English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 5

All through Ireland you will hear _show_ used instead of _give_ or _hand_ (verb), in such phrases as {38} 'Show me that knife,' i.e. hand it to me.

'Show me the cream, please,' says an Irish gentleman at a London restaurant; and he could not see why his English friends were laughing.

'He pa.s.sed me in the street _by the way_ he didn't know me'; 'he refused to give a contribution _by the way_ he was so poor.' In both, _by the way_ means 'pretending.'

'My own own people' means my immediate relations. This is a translation of _mo mhuinterse fein_. In Irish the repet.i.tion of the emphatic p.r.o.nominal particles is very common, and is imported into English; represented here by 'own own.'

A prayer or a wish in Irish often begins with the particle _go_, meaning 'that' (as a conjunction): _Go raibh maith agut_, '_that_ it may be well with you,' i.e. 'May it be well with you.' In imitation or translation of this the corresponding expression in English is often opened by this word _that_: 'that you may soon get well,' i.e., 'may you soon get well.'

Instead of 'may I be there to see' (John Gilpin) our people would say 'that I may be there to see.' A person utters some evil wish such as 'may bad luck attend you,' and is answered 'that the prayer may happen the preacher.' A usual ending of a story told orally, when the hero and heroine have been comfortably disposed of is 'And if they don't live happy _that we may_.'

When a person sees anything unusual or unexpected, he says to his companion, 'Oh do you mind that!'

'You want me to give you 10 for that cow: well, I'm not so soft _all out_.' 'He's not so bad as that _all out_.' {39}

A common expression is 'I was talking to him to-day, and I _drew down about_ the money,' i.e. I brought on or introduced the subject. This is a translation of the Irish form _do tharraing me anuas_ 'I drew down.'

Quite a common form of expression is 'I had like to be killed,' i.e., I was near being killed: I had a narrow escape of being killed: I escaped being killed _by the black of my nail_.

Where the English say _it rains_, we say 'it is raining': which is merely a translation of the Irish way of saying it:--_ta se ag fearthainn_.

The usual Gaelic equivalent of 'he gave a roar' is _do leig se geim as_ (met everywhere in Irish texts), 'he let a roar out of him'; which is an expression you will often hear among people who have not well mastered English--who in fact often speak the Irish language with English words.

'I put it before me to do it,' meaning I was resolved to do it, is the literal translation of _chuireas romhaim e to dheunamh_. Both Irish and Anglo-Irish are very common in the respective languages.

When a narrator has come to the end of some minor episode in his narrative, he often resumes with the opening 'That was well and good': which is merely a translation of the Gaelic _bhi sin go maith_.

Lowry Looby having related how the mother and daughter raised a terrible _pillilu_, i.e., 'roaring and bawling,' says after a short pause 'that was well and good,' and proceeds with his story. (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians.')

A common Irish expression interjected into a narrative or discourse, as a sort of stepping stone {40} between what is ended and what is coming is _Ni'l tracht air_, 'there is no talking about it,' corresponding to the English 'in short,' or 'to make a long story short.' These Irish expressions are imported into our English, in which popular phrases like the following are very often heard:--'I went to the fair, and _there's no use in talking_, I found the prices real bad.'

'Wisha my bones are exhausted, and _there's no use in talking_, My heart is scalded, _a wirrasthru_.'

(Old Song.)

'Where is my use in staying here, so there's no use in talking, go I will.'

('Knocknagow.') Often the expression takes this form:--'Ah 'tis a folly to talk, he'll never get that money.'

Sometimes the original Irish is in question form. _Cid tracht_ ('what talking?' i.e. 'what need of talking?') which is Englished as follows:--'Ah what's the use of talking, your father will never consent.' These expressions are used in conversational Irish-English, not for the purpose of continuing a narrative as in the original Irish, but--as appears from the above examples--merely to add emphasis to an a.s.sertion.

'It's a fine day that.' This expression, which is common enough among us, is merely a translation from the common Irish phrase _is breagh an la e sin_, where the demonstrative _sin_ (that) comes last in the proper Irish construction: but when imitated in English it looks queer to an English listener or reader.

'_There is no doubt_ that is a splendid animal.' This expression is a direct translation from the Irish _Ni'l contabhairt ann_, and is equivalent to the English 'doubtless.' It occurs often in the Scottish dialect also:--'Ye need na doubt I held my whisht' (Burns). {41}

You are about to drink from a cup. 'How much shall I put into this cup for you?' 'Oh you may give me _the full of it_.' This is Irish-English: in England they would say--'Give it to me full.' Our expression is a translation from the Irish language. For example, speaking of a drinking-horn, an old writer says, _a lan do'n lionn_, literally, 'the full of it of ale.' In Silva Gadelica we find _lan a ghlaice deise do losaibh_, which an Irishman translating literally would render 'the full of his right hand of herbs,' while an Englishman would express the same idea in this way--'his right hand full of herbs.'

Our Irish-English expression 'to come round a person' means to induce or _circ.u.mvent_ him by coaxing cuteness and wheedling: 'He came round me by his _sleudering_ to lend him half a crown, fool that I was': 'My grandchildren came round me to give them money for sweets.' This expression is borrowed from Irish:--'When the Milesians reached Erin _tanic a ngaes timchioll Tuathi De Danand_, 'their cuteness circ.u.mvented (lit. 'came round') the Dedannans.' (Opening sentence in _Mesca Ulad_ in Book of Leinster: Hennessy.)

'Shall I do so and so?' 'What would prevent you?' A very usual Hibernian-English reply, meaning 'you may do it of course; there is nothing to prevent you.' This is borrowed or translated from an Irish phrase. In the very old tale _The Voyage of Maildune_, Maildune's people ask, 'Shall we speak to her [the lady]?' and he replies _Cid gatas uait ce atberaid fria_. 'What [is it] that takes [anything] from you though ye speak to her,' as much as to say, 'what harm will it do you if you speak to her?'

{42} equivalent to 'of course you may, there's nothing to prevent you.'

That old horse is _lame of one leg_, one of our very usual forms of expression, which is merely a translation from _bacach ar aonchois_.

(MacCurtin.) 'I'll seem to be lame, quite useless of one of my hands.' (Old Song.)

Such constructions as _amadan fir_ 'a fool of a man' are very common in Irish, with the second noun in the genitive (_fear_ 'a man,' gen. _fir_) meaning 'a man who is a fool.' _Is and is ail ollamhan_, 'it is then he is a rock of an _ollamh_ (doctor), i.e. a doctor who is a rock [of learning].

(Book of Rights.) So also 'a thief of a fellow,' 'a steeple of a man,' i.e.

a man who is a steeple--so tall. This form of expression is however common in England both among writers and speakers. It is noticed here because it is far more general among us, for the obvious reason that it has come to us from two sources (instead of one)--Irish and English.

'I removed to Dublin this day twelve months, and this day two years I will go back again to Tralee.' 'I bought that horse last May was a twelvemonth, and he will be three years old come Thursday next.' 'I'll not sell my pigs till coming on summer': a translation of _air theacht an t-samhraidh_. Such Anglo-Irish expressions are very general, and are all from the Irish language, of which many examples might be given, but this one from 'The Courts.h.i.+p of Emer,' twelve or thirteen centuries old, will be enough. [It was prophesied] that the boy would come to Erin that day seven years--_dia secht m-bliadan_. (Kuno Meyer.) {43}

In our Anglo-Irish dialect the expression _at all_ is often duplicated for emphasis: 'I'll grow no corn this year at all at all': 'I have no money at all at all.' So prevalent is this among us that in a very good English grammar recently published (written by an Irishman) speakers and writers are warned against it. This is an importation from Irish. One of the Irish words for 'at all' is _idir_ (always used after a negative), old forms _itir_ and _etir_:--_nir bo tol do Dubthach recc na c.u.maile etir_, 'Dubthach did not wish to sell the bondmaid at all.' In the following old pa.s.sage, and others like it, it is duplicated for emphasis _Cid beac, itir itir, ges do obar_: 'however little it is forbidden to work, at all at all.' ('Prohibitions of beard,' O'Looney.)

When it is a matter of indifference which of two things to choose, we usually say 'It is equal to me' (or 'all one to me'), which is just a translation of _is c.u.ma liom_ (best rendered by 'I don't care'). Both Irish and English expressions are very common in the respective languages. Lowry Looby says:--'It is equal to me whether I walk ten or twenty miles.'

(Gerald Griffin.)

'I am a bold bachelor, airy and free, Both cities and counties are equal to me.'

(Old Song.)

'Do that out of the face,' i.e. begin at the beginning and finish it out and out: a translation of _deun sin as eudan_.

'The day is rising' means the day is clearing up,--the rain, or snow, or wind is ceasing--the weather is becoming fine: a common saying in Ireland: a translation of the usual Irish expression _ta an la_ {44} _ag eirghidh_.

During the height of the great wind storm of 1842 a poor _shooler_ or 'travelling man' from Galway, who knew little English, took refuge in a house in Westmeath, where the people were praying in terror that the storm might go down. He joined in, and unconsciously translating from his native Irish, he kept repeating 'Musha, that the Lord may rise it, that the Lord may rise it.' At which the others were at first indignant, thinking he was asking G.o.d to _raise_ the wind higher still. (Russell.)

Sometimes two prepositions are used where one would do:--'The dog got _in under_ the bed:' 'Where is James? He's _in in_ the room--or inside in the room.'

'Old woman, old woman, old woman,' says I, 'Where are you going up so high?'

'To sweep the cobwebs _off o'_ the sky.'

Whether this duplication _off of_ is native Irish or old English it is not easy to say: but I find this expression in 'Robinson Crusoe':--'For the first time since the storm _off of_ Hull.'

Eva, the witch, says to the children of Lir, when she had turned them into swans:--_Amach daoibh a chlann an righ_: 'Out with you [on the water] ye children of the king.' This idiom which is quite common in Irish, is constantly heard among English speakers:--'Away with you now'--'Be off with yourself.'

'Are you going away now?' One of the Irish forms of answering this is _Ni fos_, which in Kerry the people translate 'no yet,' considering this nearer to the original than the usual English 'not yet.' {45}

The usual way in Irish of saying _he died_ is _fuair se bas_, i.e. 'he found (or got) death,' and this is sometimes imitated in Anglo-Irish:--'He was near getting his death from that wetting'; 'come out of that draught or you'll get your death.'

The following curious form of expression is very often heard:--'Remember you have gloves to buy for me in town'; instead of 'you have to buy me gloves.' 'What else have you to do to-day?' 'I have a top to bring to Johnny, and when I come home I have the cows to put in the stable'--instead of 'I have to bring a top'--'I have to put the cows.' This is an imitation of Irish, though not, I think, a direct translation.

What may be called the Narrative Infinitive is a very usual construction in Irish. An Irish writer, relating a past event (and using the Irish language) instead of beginning his narrative in this way, 'Donall O'Brien went on an expedition against the English of Athlone,' will begin 'Donall O'Brien _to go_ on an expedition,' &c. No Irish examples of this need be given here, as they will be found in every page of the Irish Annals, as well as in other Irish writings. Nothing like this exists in English, but the people constantly imitate it in the Anglo-Irish speech. 'How did you come by all that money?' Reply:--'To get into the heart of the fair'

(meaning 'I got into the heart of the fair'), and to cry _old china_, &c.

(Gerald Griffin.) 'How was that, Lowry?' asks Mr. Daly: and Lowry answers:--'Some of them Garryowen boys sir to get about Danny Mann.'

(Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians.') 'How did the mare get that hurt?' 'Oh Tom Cody to leap {46} her over the garden wall yesterday, and she to fall on her knees on the stones.'

The Irish language has the word _annso_ for _here_, but it has no corresponding word _derived from annso_, to signify _hither_, though there are words for this too, but not from _annso_. A similar observation applies to the Irish for the words _there_ and _thither_, and for _where_ and _whither_. As a consequence of this our people do not use _hither_, _thither_, and _whither_ at all. They make _here_, _there_, and _where_ do duty for them. Indeed much the same usage exists in the Irish language too: _Is ann tigdaois eunlaith_ (Keating): 'It is _here_ the birds used to come,' instead of _hither_. In consequence of all this you will hear everywhere in Anglo-Irish speech:--'John came here yesterday': 'come here Patsy': 'your brother is in Cork and you ought to go _there_ to see him': '_where_ did you go yesterday after you parted from me?'

'Well Jack how are you these times?' 'Oh, indeed Tom I'm purty well thank you--_all that's left of me_': a mock way of speaking, as if the hard usage of the world had worn him to a thread. 'Is Frank Magaveen there?' asks the blind fiddler. 'All that's left of me is here,' answers Frank. (Carleton.) These expressions, which are very usual, and many others of the kind, are borrowed from the Irish. In the Irish tale, 'The Battle of Gavra,' poor old Osheen, the sole survivor of the Fena, says:--'I know not where to follow them [his lost friends]; and this makes _the little remnant that is left of me_ wretched. (_D'fuig sin m'iarsma_).

Ned Brophy, introducing his wife to Mr. Lloyd, says, 'this is _herself_ sir.' This is an extremely {47} common form of phrase. 'Is _herself_ [i.e.

the mistress] at home Jenny?' 'I'm afraid himself [the master of the house]