Over the past couple months I've learned more than I ever thought I could about regional pronunciations of England, Scotland, and Wales. The one place I know the least about is Ireland (and Northern Ireland). I'm having a hard time finding information (like J.C. Wells' book "Accents of English") so I'm starting here. This is partially because (shameless plug alert) I'm working on that website at
http://students.csci.unt.edu/~kun but mostly because I'm obsessively pursuing this quest to master every accent there is.
This is what I do know:
1. Long vowels, as in "face," "goat" and "goose" are pure, with no upglides.
2. Words spelled "ea" that I would pronounce as [i:] are pronounced [e:] so "meat" sounds like "mate," not like "meet."
3. R's are always pronounced (who doesn't know this?)
4. /w/ and /hw/ are different, so "whale" does not sound like "wail"
That's all I know, and it's not a lot. Are there any distinctions that I don't know about? How different are the regional accents? How is Northern Ireland pronunciation different from that of the Republic of Ireland? How different does Dublin sound (because I heard it is very different from the rest of Ireland)? And what is "Dublin 4"?
Thanks in advance for your help. Maybe I should stop spending hours on end on the internet and actually go to a bookstore and find Wells' book, or something.
Ireland, like the UK, has a surprising number of regional dialects.
Generally speaking, the East Coast of the island has dialects that are somewhat similar to the accents that are closest to them on the mainland UK (i.e. Dublin resembles the accents of Southwest England, while Belfast is similar to some Scottish dialects).
Modern Dublin definitely has some slight British influence, so that the vowels in the words "way" and "coat," once pure, are now dipthongized among many Dubliners.
Other Dublin/Southern Irish particulars:
"right = "roit"
"alarm" = "alaarm" (flattend "a" sound)
"caught" and "cot" are pronounced with the same "ah" sound (like some American accents)
"book" rhymes with "buck" = like Northern England
The dipthong in "about" is tightened (similar to Canadian speech)
Belfast/Northern Ireland:
"right" rhymes with "rate" (like Scottish)
"cot" and "caught" rhyme, but are pronouned with a rounded vowel (ko:t)
"coat" is pronounced with a pure vowel (kO:t)
"day" is also pronounced with a pure vowel (de:)
the "u" in "fudge" is sort of in between the "u" in "book" and the 'u" in "gun"
the "oo" in "book" is turned in to an umlaut, so it almost sounds like "beak" -- therefore "about" sounds sort of like "abite"
All I can tell you is that people who speak with an Irish accent tend to have drinking problems.
David:
That is something of a generalisation. I don't believe the Irish are any worse than any other nationality in the supping stakes...they are not all budding Brendan Behans, any more than the Welsh are all Dylan Thomases seeking literary inspiration through an alcoholic haze.
You are English are you not? You must have seen what goes on in most English towns and cities most weekend nights, surely to goodness? The English take some beating in the binge drinking league...to use Jane's words (sort of): "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of his weekly pay slip will go out and get legless......." So lay off us Celts! ;-)
hic.....pardon me.... (only joking.....stone cold...)
I agree with Damian. In fact, drinking spirits is pretty much a northern European thing in general: English, Dutch, Germans, Scandinavians, Poles and Russians included.
I've noticed that many Irish speakers of English trill their r's although it's not as strong as the Scottish burr. I still remember the scene in the 1970 movie "Cromwell" where Irish actor Richard Harris, who played Oliver Cromwell (rather ironically) pulls his sword out just before a battle and then says to his son, Richard Cromwell "Get yuhrrself rreddee Rreechurrd!" (Get yourself ready Richard!"). It's been said by some that English speakers are lazy and that speakers of other languages (Irish included) often use the vocal organs (teeth, tongue, throat, palate, larynx etc. ) more to produce sounds.
Seriously, David, I don't know if you are a Brit or not, but if so, I have been to your country and must say that LORD, do you folks drink like fishes. Every Friday night on London the street fill with hooligans drunkenly pummeling each other, and girls trying to lift their passed-out friend out of a pool of her own vomit. I mean, seriously, dude, the PM has actually addressed England's drunkenness publicly as a serious problem.
It's funny, though, aren't most Northern European nationalities reputed to be drunkards? I've heard it said about the Irish, the English, the Scots, the Welsh, all the Scandinavian countries, Germany (obviously), Russia (double obviously), Poland and the Ukraine.
This is all very interesting (even the stuff about drinking). The part about southern Irish pronouncing cot and caught with an /ah/ vowel I had already suspected, after Colin Farrell was on "Scrubs" the other night.
And, I might add, yesterday I got off my lazy ass/arse and drove to Barnes & Noble in search of J.C. Wells' "Accents of English." They didn't have it, but they did order it and it should be there in "3-8 business days."
Yeah, yeah. We Britons may take to spirits like bees to nectar, but we don't flaunt it like the Irish. And we sure as hell can handle our liqueur better than they can.
Re: Mr. Winter's statement : " And we sure as hell can handle our liqueur better than they can."
Not necessarily so. American actor William Beedle aka William Holden was of pure English descent and developed a terrible drinking problem which eventually killed him in 1981. I still remember a picture of him taken in the back of his limo which showed with a cross-eyed look imbibing a glass of vino. I'm a good part English myself so I am not saying this from an anti-English bias or exclusively pro-Irish bias.
Can we ignore the pathetic jabs at other cultures and stick to the question at hand?
It's a bit obvious that the statements that all Irish people tend to have drinking problems is a gross generalization said only by someone to stir up trouble. Are you really going to let him succeed?
Yeah, I started this thread to talk about how Irish people speak, not how they drink.
I like the Irish accents, because of they use the "r" sound
To me Americans speak a lot like the Irish, almost as if a purely Irish dialect with a tinge of Scottish.
I've heard other people say that too. Out of curiosity, where are you from, Ron?
I usually favour the "broader" accents of English, and therefore Irish as well. On top of that, I have found that maybe due to to some of the qualities of Irish accents that you listed, the songs performed by groups like U2 or The Pogues are easier to understand than songs sung in most other English accents.