish uses the same phrase tar éis to mean "after" and as a modifier on a verb to indicate that the activity is recently completed. As a result Irish people tend to use a construction where they use "after" as a verb modifier:

• "I'm just after rebooting the computer."

Mirroring the Irish language, the plural 'you' is distinguished from the singular, normally by using the otherwise archaic 'ye' (the word 'yous' also occurs, but only in Dublin dialect):

• "Did ye all go to see it?"

The reflexive version of pronouns is often used for emphasis or to refer indirectly to a particular person, etc., according to context:

• "Was it all of ye or just yourself?"
• "'Tis herself that's coming now." Is í féin atá ag teacht anois.

- where 'herself' might, for example, be the boss or the woman of the house. Note also the indirectness of this construction relative to, e.g., 'She's coming now' and the use of "'Tis" rather than the more standard contraction "It's".

It is also common to end sentences with 'no?' or 'yeah?'

• "He's not coming today, no?" Níl sé ag teacht inniú, nach bhfuil?
• "The bank's closed now, yeah?" Tá an banc dúnta anois, an bhfuil?

Irish English also always uses the "light l" sound, and the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' is standard.

When describing something, Irish people may describe this as something that is 'in it', which can also be translated into English as 'so it is'.

• The day that is in it. An lá atá ann.
• That's John, so it is. Is Seán é, atá ann.

A person or place may be described as being 'where it's at', as this is the translation of the verb to have:

• That's where it's at. Sin é an ait atá sé aige.

Similarly, somebody who can speak a language, 'has' a language.

• She doesn't have Irish. Níl Gaeilge aici.

Another idiom is this thing or that thing described as 'this man here' or 'that man there', which also features in Newfoundland English in Canada.

• This man here. An fear seo.
• That man there. An fear sin.

The reported clause is also often preserved in its direct form, e.g. 'John asked me to buy a loaf of bread' becomes 'John asked me would you buy a loaf of bread'.

Preservation of Older English usage

The verb "to avail of" is common in Ireland, meaning to choose or get: Customers can avail of our new service. The verb "mitch" is common in Ireland indicating playing truant from school. This word appears in Shakespeare, but is seldom heard these days in British English, although pockets of usage persist in some areas (notably South Wales, Devon, and Cornwall).

For influence from Scotland see Ulster Scots.

See also

List of English words of Irish origin

References

• Dolan, Terence Patrick (Ed.) (1998). A Dictionary of Hiberno-English. Gill & Macmillan (Dublin). ISBN 0-7171-2942-X