Standard Irish English?

Everybody knows that there exist standard British English and standard American English. Is there such thing as Standard Irish English or Standard Australian English? What is considered "standard" in those countries?

I think Irish and Australian are local varieties of British English in the broader sense. I wouldn't say they are independent standard varieties, although both have vocabulary items peculiar to them, and the general accent is also different from standard British (I mean both RP or educated British English, and the latest fad, Estuary). On the other hand, the written language is quite identical for all varieties classed under British (in contrast with American, with all the difference in spelling, vocabulary and usage). The question is, what makes a variety "standard" in the first place.

Irish English is based on 17th century English just as American English is but it definitely has a Gaelic substratum underlying both the morphology and the pronunciation. For example, the Irish-English expression Top o' the morning for "Good day / Hello" is a translation of the Gaelic "An barr an mhaidin (pronounced uh barr uh wah-jin). The trilled r's are a carry-over from Gaelic too. In the 1970 movie "Cromwell", there is a scene where Irish actor Richard Harris (who played Cromwell) draws his sword before going into battle and says to his son, Richard Cromwell, "Get yourrself rready Rreetcharrd!" (Get yourself ready Richard!")

Two Irish-English expressions I find kind of funny are "I don't give a tinker's curse" for "I don't give a damn" and "He must be out with the fairies" which means approximately "He's crazy". These are probably Gaelic-influenced too.

Irish-English appears to be getting eroded by British English, however. American English is also making inroads and even the Californianism "Yes!" has found its way into the language. So it's a little hard to tell what the future of Irish-English will be like.

The phrase "I don't give a damn" is probably just a shortened version of "I don't give a tinker's damn". Both of these expressions are used in Eastern Canada as well. A tinker's damn is actually just referring to the lead solder used by a 'tinker' or sheet metal worker. When someone says they don't give a tinker's damn, they're just saying I wouldn't give a tinker's damn(piece of lead solder) to hear your opinion, or whatever, you get the picture.

I'm not sure about the 'tinker's curse' one though.

Tinker is another historic English word for gipsy. Gipsies are known to utter curses and spells and to read the future on your hands or cards. It's all part of their hidden, magic charm and made most European be deeply distrustful. The fact is not everybody believed or gave a damn about the "tinker's curses".

Hi! / Hola! Jordi

Hola!/Hello! Brennus

>>I think Irish and Australian are local varieties of British English in the broader sense. I wouldn't say they are independent standard varieties...>>

Australian English (AuE) is certainly a recognised standard, so far as linguistics is concerned, quite as much as is AmE, although AuE hasn't deviated from the mother tongue in respect of spelling, syntax and grammar, and it remains non-rhotic.

I'll allow the Irish to answer regarding if any follow this topic, except to mention that AuE has historically been much influenced by Irish English because of the strong Irish influence in Australia, particularly during the first century or so of European settlement. The only population which has a higher proportion of Irish ancestry than Australia's is Ireland's.

Given that, it is indeed interesting that AuE, which displays so much Irish influence in words and expressions, has avoided rhoticism so entirely. As a result, AuE speech is very much closer to RP than is Irish English.

By "standard" I mean for example in official public gatherings, schools, radio news, official speeches etc. in Australia, Ireland, NZ etc. what language would be expected? In other words, what is considered neutral? For example, in the US it would be Standard American English, not RP. So what about those countries I mentioned? If each of them use their own local pronunciation "standard" (just like americans do) then I guess such things as Australian English and Irish English do exist, albeit not so widely recognized as standard American and standard British...

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language,
a great Wikipedia article.
Scroll down to the template: "Varieties of English" and click on the varieties you want to know about. Irish English is listed as "Hiberno-English". There are also entries on Australian English, Indian English, Canadian English... and so on.

The whole question of English dialectical groupings is a woolly one anyway.

In terms of "standard" English (those fixed patterns of spelling conventions and elements of usage and style tagged as AE and BE and so on), it's neither here nor there: there's no such thing as AE or BE since no one actually "speaks" these. We speak with accents and in specific dialects grouped under these regional headings.

So Irish English is a subset of BE, Canadian English is a subset of AE and Australian English probably belongs as a subset of "Antipodean English."

It sounds funny when the Irish speak. They can't seem to be able to pronounce "th".

So when they say "Twenty-three and a third" it sounds exactly like "Twenty tree and a turd."

A number of English dialects either pronounce "th" differently or pronounce "t" (or even "d") instead. This is simply because the "th" sound is alien to those dialects. It can also be very difficult to master for many people learning English as a second language.

There's no particular significance to it other than the fact that "th" is arbitrarily the "standard" English pronunciation and this, as is so often the case, serves as yet another pretext to sneer at some other speaker's dialect.

Re: "So Irish English is a subset of BE, Canadian English is a subset of AE ..."

I agree that Canadian English is a subset of American English however Irish English is not a subset of British English in the sense that the Englishes of the Southern Hemisphere are (i.e. Southern Africa, The Falklands, Australia, New Zealand). Rather, it is a an older colonial variety of English dating from the 17th century like American and Jamaican English; but the the accent is not British.

<<It sounds funny when the Irish speak. They can't seem to be able to pronounce "th".>>

Only some of them. I think there's a lot of Irish who can pronounce interdental fricatives.