English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 10

The use of the singular of nouns instead of the plural after a numeral is found all through Ireland. Tom Ca.s.sidy our office porter--a Westmeath man--once said to me 'I'm in this place now forty-four year': and we always use such expressions as _nine head of cattle_. A friend of mine, a cultivated and scholarly clergyman, always used phrases like 'that bookcase cost thirteen _pound_.' This is an old English survival. Thus in Macbeth we find 'this three mile.' But I think this phraseology has also come partly under the influence of our Gaelic in which _ten_ and numerals that are multiples of _ten_ always take the singular of nouns, as _tri-caogad laoch_, 'thrice fifty heroes'--lit. 'thrice fifty _hero_.'

In the south of Ireland _may_ is often incorrectly used for _might_, even among educated people:--'Last week when setting out on my long train journey, I brought a book that I _may_ read as I travelled along.' I have heard and read, scores of times, expressions of which this is a type--not only among the peasantry, but from newspaper correspondents, professors, &c.--and you can hear and read them from Munstermen to this day in Dublin.

In Ulster _till_ is commonly used instead of _to_:--'I am going _till_ Belfast to-morrow': in like manner _until_ is used for _unto_.

There are two tenses in English to which there is nothing corresponding in Irish:--what is sometimes called the perfect--'I _have finished_ my work'; and the pluperfect--'I _had finished_ my work' [before you {85} arrived].

The Irish people in general do not use--or know how to use--these in their English speech; but they feel the want of them, and use various expedients to supply their places. The most common of these is the use of the word _after_ (commonly with a participle) following the verb _to be_. Thus instead of the perfect, as expressed above, they will say 'I am after finishing my work,' 'I am after my supper.' ('Knocknagow.') 'I'm after getting the lend of an American paper' (_ibid._); and instead of the pluperfect (as above) they will say 'I was after finishing my work' [before you arrived]. Neither of these two expressions would be understood by an Englishman, although they are universal in Ireland, even among the higher and educated cla.s.ses.

This word _after_ in such constructions is merely a translation of the Irish _iar_ or _a n-diaigh_--for both are used in corresponding expressions in Irish.

But this is only one of the expedients for expressing the perfect tense.

Sometimes they use the simple past tense, which is ungrammatical, as our little newsboy in Kilkee used to do: 'Why haven't you brought me the paper?' 'The paper didn't come from the station yet sir.' Sometimes the present progressive is used, which also is bad grammar: 'I am sitting here waiting for you for the last hour' (instead of 'I have been sitting').

Occasionally the _have_ or _has_ of the perfect (or the _had_ of the pluperfect) is taken very much in its primary sense of having or possessing. Instead of 'You have quite distracted me with your talk,' the people will say 'You have me quite distracted,' &c.: {86} 'I have you found out at last.' 'The children had me vexed.' (Jane Barlow.)

'And she is a comely maid That has my heart betrayed.'

(Old Irish Folk-Song.)

'... I fear, That some cruel G.o.ddess _has him captivated_, And has left here in mourning his dear Irish maid.'

(See my Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, p. 208.)

Corresponding devices are resorted to for the pluperfect. Sometimes the simple past is used where the pluperfect ought to come in:--'An hour before you came yesterday I finished my work': where it should be 'I had finished.' Anything to avoid the pluperfect, which the people cannot manage.

In the Irish language (but not in English) there is what is called the consuetudinal tense, i.e. denoting habitual action or existence. It is a very convenient tense, so much so that the Irish, feeling the want of it in their English, have created one by the use of the word _do_ with _be_: 'I do be at my lessons every evening from 8 to 9 o'clock.' 'There does be a meeting of the company every Tuesday.' ''Tis humbuggin' me they _do be_.'

('Knocknagow.')

Sometimes this is expressed by _be_ alone without the _do_; but here the _be_ is also often used in the ordinary sense of _is_ without any consuetudinal meaning. 'My father _bees_ always at home in the morning': 'At night while I _bees_ reading my wife bees knitting.' (Consuetudinal.) 'You had better not wait till it bees night.' (Indicative.)

'I'll seek out my Blackbird wherever he be.' (Indicative.)

(Old Folk Song--'The Blackbird.')

{87} This use of _be_ for _is_ is common in the eastern half of Ireland from Wexford to Antrim.

Such old forms as _anear_, _adown_, _afeard_, _apast_, _afore_, &c., are heard everywhere in Ireland, and are all of old English origin, as it would be easy to show by quotations from English cla.s.sical writers. 'If my child was standing _anear_ that stone.' (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians.') 'She was never a-shy or ashamed to show' [her respect for me]. ('Knocknagow.') The above words are considered vulgar by our educated people: yet many others remain still in correct English, such as _aboard_, _afoot_, _amidst_, &c.

I think it likely that the Irish language has had some influence in the adoption and retention of those old English words; for we have in Irish a group of words identical with them both in meaning and structure: such as _a-n-aice_ (a-near), where _aice_ is 'near.' (The _n_ comes in for a grammatical reason.)

'I be to do it' in Ulster is used to express 'I have to do it': 'I am bound to do it'; 'it is destined that I shall do it.' 'I be to remain here till he calls,' I am bound to remain. 'The only comfort I have [regarding some loss sure to come on] is that it be to be,' i.e. that 'it is fated to be'--'it is _unavoidable_.' 'What bees to be maun be' (must be).

Father William Burke points out that we use 'every other' in two different senses. He remains at home always on Monday, but goes to town 'every other'

day--meaning every day of the week except Monday: which is the most usual application among us. 'My father goes to town every other day,' i.e. {88} every alternate day. This last is rarely used by our people, who prefer to express it 'My father goes to town _every second day_.' Of two persons it is stated:

'You'd like to see them drinking from one cup, They took so loving _every second sup_.'

(Old Irish Folk Song.)

The simple phrase 'the other day' means a few days ago. 'When did you see your brother John?' 'Oh I saw him the other day.'

'The other day he sailed away and parted his dear Nancy.'

(Old Folk Song.)

The dropping of _thou_ was a distinct loss to the English language: for now _you_ has to do double duty--for both singular and plural--which sometimes leads to obscurity. The Irish try to avoid this obscurity by various devices. They always use _ye_ in the plural whenever possible: both as a nominative and as an objective: 'Where are ye going to-day?' 'I'm afeard that will be a dear journey to ye.' Accepting the _you_ as singular, they have created new forms for the plural such as _yous_, _yez_, _yiz_, which do not sound pleasant to a correct speaker, but are very clear in sense. In like manner they form a possessive case direct on _ye_. Some English soldiers are singing 'Lillibulero'--

'And our skeans we'll make good at de Englishman's throat,'

on which Cus Russed (one of the ambush) says--'That's true for ye at any rate. I'm laughing at the way we'll carry out _yeer_ song afore the day is over.' ('The House of Lisbloom,' by Robert D. Joyce.) Similarly '_weer_ own' is sometimes used for 'our own.' {89}

The distributive _every_ requires to be followed by p.r.o.nouns in the singular: but this rule is broken even by well-known English writers:--'Every one for themselves' occurs in Robinson Crusoe; and in Ireland plurals are almost universally used. '_Let every one mind themselves_ as the a.s.s said when he leaped into a flock of chickens.'

Father Burke has shown--a matter that had escaped me--that we often use the verbs _rest_ and _perish_ in an active sense. The first is seen in the very general Irish prayer 'G.o.d rest his soul.' Mangan uses the word in this sense in the Testament of Cathaeir Mor:--

'Here is the Will of Cathaeir Mor, G.o.d rest him.'

And John Keegan in 'Caoch O'Leary':--

'And there he sleeps his last sweet sleep-- G.o.d rest you, Caoch O'Leary.'

_Perish_ is quoted below in the saying--'That breeze would perish the Danes.'

We have many intensive words, some used locally, some generally:--'This is a _cruel_ wet day'; 'that old fellow is _cruel_ rich': that's a _cruel_ good man (where _cruel_ in all means _very_: Ulster). 'That girl is _fine and fat_: her cheeks are _fine and red_.' 'I was _dead fond_ of her' (very fond): but _dead certain_ occurs in 'Bleak House.' 'That tree has a _mighty_ great load of apples.' 'I want a drink badly; my throat is _powerful_ dry.' ('Shanahan's Ould Shebeen,' New York.) 'John Cusack is the finest dancer _at all_.' 'This day is _mortal_ cold.' 'I'm _black out_ with you.' {90} 'I'm very glad _entirely_ to hear it.' 'He is very sick _entirely_.' This word _entirely_ is one of our most general and characteristic intensives. 'He is a very good man _all out_.' 'This day is _guy and_ wet': 'that boy is _guy and_ fat' (Ulster). A half fool of a fellow looking at a four-wheeled carriage in motion: 'Aren't the little wheels _d.a.m.n good_ not to let the big wheels overtake them.' In the early days of cycling a young friend of mine was riding on a five-foot wheel past two countrymen; when one remarked to the other:--'Tim, that's a _gallows_ way of travelling.' 'I was up _murdering_ late last night.' (Crofton Croker.)

In the Irish language there are many diminutive terminations, all giving the idea of 'little,' which will be found fully enumerated and ill.u.s.trated in my 'Irish Names of Places,' vol. ii, chap. ii. Of these it may be said that only one--_in_ or _een_--has found its way into Ireland's English speech, carrying with it its full sense of smallness. There are others--_an_ or _aun_, and _og_ or _oge_; but these have in great measure lost their original signification; and although we use them in our Irish-English, they hardly convey any separate meaning. But _een_ is used everywhere: it is even constantly tacked on to Christian names (especially of boys and girls):--_Mickeen_ (little Mick), _Noreen_, _Billeen_, _Jackeen_ (a word applied to the conceited little Dublin citizen). So also you hear _Birdeen_, _Robineen_-redbreast, _bonniveen_, &c. A boy who apes to be a man--puts on airs like a man--is called a _manneen_ in contempt (exactly equivalent to the English _mannikin_). I knew a boy named Tommeen Tra.s.sy: and the name stuck to him even when he {91} was a great big whacker of a fellow six feet high. In the south this diminutive is long (_een_) and takes the accent: in the north it is made short (_in_) and is unaccented.

It is well known that three hundred years ago, and even much later, the correct English sound of the diphthong _ea_ was the same as long _a_ in _fate_: _sea_ p.r.o.nounced _say_, &c. Any number of instances could be brought together from the English poets in ill.u.s.tration of this:--

'G.o.d moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the _sea_, And rides upon the storm.'

(COWPER (18th century).)

This sound has long since been abandoned in England, but is still preserved among the Irish people. You will hear everywhere in Ireland, 'a pound of _mate_,' 'a cup of _tay_,' 'you're as deep as the _say_,' &c.

'Kind sir be _aisy_ and do not _taize_ me with your false _praises_ most jestingly.'--(Old Irish Folk Song.)

(In this last line _easy_ and _teaze_ must be sounded so as to rhyme--a.s.sonantally--with _praises_).

Many years ago I was travelling on the long car from Macroom to Killarney.

On the other side--at my back--sat a young gentleman--a 'superior person,'

as anyone could gather from his _dandified_ speech. The car stopped where he was to get off: a tall fine-looking old gentleman was waiting for him, and nothing could exceed the dignity and kindness with which he received him. Pointing to {92} his car he said 'Come now and they'll get you a nice refreshing cup of _tay_.' 'Yes,' says the dandy, 'I shall be very glad to get a cup of _tee_'--laying a particular stress on _tee_. I confess I felt a shrinking of shame for our humanity. Now which of these two was the vulgarian?

The old sound of _ea_ is still retained--even in England--in the word _great_; but there was a long contest in the English Parliament over this word. Lord Chesterfield adopted the affected p.r.o.nunciation (_greet_), saying that only an Irishman would call it _grate_. 'Single-speech Hamilton'--a Dublin man--who was considered, in the English House of Commons, a high authority on such matters, stoutly supported _grate_, and the influence of the Irish orators finally turned the scale. (Woollett.)

A similar statement may be made regarding the diphthong _ei_ and long _e_, that is to say, they were both formerly sounded like long _a_ in _fate_.

'Boast the pure blood of an ill.u.s.trious race, In quiet flow from Lucrece to _Lucrece_.'