‘In grammar, syntax and idiom the peculiarities of southern Hiberno-English depend exclusively on the Irish language. Even in the parts of Ireland where Irish has long been extinct its unconscious influence still controls the usage of speakers of English.’
Alan Bliss, English in the south of Ireland
‘His language, so familiar and so foreign, will always be for me an acquired speech. I have not made or accepted its words. My voice holds them at bay. My soul frets in the shadow of his language.’
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist
The topic of language has been fermenting in my brain over the last few days. On Friday night an Italian friend quizzed me following some of my Guinness-laced musings about the differences between the English spoken in Ireland and ‘UK Standard English’. Some clumsy attempts to explain the influence of the Irish language on so-called Hiberno-English followed, but none of my efforts could get to the core of the matter in the manner of Joyce’s quote above.
After reading up on the idiosyncrasies of the English spoken in Ireland (in particular the grammar, syntax and idioms), it became clear that none of the linguists writing had noted that intangible feeling of speaking a language which seems to be guided by an invisible hand. Although this claim could be perceived as travelling dangerously close to folksy Celtic mysticism in some quarters, it is a feeling that I experience on an almost day basis.
On countless occasions over the last three years I have found myself struggling to get to the point as English friends or colleagues wait patiently for my breathless sentence to reach its anti-climatic end. It feels as if the concepts I wish to express have made numerous wrong turns on their way to my mouth; as if I am struggling to master what is, on paper, my first language, but ultimately not my native tongue.
It was apparent to me at an early age that the English I spoke was a variant of the standard international language now being heralded as the 21st century lingua franca. Growing up watching English television and later through contact with English speakers from other countries, especially when working as a language teacher, the marked difference between how we spoke came into stark relief and went far beyond our various regional accents.
The quote from Bliss above suggests that my circumlocutory style of speech is the direct result of Irish’s invisible influence. I didn’t grow up in an Irish-speaking area and was never able to attend one of the numerous Irish colleges which ran in different parts of Ireland each summer. If I’m being honest Irish was top of the list of my most hated subjects as a 15-year-old and I made no real effort in trying to learn the language. Therefore my knowledge of Irish grammar at a conscious level has always been practically zero.
But it has always felt as if there is another algorithm at work when I speak in English. Although it largely disappeared over 150 years ago in the area where I grew up, and despite our previous hostilities during the mid-90s (with a rapprochement over the last few years) it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Irish language has had and will continue to have an indelible effect on the way I think and express myself in English.
