IDIOMS DERIVED FROM THE IRISH LANGUAGE.
In this chapter I am obliged to quote the original Irish passages a good
deal as a guarantee of authenticity for the satisfaction of Irish scholars:
but for those who have no Irish the translations will answer equally well.
Besides the examples I have brought together here, many others will be
found all through the book. I have already remarked that the great majority
of our idiomatic Hibernian-English sayings are derived from the Irish
language.
When existence or modes of existence are predicated in Irish by the verb
_ta_ or _ata_ (English _is_), the Irish preposition _in_ (English _in_) in
some of its forms is always used, often with a possessive pronoun, which
gives rise to a very curious idiom. Thus, 'he is a mason' is in Irish _ta
se 'n a shaor_, which is literally _he is in his mason_: 'I am standing' is
_ta me a m' sheasamh_, lit. _I am in my standing_. This explains the common
Anglo-Irish form of expression:--'He fell on the road out of his standing':
for as he is 'in his standing' (according to the Irish) when he is standing
up, he is 'out of his standing' when he falls. This idiom with _in_ is
constantly translated literally into English by the Irish people. Thus,
instead of saying, 'I sent the wheat thrashed into corn to the mill, and it
came home as flour,' they will rather say, 'I sent the wheat _in corn_ to
the mill, and it came home _in flour_.' Here the _in_ denotes identity:
'Your {24} hair is in a wisp'; i.e. it _is_ a wisp: 'My eye is in whey in
my head,' i.e. it _is_ whey. (John Keegan in Ir. Pen. Journ.)
But an idiom closely resembling this, and in some respects identical with
it, exists in English (though it has not been hitherto noticed--so far as I
am aware)--as may be seen from the following examples:--'The Shannon ...
rushed through Athlone _in_ a deep and rapid stream (Macaulay), i.e. it
_was_ a deep and rapid stream (like our expression 'Your handkerchief is in
ribbons').
'Where heaves the turf _in_ many a mouldering heap.'
(GRAY'S 'Elegy.')
'Hence bards, like Proteus, long in vain tied down,
Escape _in_ monsters and amaze the town.'
(POPE: 'Dunciad.')
'The bars forming the front and rear edges of each plane [of the
flying-machine] are always _in_ one piece' (Daily Mail). Shelley's 'Cloud'
says, 'I laugh _in_ thunder' (meaning I laugh, and my laugh _is_ thunder.)
'The greensand and chalk were continued across the weald _in_ a great
dome.' (Lord Avebury.)
'Just to the right of him were the white-robed bishops _in a group_.'
(Daily Mail.) 'And men _in_ nations' (Byron in 'The Isles of Greece'): 'The
people came _in_ tens and twenties': 'the rain came down _in_ torrents':
'I'll take L10 _in_ gold and the rest _in_ silver': 'the snow gathered _in_
a heap.' 'The money came [home] sometimes _in_ specie and sometimes _in_
goods' (Lord Rothschild, speech in House of Lords, 29th November, 1909),
exactly like 'the corn came home _in_ flour,' quoted above. The {25}
preceding examples do not quite fully represent the Irish idiom in its
entirety, inasmuch as the possessive pronouns are absent. But even these
are sometimes found, as in the familiar phrases, 'the people came _in
their_ hundreds.' 'You are _in your_ thousands' [here at the meeting],
which is an exact reproduction of the Gaelic phrase in the Irish classical
story:--_Ata sibh in bhur n-ealaibh_, 'Ye are swans' (lit. 'Ye are in your
swans').
When mere existence is predicated, the Gaelic _ann_ (_in it_, i.e. 'in
existence') is used, as _ata sneachta ann_, 'there is snow'; lit. 'there is
snow _there_,' or 'there is snow _in it_,' i.e. in existence. The _ann_
should be left blank in English translation, i.e. having no proper
representative. But our people will not let it go waste; they bring it into
their English in the form of either _in it_ or _there_, both of which in
this construction carry the meaning of _in existence_. Mrs. Donovan says to
Bessy Morris:--'Is it yourself that's _in it_?' ('Knocknagow'), which would
stand in correct Irish _An tusa ata ann_? On a Sunday one man insults and
laughs at another, who says, 'Only for the day that's _in it_ I'd make you
laugh at the wrong side of your mouth': 'the weather that's _in it_ is very
hot.' 'There's nothing at all _there_ (in existence) as it used to be'
(Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians'): 'this day is bad for growth, there's a
sharp east wind _there_.'
I do not find this use of the English preposition _in_--namely, to denote
identity--referred to in English dictionaries, though it ought to be.
The same mode of expressing existence by _an_ or _in_ is found in the
Ulster and Scotch phrase for {26} _to be alone_, which is as follows,
always bringing in the personal pronoun:--'I am in my lone,' 'he is in his
lone,' 'they are in their lone'; or more commonly omitting the preposition
(though it is always understood): 'She is living her lone.' All these
expressions are merely translations from Gaelic, in which they are
constantly used; 'I am in my lone' being from _Ta me am' aonar_, where
_am'_ is 'in my' and _aonar_, 'lone.' _Am' aonar seal do bhiossa_, 'Once as
I was alone.' (Old Irish Song.) In north-west Ulster they sometimes use the
preposition _by_:--'To come home by his lone' (Seumas Mac Manus). Observe
the word _lone_ is always made _lane_ in Scotland, and generally in Ulster;
and these expressions or their like will be found everywhere in Burns or in
any other Scotch (or Ulster) dialect writer.
Prepositions are used in Irish where it might be wrong to use them in
corresponding constructions in English. Yet the Irish phrases are
continually translated literally, which gives rise to many incorrect
dialect expressions. Of this many examples will be found in what follows.
'He put lies _on_ me'; a form of expression often heard. This might have
one or the other of two meanings, viz. either 'he accused me of telling
lies,' or 'he told lies about me.'
'The tinker took fourpence _out of_ that kettle,' i.e. he earned 4d. by
mending it. St. Patrick left his name _on_ the townland of Kilpatrick: that
nickname remained _on_ Dan Ryan ever since.
'He was vexed _to_ me' (i.e. with me): 'I was _at him_ for half a year'
(with him); 'You could find no fault _to it_' (with it). All these are in
use. {27}
'I took the medicine according to the doctor's order, but I found myself
nothing the better _of it_.' 'You have a good time _of it_.' I find in
Dickens however (in his own words) that the wind 'was obviously determined
to make a night _of it_.' (See p. 10 for a peculiarly Irish use of _of
it_.)
In the Irish poem _Bean na d-Tri m-Bo_, 'The Woman of Three Cows,' occurs
the expression, _As do bholacht na bi teann_, 'Do not be haughty _out of_
your cattle.' This is a form of expression constantly heard in
English:--'he is as proud as a peacock _out of_ his rich relations.' So
also, 'She has great thought _out of_ him,' i.e. She has a very good
opinion of him. (Queen's Co.)
'I am without a penny,' i.e. I haven't a penny: very common: a translation
from the equally common Irish expression, _ta me gan pinghin_.
In an Irish love song the young man tells us that he had been vainly trying
to win over the colleen _le bliadhain agus le la_, which Petrie correctly
(but not literally) translates 'for a year and for a day.' As the Irish
preposition _le_ signifies _with_, the literal translation would be '_with_
a year and _with_ a day,' which would be incorrect English. Yet the
uneducated people of the South and West often adopt this translation; so
that you will hear such expressions as 'I lived in Cork _with_ three
years.'
There is an idiomatic use of the Irish preposition _air_, 'on,' before a
personal pronoun or before a personal name and after an active verb, to
intimate injury or disadvantage of some kind, a violation of right or
claim. Thus, _Do bhuail Seumas mo ghadhar orm_ [where _orm_ is _air me_],
'James struck my dog {28} _on me_,' where _on me_ means to my detriment, in
violation of my right, &c. _Chaill se mo sgian orm_; 'he lost my knife _on
me_.'
This mode of expression exists in the oldest Irish as well as in the
colloquial languages--both Irish and English--of the present day. When St.
Patrick was spending the Lent on Croagh Patrick the demons came to torment
him in the shape of great black hateful-looking birds: and the Tripartite
Life, composed (in the Irish language) in the tenth century, says, 'The
mountain was filled with great sooty-black birds _on him_' (to his torment
or detriment). In 'The Battle of Rossnaree,' Carbery, directing his men how
to act against Conor, his enemy, tells them to send some of their heroes
_re tuargain a sgeithe ar Conchobar_, 'to smite Conor's shield _on him_.'
The King of Ulster is in a certain hostel, and when his enemies hear of it,
they say:--'We are pleased at that for we shall [attack and] take the
hostel _on him_ to-night.' (Congal Claringneach.) It occurs also in the
_Amra_ of Columkille--the oldest of all--though I cannot lay my hand on the
passage.
This is one of the commonest of our Anglo-Irish idioms, so that a few
examples will be sufficient.
'I saw thee ... thrice _on Tara's champions_ win the goal.'
(FERGUSON: 'Lays of the Western Gael.')
I once heard a grandmother--an educated Dublin lady--say, in a charmingly
petting way, to her little grandchild who came up crying:--'What did they
do to you on me--did they beat you on me?'
The Irish preposition _ag_--commonly translated 'for' in this connexion--is
used in a sense much like _air_, viz. to carry an idea of some sort of
injury {29} to the person represented by the noun or pronoun. Typical
examples are: one fellow threatening another says, 'I'll break your head
_for you_': or 'I'll soon _settle his hash for him_.' This of course also
comes from Irish; _Gur scoilt an plaosg aige_, 'so that he broke his skull
_for him_' (Battle of Gavra); _Do ghearr a reim aige beo_, 'he shortened
his career for him.' ('The Amadan Mor.') See 'On' in Vocabulary.
There is still another peculiar usage of the English preposition _for_,
which is imitated or translated from the Irish, the corresponding Irish
preposition here being _mar_. In this case the prepositional phrase is
added on, not to denote injury, but to express some sort of mild
depreciation:--'Well, how is your new horse getting on?' 'Ah, I'm tired of
him _for a horse_: he is little good.' A dog keeps up a continuous barking,
and a person says impatiently, 'Ah, choke you _for a dog_' (may you be
choked). Lowry Looby, who has been appointed to a place and is asked how he
is going on with it, replies, 'To lose it I did _for a place_.'
('Collegians.') In the Irish story of _Bodach an Chota Lachtna_ ('The Clown
with the Grey Coat'), the Bodach offers Ironbones some bones to pick, on
which Ironbones flies into a passion; and Mangan, the translator, happily
puts into the mouth of the Bodach:--'Oh, very well, then we will not have
any more words about them, _for bones_.' Osheen, talking in a querulous
mood about all his companions--the Fena--having left him, says, [were I in
my former condition] _Ni ghoirfinn go brath orruibh, mar Fheinn_, 'I would
never call on you, _for Fena_.' This last and its like are the models on
which the Anglo-Irish phrases are formed. {30}
'Of you' (where _of_ is not intended for _off_) is very frequently used in
the sense of _from you_: 'I'll take the stick _of you_ whether you like it
or not.' 'Of you' is here simply a translation of the Irish _diot_, which
is always used in this connexion in Irish: _bainfead diot e_, 'I will take
it of you.' In Irish phrases like this the Irish _uait_ ('from you') is not
used; if it were the people would say 'I'll take it _from you_,' not _of
you_. (Russell.)
'Oh that news was _on_ the paper yesterday.' 'I went _on_ the train to
Kingstown.' Both these are often heard in Dublin and elsewhere. Correct
speakers generally use _in_ in such cases. (Father Higgins and Kinahan.)
In some parts of Ulster they use the preposition _on_ after _to be
married_:--'After Peggy McCue had been married _on_ Long Micky Diver'
(Sheumas MacManus).
'To make a speech _takes a good deal out of me_,' i.e. tires me, exhausts
me, an expression heard very often among all classes. The phrase in italics
is merely the translation of a very common Irish expression, _baineann se
rud eigin asam_, it takes something out of me.
'I am afraid of her,' 'I am frightened at her,' are both correct English,
meaning 'she has frightened me': and both are expressed in Donegal by 'I am
afeard _for_ her,' 'I am frightened _for_ her,' where in both cases _for_
is used in the sense of 'on account of.'
In Irish any sickness, such as fever, is said to be _on_ a person, and this
idiom is imported into English. If a person wishes to ask 'What ails you?'
he often {31} gives it the form of 'What is on you?' (Ulster), which is
exactly the English of _Cad e sin ort_?
A visitor stands up to go. 'What hurry is on you?' A mild invitation to
stay on (Armagh). In the South, 'What hurry are you in?'
She had _a nose on her_, i.e. looked sour, out of humour ('Knocknagow').
Much used in the South. 'They never asked me had I a mouth on me':
universally understood and often used in Ireland, and meaning 'they never
offered me anything to eat or drink.'
I find Mark Twain using the same idiom:--[an old horse] 'had a neck _on
him_ like a bowsprit' ('Innocents Abroad'); but here I think Mark shows a
touch of the Gaelic brush, wherever he got it.
'I tried to knock another shilling out of him, but all in vain': i.e. I
tried to persuade him to give me another shilling. This is very common with
Irish-English speakers, and is a word for word translation of the equally
common Irish phrase _bain sgilling eile as_. (Russell.)
'I came against you' (more usually _agin you_) means 'I opposed you and
defeated your schemes.' This is merely a translation of an Irish phrase, in
which the preposition _le_ or _re_ is used in the sense of _against_ or _in
opposition to_: _do thainic me leat annsin_. (S. H. O'Grady.) 'His sore
knee came _against him_ during the walk.'
_Against_ is used by us in another sense--that of meeting: 'he went against
his father,' i.e. he went to meet his father [who was coming home from
town]. This, which is quite common, is, I think, pure {32} Anglo-Irish. But
'he laid up a supply of turf against the winter' is correct English as well
as Anglo-Irish.
'And the cravat of hemp was surely spun
_Against_ the day when their race was run.'
('Touchstone' in 'Daily Mail.')
A very common inquiry when you meet a friend is:--'How are all your care?'
Meaning chiefly your family, those persons that are under your care. This
is merely a translation of the common Irish inquiry, _Cionnos ta do churam
go leir_?
A number of idiomatic expressions cluster round the word _head_, all of
which are transplanted from Irish in the use of the Irish word _ceann_
[cann] 'head'. _Head_ is used to denote the cause, occasion, or motive of
anything. 'Did he really walk that distance in a day?' Reply in Irish,
_Ni'l contabhairt air bith ann a cheann_: 'there is no doubt at all _on the
head of it_,' i.e. about it, in regard to it. 'He is a bad head to me,'
i.e. he treats me badly. Merely the Irish _is olc an ceann dom e_. _Bhi
fearg air da chionn_, he was vexed on the head of it.
A dismissed clerk says:--'I made a mistake in one of the books, and I was
sent away _on the head of_ that mistake.'
A very common phrase among us is, 'More's the pity':--'More's the pity that
our friend William should be so afflicted.'
'More's the pity one so pretty
As I should live alone.'
(Anglo-Irish Folk-Song.)
This is a translation of a very common Irish expression as seen in:--_Budh
mho an sgeile Diarmaid_ {33} _do bheith marbh_: 'More's the pity Dermot to
be dead.' (Story of 'Dermot and Grania.')
'Who should come up to me in the fair but John.' Intended not for a
question but for an assertion--an assertion of something which was hardly
expected. This mode of expression, which is very common, is a Gaelic
construction. Thus in the song _Fainne geal an lae:--Cia gheabhainn le
m'ais acht cuilfhionn deas_: 'Whom should I find near by me but the pretty
fair haired girl.' 'Who should walk in only his dead wife.' (Gerald
Griffin: 'Collegians.') 'As we were walking along what should happen but
John to stumble and fall on the road.'
The pronouns _myself_, _himself_, &c., are very often used in Ireland in a
peculiar way, which will be understood from the following examples:--'The
birds were singing _for themselves_.' 'I was looking about the fair _for
myself_' (Gerald Griffin: 'Collegians'): 'he is pleasant _in himself_
(ibid.): 'I felt dead [dull] _in myself_' (ibid.). 'Just at that moment I
happened to be walking by myself' (i.e. alone: Irish, _liom fein_).
Expressions of this kind are all borrowed direct from Irish.
We have in our Irish-English a curious use of the personal pronouns which
will be understood from the following examples:--'He interrupted me _and I
writing_ my letters' (as I was writing). 'I found Phil there too _and he
playing_ his fiddle for the company.' This, although very incorrect
English, is a classic idiom in Irish, from which it has been imported as it
stands into our English. Thus:--_Do chonnairc me Tomas agus e n'a shuidhe
cois na teine_: 'I saw Thomas _and he sitting_ beside the fire.' 'How could
you see {34} me there _and I to be in bed at the time_?' This latter part
is merely a translation from the correct Irish:--_agus meise do bheith mo
luidhe ag an am sin_ (Irish Tale). Any number of examples of this usage
might be culled from both English and Irish writings. Even so classical a
writer as Wolfe follows this usage in 'The Burial of Sir John Moore':--
'We thought ...
That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
_And we far away_ on the billow.'
(I am reminded of this by Miss Hayden and Prof. Hartog.)
But there is a variety in our English use of the pronouns here, namely,
that we often use the objective (or accusative) case instead of the
nominative. 'How could you expect Davy to do the work _and him so very
sick_?' 'My poor man fell into the fire a Sunday night _and him hearty_'
(_hearty_, half drunk: Maxwell, 'Wild Sports of the West'). 'Is that what
you lay out for me, mother, _and me after turning the Voster_' (i.e. after
working through the whole of Voster's Arithmetic: Carleton). 'John and Bill
were both reading and _them eating their dinner_' (while they were eating
their dinner). This is also from the Irish language. We will first take the
third person plural pronoun. The pronoun 'they' is in Irish _siad_: and the
accusative 'them' is the Irish _iad_. But in some Irish constructions this
_iad_ is (correctly) used as a nominative; and in imitation of this our
people often use 'them' as a nominative:--'_Them_ are just the gloves I
want.' '_Them_ are the boys' is exactly translated from the correct Irish
_is_ {35} _iad sin na buachaillidhe_. 'Oh she melted the hearts of the
swains in _them_ parts.' ('The Widow Malone,' by Lever.)
In like manner with the pronouns _se_, _si_ (he, she), of which the
accusatives _e_ and _i_ are in certain Irish constructions (correctly) used
for the nominative forms, which accusative forms are (incorrectly) imported
into English. _Do chonnairc me Seadhan agus e n'a shuidhe_, 'I saw Shaun
and _him_ sitting down,' i.e. 'as he was sitting down.' So also 'don't ask
me to go and _me_ having a sore foot.' 'There's the hen and _her_ as fat as
butter,' i.e. 'she (the hen) being as fat as butter.'
The little phrase 'the way' is used among us in several senses, all
peculiar, and all derived from Irish. Sometimes it is a direct translation
from _amhlaidh_ ('thus,' 'so,' 'how,' 'in a manner'). An old example of
this use of _amhlaidh_ in Irish is the following passage from the _Boroma_
(_Silva Gadelica_):--_Is amlaid at chonnaic [Concobar] Laigin ocus Ulaid
man dabaig oca hol_: 'It is how (or 'the way') [Concobar] saw the Lagenians
and the Ulstermen [viz. they were] round the vat drinking from it.' _Is
amhlaidh do bhi Fergus_: 'It is thus (or the way) Fergus was [conditioned;
that his shout was heard over three cantreds].'
This same sense is also seen in the expression, 'this is the way I made my
money,' i.e. 'this is how I made it.'
When this expression, 'the way,' or 'how,' introduces a statement it means
''tis how it happened.' 'What do you want, James?' ''Tis the way ma'am, my
mother sent me for the loan of the {36} shovel.' This idiom is very common
in Limerick, and is used indeed all through Ireland.
Very often 'the way' is used in the sense of 'in order that':--'Smoking
carriages are lined with American cloth _the way_ they wouldn't keep the
smell'; 'I brought an umbrella _the way_ I wouldn't get wet'; 'you want not
to let the poor boy do for himself [by marrying] _the way_ that you
yourself should have all.' (Ir. Pen. Mag.) You constantly hear this in
Dublin, even among educated people.
Sometimes the word _way_ is a direct translation from the Irish _caoi_, 'a
way,' 'a road'; so that the common Irish salutation, _Cad chaoi bh-fuil
tu_? is translated with perfect correctness into the equally common
Irish-English salute, 'What way are you?' meaning 'How are you?'
'This way' is often used by the people in the sense of 'by this
time':--'The horse is ready this way,' i.e. 'ready by this time.' (Gerald
Griffin, 'Collegians.')
The word _itself_ is used in a curious way in Ireland, which has been
something of a puzzle to outsiders. As so used it has no gender, number, or
case; it is not in fact a pronoun at all, but a substitute for the word
_even_. This has arisen from the fact that in the common colloquial Irish
language the usual word to express both _even_ and _itself_, is _fein_; and
in translating a sentence containing this word _fein_, the people rather
avoided _even_, a word not very familiar to them in this sense, and
substituted the better known _itself_, in cases where _even_ would be the
correct word, and _itself_ would be incorrect. Thus _da mbeith an meud sin
fein agum_ is correctly rendered 'if I had {37} even that much': but the
people don't like _even_, and don't well understand it (as applied here),
so they make it 'If I had that much _itself_.' This explains all such
Anglo-Irish sayings as 'if I got it itself it would be of no use to me,'
i.e. 'even if I got it': 'If she were there itself I wouldn't know her';
'She wouldn't go to bed till you'd come home, and if she did itself she
couldn't sleep.' (Knocknagow.) A woman is finding some fault with the
arrangements for a race, and Lowry Looby (Collegians) puts in 'so itself
what hurt' i.e. 'even so what harm.' (Russell and myself.)
The English _when_ is expressed by the Irish _an uair_, which is literally
'the hour' or 'the time.' This is often transplanted into English; as when
a person says 'the time you arrived I was away in town.'
When you give anything to a poor person the recipient commonly utters the
wish 'God increase you!' (meaning your substance): which is an exact
translation of the equally common Irish wish _Go meadaighe Dia dhuit_.
Sometimes the prayer is 'God increase your store,' which expresses exactly
what is meant in the Irish wish.
The very common aspiration 'God help us' [you, me, them, &c.] is a
translation of the equally common _Go bh-foireadh Dia orruinn_ [_ort_,
&c.].
In the north-west instead of 'your father,' 'your sister,' &c., they often
say 'the father of you,' 'the sister of you,' &c.; and correspondingly as
to things:--'I took the hand of her' (i.e. her hand) (Seumas Mac Manus).
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 passed 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 repetition of the emphatic pronominal
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 L10 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 assertion.
'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
_circumvent_ 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 circumvented (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
Courtship 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 cumaile etir_,
'Dubthach did not wish to sell the bondmaid at all.' In the following old
passage, 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 cuma 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 God 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]
will be very angry when he hears about the accident to the mare.' This is
an Irish idiom. The Irish chiefs, when signing their names to any document,
always wrote the name in this form, _Misi O'Neill_, i.e. 'Myself O'Neill.'
A usual expression is 'I have no Irish,' i.e. I do not know or speak Irish.
This is exactly the way of saying it in Irish, of which the above is a
translation:--_Ni'l Gaodhlainn agum_.
To _let on_ is to pretend, and in this sense is used everywhere in Ireland.
'Oh your father is very angry': 'Not at all, he's only letting on.' 'If you
meet James don't let on you saw me,' is really a positive, not a negative
request: equivalent to--'If you meet James, let on (pretend) that you
didn't see me.' A Dublin working-man recently writing in a newspaper says,
'they passed me on the bridge (Cork), and never let on to see me' (i.e.
'they let on not to see me').
'He is all _as one as_ recovered now'; he is nearly the same as recovered.
At the proper season you will often see auctioneers' posters:--'To be sold
by auction 20 acres of splendid meadow _on foot_,' &c. This term _on foot_,
which is applied in Ireland to _growing_ crops of all kinds--corn, flax,
meadow, &c.--is derived from the Irish language, in which it is used in the
oldest documents as well as in the everyday spoken modern Irish; the usual
word _cos_ for 'foot' being used. Thus in the Brehon Laws we are told that
a wife's share of the flax is one-ninth if it be on foot (_for a cois_,
{48} 'on its foot,' modern form _air a chois_) one-sixth after being dried,
&c. In one place a fine is mentioned for appropriating or cutting furze if
it be 'on foot.' (Br. Laws.)
This mode of speaking is applied in old documents to animals also. Thus in
one of the old Tales is mentioned a present of a swine and an ox _on foot_
(_for a coiss_, 'on their foot') to be given to Mac Con and his people,
i.e. to be sent to them alive--not slaughtered. (Silva Gadelica.) But I
have not come across this application in our modern Irish-English.
To give a thing 'for God's sake,' i.e. to give it in charity or for mere
kindness, is an expression very common at the present day all over Ireland.
'Did you sell your turf-rick to Bill Fennessy?' Oh no, I gave it to him for
God's sake: he's very badly off now poor fellow, and I'll never miss it.'
Our office attendant Charlie went to the clerk, who was chary of the pens,
and got a supply with some difficulty. He came back grumbling:--'A person
would think I was asking them for God's sake' (a thoroughly Hibernian
sentence). This expression is common also in Irish, both ancient and
modern, from which the English is merely a translation. Thus in the Brehon
Laws we find mention of certain young persons being taught a trade 'for
God's sake' (_ar Dia_), i.e. without fee: and in another place a man is
spoken of as giving a poor person something 'for God's sake.'
The word _'nough_, shortened from _enough_, is always used in English with
the possessive pronouns, in accordance with the Gaelic construction in such
phrases as _gur itheadar a n-doithin diobh_, 'So that {49} they ate their
enough of them' ('Diarmaid and Grainne'): _d'ith mo shaith_ 'I ate my
enough.' Accordingly uneducated people use the word _'nough_ in this
manner, exactly as _fill_ is correctly used in 'he ate his fill.' Lowry
Looby wouldn't like to be 'a born gentleman' for many reasons--among others
that you're expected 'not to ate half your 'nough at dinner.' (Gerald
Griffin: 'Collegians.')
The words _world_ and _earth_ often come into our Anglo-Irish speech in a
way that will be understood and recognised from the following
examples:--'Where in the world are you going so early?' 'What in the world
kept you out so long?' 'What on earth is wrong with you?' 'That cloud looks
for all the world like a man.' 'Oh you young thief of the world, why did
you do that?' (to a child). These expressions are all thrown in for
emphasis, and they are mainly or altogether imported from the Irish. They
are besides of long standing. In the 'Colloquy'--a very old Irish
piece--the king of Leinster says to St. Patrick:--'I do not know _in the
world_ how it fares [with my son].' So also in a still older story, 'The
Voyage of Maildune':--'And they [Maildune and his people] knew not whither
_in the world_ (_isan bith_) they were going. In modern Irish, _Ni
chuirionn se tabhacht a n-einidh san domhuin_: 'he minds nothing in the
world.' (Mac Curtin.)
But I think some of the above expressions are found in good English too,
both old and new. For example in a letter to Queen Elizabeth the Earl of
Ormond (an Irishman--one of the Butlers) designates a certain Irish chief
'that most arrogant, {50} vile, traitor of the world Owney McRorye'
[O'Moore]. But perhaps he wrote this with an Irish pen.
A person does something to displease me--insults me, breaks down my
hedge--and I say 'I will not let that go with him': meaning I will bring
him to account for it, I will take satisfaction, I will punish him. This,
which is very usual, is an Irish idiom. In the story of The Little Brawl of
Allen, Goll boasts of having slain Finn's father; and Finn answers _bud
maith m'acfainnse ar gan sin do leicen let_, 'I am quite powerful enough
not to let that go with you.' ('Silva Gadelica.') Sometimes this
Anglo-Irish phrase means to vie with, to rival. 'There's no doubt that old
Tom Long is very rich': 'Yes indeed, but I think Jack Finnerty _wouldn't
let it go with him_.' Lory Hanly at the dance, seeing his three companions
sighing and obviously in love with three of the ladies, feels himself just
as bad for a fourth, and sighing, says to himself that he 'wouldn't let it
go with any of them.' ('Knocknagow.')
'I give in to you' means 'I yield to you,' 'I assent to (or believe) what
you say,' 'I acknowledge you are right': 'He doesn't give in that there are
ghosts at all.' This is an Irish idiom, as will be seen in the
following:--[A lion and three dogs are struggling for the mastery and]
_adnaigit [an triur eile] do [an leomain]_ 'And the three others gave in to
the [lion].'
This mode of expression is however found in English also:--[Beelzebub]
'proposes a third undertaking which the whole assembly gives in to.'
(Addison in 'Spectator.') {51}
_For_ is constantly used before the infinitive: 'he bought cloth _for to_
make a coat.'
'And "Oh sailor dear," said she,
"How came you here by me?"
And then she began _for to cry_.'
(Old Irish Folk Song.)
'King James he pitched his tents between
His lines _for to retire_.'
(Old Irish Folk Song: 'The Boyne Water.')
This idiom is in Irish also: _Deunaidh duthracht le leas bhur n-anma a
dheunadh_: 'make an effort _for to accomplish_ the amendment of your
souls.' ('Dunlevy.') Two Irish prepositions are used in this sense of
_for_: _le_ (as above) and _chum_. But this use of _for_ is also very
general in English peasant language, as may be seen everywhere in Dickens.
_Is ceangailte do bhidhinn_, literally 'It is bound I should be,' i.e. in
English 'I should be bound.' This construction (from 'Diarmaid and
Grainne'), in which the position of the predicate as it would stand
according to the English order is thrown back, is general in the Irish
language, and quite as general in our Anglo-Irish, in imitation or
translation. I once heard a man say in Irish _is e do chailleamhuin do rinn
me_: 'It is to lose it I did' (I lost it). The following are everyday
examples from our dialect of English: ''Tis to rob me you want': 'Is it at
the young woman's house the wedding is to be?' ('Knocknagow'): 'Is it
reading you are?' ''Twas to dhrame it I did sir' ('Knocknagow'): 'Maybe
'tis turned out I'd be' ('Knocknagow'): 'To lose it I did' (Gerald Griffin:
'Collegians'): 'Well John I am glad to {52} see you, and it's right well
you look': [Billy thinks the fairy is mocking him, and says:--] 'Is it
after making a fool of me you'd be?' (Crofton Croker): 'To make for
Rosapenna (Donegal) we did:' i.e., 'We made for Rosapenna': 'I'll tell my
father about your good fortune, and 'tis he that will be delighted.'
In the fine old Irish story the 'Pursuit of Dermot and Grania,' Grania says
to her husband Dermot:--[Invite guests to a feast to our daughter's house]
_agus ni feas nach ann do gheubhaidh fear cheile_; 'and there is no knowing
but that there she may get a husband.' This is almost identical with what
Nelly Donovan says in our own day--in half joke--when she is going to Ned
Brophy's wedding:--'There'll be some likely lads there to-night, and who
knows what luck I might have.' ('Knocknagow.') This expression 'there is no
knowing but' or 'who knows but,' borrowed as we see from Gaelic, is very
common in our Anglo-Irish dialect. 'I want the loan of L20 badly to help to
stock my farm, but how am I to get it?' His friend answers:--'Just come to
the bank, and who knows but that they will advance it to you on my
security:' meaning 'it is not unlikely--I think it rather probable--that
they will advance it'
'He looks like a man _that there would be_ no money in his pocket':
'there's _a man that his wife leaves him_ whenever she pleases.' These
phrases and the like are heard all through the middle of Ireland, and
indeed outside the middle: they are translations from Irish. Thus the
italics of the second phrase would be in Irish _fear da d-treigeann a bhean
e_ (or _a threigeas a bhean e_). 'Poor brave honest Mat Donovan that
everyone is proud of _him_ and fond {53} of _him_' ('Knocknagow'): 'He was
a descendant of Sir Thomas More that Henry VIII. cut his head off' (whose
head Henry VIII. cut off). The phrases above are incorrect English, as
there is redundancy; but they, and others like them, could generally be
made correct by the use of _whose_ or _of whom_:--'He looks like a man in
whose pocket,' &c.--'A man whose wife leaves him.' But the people in
general do not make use of _whose_--in fact they do not know how to use it,
except at the beginning of a question:--'Whose knife is this?' (Russell.)
This is an excellent example of how a phrase may be good Irish but bad
English.
A man possesses some prominent quality, such as generosity, for which his
father was also distinguished, and we say 'kind father for him,' i.e. 'He
is of the same _kind_ as his father--he took it from his father.' So also
''Tis kind for the cat to drink milk'--'cat after kind'--''Tis kind for
John to be good and honourable' [for his father or his people were so
before him]. All this is from Irish, in which various words are used to
express the idea of _kind_ in this sense:--_bu cheneulta do_--_bu dhual
do_--_bu dhuthcha do_.
Very anxious to do a thing: ''Twas all his trouble to do so and so'
('Collegians'): corresponding to the Irish:--'_Is e mo churam uile_,' 'He
(or it) is all my care.' (MacCurtin.)
Instead of 'The box will hold all the parcels' or 'All the parcels will fit
into the box,' we in Ireland commonly say 'All the parcels _will go_ into
the box.' This is from a very old Gaelic usage, as may be seen from this
quotation from the 'Boroma':--_Coire mor uma i teigtis da muic dec_: 'A
large bronze caldron {54} into which _would go_ (teigtis) twelve [jointed]
pigs.' ('Silva Gadelica.')
_Chevilles._ What is called in French a _cheville_--I do not know any Irish
or English name for it--is a phrase interjected into a line of poetry
merely to complete either the measure or the rhyme, with little or no use
besides. The practice of using chevilles was very common in old Irish
poetry, and a bad practice it was; for many a good poem is quite spoiled by
the constant and wearisome recurrence of these _chevilles_. For instance
here is a translation of a couple of verses from 'The Voyage of Maildune'
with their _chevilles_:--
'They met with an island after sailing--
_wonderful the guidance_.
'The third day after, on the end of the rod--
_deed of power_--
The chieftain found--_it was a very great joy_--
a cluster of apples.'
In modern _Irish_ popular poetry we have _chevilles_ also; of which I think
the commonest is the little phrase _gan go_, 'without a lie'; and this is
often reflected in our Anglo-Irish songs. In 'Handsome Sally,' published in
my 'Old Irish Music and Songs,' these lines occur:--
'Young men and maidens I pray draw near--
_The truth to you I will now declare_--
How a fair young lady's heart was won
All by the loving of a farmer's son.'
And in another of our songs:--
'Good people all I pray draw near--
_No lie I'll tell to ye_--
About a lovely fair maid,
And her name is Polly Lee.'
{55}
This practice is met with also in English poetry, both classical and
popular; but of course this is quite independent of the Irish custom.
_Assonance._ In the modern Irish language the verse rhymes are
_assonantal_. Assonance is the correspondence of the vowels: the consonants
count for nothing. Thus _fair_, _may_, _saint_, _blaze_, _there_, all rhyme
assonantally. As it is easy to find words that rhyme in this manner, the
rhymes generally occur much oftener in Anglo-Irish verse than in pure
English, in which the rhymes are what English grammarians call _perfect_.
Our rustic poets rhyme their English (or Irish-English) verse assonantally
in imitation of their native language. For a very good example of this, see
the song of Castlehyde in my 'Old Irish Music and Songs'; and it may be
seen in very large numbers of our Anglo-Irish Folk-songs. I will give just
one example here, a free translation of an elegy, rhyming like its
original. To the ear of a person accustomed to assonance--as for instance
to mine--the rhymes here are as satisfying as if they were _perfect_
English rhymes.
You remember our _neigh_bour Mac_Bra_dy we buried last YEAR;
His death it _amaz_ed me and _daz_ed me with sorrow and GRIEF;
From _cra_dle to _grave_ his _name_ was held in ESTEEM;
For at _fairs_ and at _wakes_ there was no one like him for a SPREE;
And 'tis he knew the _way_ how to _make_ a good cag of potTHEEN.
He'd make verses in _Gael_ic quite _ais_y most _plaz_ing to READ;
And he knew how to _plaze_ the fair _maids_ with his soothering SPEECH.
He could clear out a _fair_ at his _aise_ with his ash clehalPEEN;
But ochone he's now _laid_ in his _grave_ in the churchyard of KEEL.
{56}
* * * * *