Hiberno-English


Hiberno-English or Irish English, also formerly sometimes called Anglo-Irish, is the set of dialects of the English language native to the island of Ireland. In both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, English is the first language in everyday use and, alongside the Irish language, one of two official languages.
The writing standards of Irish English, such as its spelling, align with British English. But the diverse accents and some of the grammatical structures and vocabulary of Irish English are unique, including certain notably conservative phonological features and vocabulary: those that are no longer common in the dialects of England or North America. It shows significant influences from the Irish language and also, in the north, the Scots language.
Phonologists today often divide Irish English into four or five overarching dialects or accents: Ulster or Northern Irish accents, Western and Southern Irish accents, various Dublin accents, and a non-regional standard accent whose features have been developing since the late 1970s.

History

Middle English, as well as a small elite that spoke Anglo-Norman, was brought to Ireland as a result of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the late 12th century. The remnants of which survived as the Yola language and Fingallian dialects, which is not mutually comprehensible with Modern English. A second wave of the English language was brought to Ireland in the 16th-century Elizabethan Early Modern period, making that variety of English spoken in Ireland the oldest outside of Great Britain. It remains more conservative today than many other dialects of English in terms of phonology and vocabulary.
Initially, during the Anglo-Norman period in Ireland, English was mainly spoken in an area known as the Pale around Dublin, with largely the Irish language spoken throughout the rest of the country. Some small pockets of speakers remained, who predominantly continued to use the English of that time. Because of their sheer isolation, these dialects developed into later, now-extinct, English-related varieties, known as Yola in Wexford and Fingallian in Fingal, Dublin. These were no longer mutually intelligible with other English varieties. By the Tudor period, Irish culture and language had regained most of the territory lost to the invaders: even in the Pale, "all the common folk… for the most part are of Irish birth, Irish habit, and of Irish language".
The Tudor conquest and colonisation of Ireland in the 16th century led to a second wave of immigration by English speakers, along with the forced suppression and decline in the status and use of the Irish language. By the mid-19th century, English had become the majority language spoken in the country. It has retained this status to the present day, with even those whose first language is Irish being fluent in English as well. Today, there is little more than one per cent of the population who speaks the Irish language natively, though it is required to be taught in all state-funded schools. Of the 40% of the population who self-identified as speaking some Irish in 2016, 4% speak Irish daily outside the education system.
A German traveller, Ludolf von Münchhausen, visited the Pale in Dublin in 1591. He says of the pale in regards to the language spoken there: "Little Irish is spoken; there are even some people here who cannot speak Irish at all". He may be mistaken, but if this account is true, the language of Dublin in the 1590s was English, not Irish.
And yet again, Albert Jouvin travelled to Ireland in 1668; he says of the pale and the east coast, "In the inland parts of Ireland, they speak a particular language, but in the greatest part of the towns and villages on the sea coast, only English is spoken". 'A Tour of Ireland in 1775', by Richard Twiss says of the language spoken in Dublin "as at present almost all the peasants speak the English language, they converse with as much propriety as any persons of their class in England."
In On Early English Pronunciation, Part V, an early dialect study on English, Alexander John Ellis included some samples of Hiberno-English dialect from the Forth and Bargy baronies in County Wexford. Writing in the late 19th century, Ellis seems to have been unaware that English had been spoken in parts of Ireland, especially in Ulster, for centuries.

Ulster English

Ulster English, or Northern Irish English, here refers collectively to the varieties of the Ulster province, including Northern Ireland and neighbouring counties outside of Northern Ireland, which has been influenced by Ulster Irish as well as the Scots language, brought over by Scottish settlers during the Plantation of Ulster. Its main subdivisions are Mid-Ulster English, South Ulster English and Ulster Scots, the latter of which is arguably a separate language.
Ulster varieties distinctly pronounce:
  • An ordinarily grammatically structured declarative sentence, often, with a rising intonation at the end of the sentence.
  • as lowered, in the general vicinity of.
  • as fronted and slightly rounded, more closely approaching.
  • and as merged in the general vicinity of.
  • with a backed on-glide and fronted off-glide, putting it in the vicinity of.
  • as, particularly before voiceless consonants.
  • as, though nowadays commonly or even when in a closed syllable.
  • , almost always, as a slightly raised monophthong.
  • A lack of Happy-tensing; with the final vowel of happy, holy, money, etc. as.
  • Syllable-final occasionally as "dark ", though especially before a consonant.

    Western and Southern Irish English

Western and Southern Irish English is a collection of broad varieties of Ireland's West Region and Southern Region. Accents of both regions are known for:
  • The backing and slight lowering of towards.
  • The more open starting point for and of and, respectively.
  • The preservation of as monophthongal.
  • and, respectively, as and.
  • In the West, and may respectively be pronounced by very conservative speakers as and before a consonant, so fist sounds like fished, castle like Cashel, and arrest like "arresht".
The subset, South-West Irish English, features two additional defining characteristics of its own. One is the pin–pen merger: the raising of dress to when before or . The other is the intonation pattern of a slightly higher pitch followed by a significant drop in pitch on stressed long-vowel syllables, which is popularly heard in rapid conversation, by speakers of other English dialects, as a noticeable kind of undulating "sing-song" pattern.

Dublin English

Dublin English is highly internally diverse and refers collectively to the Irish English varieties immediately surrounding and within the metropolitan area of Dublin. Modern-day Dublin English largely lies on a phonological continuum, ranging from a more traditional, lower-prestige, local urban accent on the one end, to a more recently developing, higher-prestige, non-local, regional and even supra-regional accent on the other end. Most of the latter characteristics of Dublin English first emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The accent that most strongly uses the traditional working-class features has been labelled by the linguist Raymond Hickey as "local Dublin English". Most speakers from Dublin and its suburbs have accent features falling variously along the entire middle, as well as the newer end of the spectrum, which together form what is called "non-local Dublin English". It is spoken by middle- and upper-class natives of Dublin and the greater eastern Irish region surrounding the city.
In the most general terms, all varieties of Dublin English have the following identifying sounds that are often distinct from the rest of Ireland, pronouncing:
Local Dublin English is a traditional, broad, working-class variety spoken in the Republic of Ireland's capital city of Dublin. It is the only Irish English variety that in earlier history was non-rhotic; but today it is weakly rhotic. Known for diphthongisation of the and vowels, the local Dublin accent is also known for a phenomenon called "vowel breaking", in which,, and in closed syllables are "broken" into two syllables, approximating,,, and, respectively.

Advanced Dublin English

Evolving as a fashionable outgrowth of the mainstream non-local Dublin English, advanced Dublin English, also new Dublin English or formerly fashionable Dublin English, is a youthful variety that originally began in the early 1990s among the "avant-garde" and now those aspiring to a non-local "urban sophistication". Advanced Dublin English itself, first associated with affluent and middle-class inhabitants of southside Dublin, is probably now spoken by a majority of Dubliners born since the 1980s.
Advanced Dublin English can have a fur–fair merger, horse–hoarse, and witch–which mergers, while resisting the traditionally Irish English cot–caught merger. This accent has since spread south to parts of east County Wicklow, west to parts of north County Kildare, and parts of south County Meath. The accent can be heard among the middle to upper classes in most major cities in the Republic today.

Standard Irish English

Supraregional Southern Irish English, sometimes, simply Supraregional Irish English or Standard Irish English, refers to a variety spoken particularly by educated and middle- or higher-class Irish people, crossing regional boundaries throughout all of the Republic of Ireland, except the north. A mainstream middle-class variety of Dublin English of the early- to mid-twentieth century is the direct influence and catalyst for this variety, coming about by the suppression of certain markedly Irish features, and retention of other Irish features, as well as the adoption of certain standard British features.
The result is a configuration of features that is still unique. In other words, this accent is not simply a wholesale shift towards British English. Most speakers born in the 1980s or later are showing fewer features of this late-twentieth-century mainstream supraregional form and more characteristics aligning with a rapidly-spreading advanced Dublin accent. See more above, under "Non-local Dublin English".
Ireland's supraregional dialect pronounces:
  • as quite open.
  • along a possible spectrum, with innovative particularly more common before voiced consonants, notably including.
  • as starting fronter and often more raised than other dialects:.
  • may be, with a backer vowel than in other Irish accents, though still relatively fronted.
  • as.
  • as, almost always separate from , keeping words like war and wore, or horse and hoarse, pronounced distinctly.
  • as.
  • as a diphthong, approaching, as in the mainstream United States, or, as in mainstream England.
  • as higher, fronter, and often rounder.