English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 9

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Our use of _shall_ and _will_ prevails also in Scotland, where the English change of custom has not obtained any more than it has in Ireland. The Scotch in fact are quite as bad (or as good) in this respect as we are.

Like many another Irish idiom this is also found in American society chiefly through the influence of the Irish. In many parts of Ireland they are shy of using _shall_ at all: I know this to be the case in Munster; and a correspondent informs me that _shall_ is hardly ever heard in Derry.

The incorrect use of _will_ in questions in the first person singular ('Will I light the fire ma'am?' 'Will I sing you a song?'--instead of 'Shall I?') appears to have been developed in Ireland independently, and not derived from any former correct usage: in other words we have created this incorrect locution--or vulgarism--for ourselves. It is one of our most general and most characteristic speech errors. _Punch_ represents an Irish waiter with hand on dish-cover, asking:--'Will I sthrip ma'am?'

What is called the _regular_ formation of the past tense (in _ed_) is commonly known as the weak inflection:--_call, called_: the _irregular_ formation (by changing the vowel) is the strong inflection:--_run, ran_. In old English the strong inflection appears to have been almost universal; but for some hundreds of years the English tendency is to replace strong by weak inflection. But our people in Ireland, retaining the old English custom, have a leaning towards the strong inflection, and not only use many of the old-fashioned English strong past tenses, but often form strong ones in their own way:--We use _slep_ and _crep_, old English; and we coin others. 'He _ruz_ his hand {78} to me,' 'I _cotch_ him stealing the turf,'

'he _gother_ sticks for the fire,' 'he _hot_ me on the head with his stick,' he _sot_ down on the chair' (very common in America). Hyland, the farm manager, is sent with some bullocks to the fair; and returns. 'Well Hyland, are the bullocks sold?'--'Sowld and _ped_ for sir.' _Wor_ is very usual in the south for _were_: 'tis long since we _wor_ on the road so late as this.' (Knocknagow.)

'_Wor_ you at the fair--did you see the wonder-- Did you see Moll Roe riding on the gander?'

_E'er_ and _ne'er_ are in constant use in Munster:--'Have you e'er a penny to give me sir? No, I have ne'er a penny for you this time.' Both of these are often met with in Shakespeare.

The Irish schoolmasters knew Irish well, and did their best--generally with success--to master English. This they did partly from their neighbours, but in a large measure from books, including dictionaries. As they were naturally inclined to show forth their learning, they made use, as much as possible, of long and unusual words, mostly taken from dictionaries, but many coined by themselves from Latin. Goldsmith's description of the village master with his 'words of learned length and thundering sound,'

applies exactly to a large proportion of the schoolmasters of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century all over Ireland. You heard these words often in conversation, but the schoolmasters most commonly used them in song-writing. Here also they made free use of the cla.s.sical mythology; but I will not touch on this {79} feature, as I have treated of it, and have given specimens, in my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' pp. 200-202.

As might be expected, the schoolmasters, as well as others, who used these strange words often made mistakes in applying them; which will be seen in some of the following examples. Here is one whole verse of a song about a young lady--'The Phoenix of the Hall.'

'I being quite captivated and so infatuated I then prognosticated my sad forlorn case; But I quickly ruminated--suppose I was _defaited_, I would not be implicated or treated with disgrace; So therefore I awaited with my spirits elevated, And no more I ponderated let what would me befall; I then to her _repated_ how Cupid had me _thrated_, And thus expostulated with The Phoenix of the Hall.'

In another verse of this song the poet tells us what he might do for the Phoenix if he had greater command of language:--

'Could I indite like Homer that celebrated _pomer_.'

One of these schoolmasters, whom I knew, composed a poem in praise of Queen Victoria just after her accession, of which I remember only two lines:--

'In England our queen resides with _alacrity_, With civil authority and kind urbanity.'

Another opens his song in this manner:--

'One morning serene as I roved in solitude, Viewing the magnitude of th' orient ray.

The author of the song in praise of Castlehyde speaks of

'The bees _perfuming_ the fields with music';

{80} and the same poet winds up by declaring,

'In all my ranging and _serenading_ I met no _aiquel_ to Castlehyde.'

_Serenading_ here means wandering about leisurely.

The author of 'The Cottage Maid' speaks of the danger of Mercury abducting the lady, even

'Though an _organising_ shepherd be her guardian';

where _organising_ is intended to mean playing on an _organ_, i.e. a shepherd's reed.

But endless examples of this kind might be given.

Occasionally you will find the peasantry attempting long or unusual words, of which some examples are scattered through this chapter; and here also there are often misapplications: 'What had you for dinner to-day?' 'Oh I had bacon and goose and several other _combustibles_' (comestibles). I have repeatedly heard this word.

Sometimes the simple past tense is used for one of the subjunctive past forms. 'If they had gone out in their boat that night they were lost men'; i.e. 'they would have been lost men.' 'She is now forty, and 'twas well if she was married' ('it would be well').

'Oh Father Murphy, had aid come over, the green flag floated from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e'

(i.e. would have floated). See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 242.

'A summons from William to Limerick, a summons to open their gate, Their fortress and stores to surrender, else the sword and the gun _were_ their fate.'

(R. D. JOYCE: Ballads of Irish Chivalry, p. 15.)

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_See_ is very often used for _saw_:--'Did you ever see a cluricaun Molly?'

'Oh no sir, I never see one myself.' (Crofton Croker.) 'Come here Nelly, and point out the bride to us.' 'I never see her myself Miss' [so I don't know her] replied Nelly. (Knocknagow.) This is a survival from old English, in which it was very common. It is moreover general among the English peasantry at the present day, as may be seen everywhere in d.i.c.kens.

The imperative of verbs is often formed by _let_:--instead of 'go to the right 'or 'go you to the right,' our people say 'let you go to the right': 'let you look after the cows and I will see to the horses.' A fellow is arrested for a crime and dares the police with:--'Let ye prove it.'

In Derry porridge or stirabout always takes the plural: 'Have you dished _them_ yet?'

'I didn't go to the fair _'cause why_, the day was too wet.' This expression _'cause why_, which is very often heard in Ireland, is English at least 500 years old: for we find it in Chaucer.

You often hear _us_ for _me_: 'Give us a penny sir to buy sweets' (i.e.

'Give me').

In Waterford and South Wexford the people often use such verbal forms as is seen in the following:--'Does your father grow wheat still?' 'He _do_.'

'Has he the old white horse now?' 'He _have_.' As to _has_, Mr. MacCall states that it is unknown in the barony of Forth: there you always hear 'that man _have_ plenty of money'--he _have_--she _have_, &c.

The Rev. William Burke tells us that _have_ is found as above (a third person singular) all through the old Waterford Bye-Laws; which would render it {82} pretty certain that both _have_ and _do_ in these applications are survivals from the old English colony in Waterford and Wexford.

In Donegal and thereabout _the yon_ is often shortened to _thon_, which is used as equivalent to _that_ or _those_: 'you may take _thon_ book.'

In Donegal 'such a thing' is often made _such an a thing_.' I have come across this several times: but the following quotation is decisive--'No, Dinny O'Friel, I don't want to make you say any such an a thing.' (Seamus MacMa.n.u.s.)

There is a tendency to put _o_ at the end of some words, such as boy-o, lad-o. A fellow was tried for sheep-stealing before the late Judge Monahan, and the jury acquitted him, very much against the evidence. 'You may go now,' said the judge, 'as you are acquitted; but you stole the sheep all the same, my buck-o.'

'I would hush my lovely laddo In the green arbutus shadow.'

(A. P. GRAVES: 'Irish Songs and Ballads.')

This is found in Irish also, as in '_a vick-o_' ('my boy,' or more exactly 'my son,' where _vick_ is _mhic_, vocative of _mac_, son) heard universally in Munster: 'Well Billy a vick-o, how is your mother this morning?' I suppose the English practice is borrowed from the Irish.

In Irish there is only one article, _an_, which is equivalent to the English definite article _the_. This article (_an_) is much more freely used in Irish than _the_ is in English, a practice which we are inclined to imitate in our Anglo-Irish speech. Our use of _the_ {83} often adds a sort of emphasis to the noun or adjective:--'Ah John was the man,' i.e. the real man, a man pre-eminent for some quality--bravery, generosity, &c. 'Ah that was the trouble in earnest.' The Irish chiefs of long ago 'were the men in the gap' (Thomas Davis):--i.e. the real men and no mistake. We often use the article in our speech where it would not be used in correct English:--'I am perished with _the_ cold.' 'I don't know much Greek, but I am good at _the_ Latin.'

'That was the dear journey to me.' A very common form of expression, signifying that 'I paid dearly for it'--'it cost me dear.' Hugh Reynolds when about to be hanged for attempting the abduction of Catherine McCabe composes (or is supposed to compose) his 'Lamentation,' of which the verses end in 'She's the dear maid to me.' (See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 135.) A steamer was in danger of running down a boat rowed by one small boy on the Shannon. 'Get out of the way you young rascal or we'll run over you and drown you!' Little Jacky looks up defiantly and cries out:--'Ye'll drownd me, will ye: if ye do, I'll make it the dear drownding to ye!' In such expressions it is however to be observed that the indefinite article _a_ is often used--perhaps as often as _the_:--'That was a dear transaction for me.' 'Oh, green-hilled pleasant Erin you're a dear land to me!' (Robert Dwyer Joyce's 'Ballads of Irish Chivalry,' p. 206.)

In Ulster they say:--'When are you going?' 'Oh I am going _the day_,' i.e.

to-day. I am much better _the day_ than I was yesterday. In this _the day_ {84} is merely a translation of the Irish word for to-day--_andiu_, where _an_ is 'the' and _diu_ a form of the Irish for 'day.'