Irish Accent

Pete   Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:36 pm GMT
Hello everyone. I have never been able to ifentify an Irish accent, it sounds nice and friendly, but it's not like other accents which I can place inmediatly. I'd like you to tell me:

1.- How can I tell someone speaks with an Irish accent? features, things they usually say.

2.- Phonetic characteristics of well-known dialects and differences with other similar varieties of English.

3.- Some cultural stuff about their speech that I should know. For example, I know the Australian accent is like that because it was basically people from London who went there, long ago. Something like that, you know.

4.- What kind of accents Irish people like.

Thanks a lot

Pete from Peru
Uriel   Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:50 pm GMT
To a native speaker, I think it tends to have a more sing-songy quality than other varieties -- the so-called lilt. I don't know if that would be readily apparent to someone who's a non-native speaker, though. And while it's rhotic and has more flat A's, like American or Canadian, the long I's tend to turn into OI's (as opposed to the southern US tendency to turn them into "ah").
Irish Guy   Sat Dec 30, 2006 10:07 pm GMT
I’ve never been to Peru but I can imagine that there are many different Peruvian accents. The same goes for Ireland and everywhere else. The best thing to do is either to come to Ireland and immerse yourself in the different accents. If that’s not possible, then the next best thing to do would be to listen to as many samples on television or the web.

The phoney “Begorrah” and “top of the morning” Irish accents you hear in non-Irish films are not representative of the real deal which is much sexier, even if I say so myself. (insert emoticon for wink)
Pete   Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:28 pm GMT
<<To a native speaker, I think it tends to have a more sing-songy quality than other varieties -- the so-called lilt. I don't know if that would be readily apparent to someone who's a non-native speaker, though.>>

You're right it's not so apparent to us, but there are accents I can identify inmediatly, although I tend to confuse American accents with Canadian, I take a bit more time listening to the person and when I notice some of those shifted vowels, I know it's Canadian.

The sing-songy quality is not something I can notice very well, since all sound sing-songy to me, you know, it's not my mother tongue.

<<I’ve never been to Peru but I can imagine that there are many different Peruvian accents. The same goes for Ireland and everywhere else.>>

That's so correct, but there are some characteristics that may help you to guess someone is Peruvian or not. How could I explain. A very strong "s" aspiration before "K" - like sounds, which make it almost like "ch" in "Loch" said in a Scottish accent. For example in words like "Pisco", "Cuzco". That's something I've noticed and I found it only in some Andalusian speakers, in other dialects "s" aspiration may be strong, but it is never realised as a "ch".

That's what I'm walking about, a general characteristic, I appeal to phonetics, that may help me more than actually recognising the tone of the accent.

Looking forward to more answers

Pete
Uriel   Sun Dec 31, 2006 8:53 am GMT
To me, the Irish accent tends to sound closer to American or Canadian than other accents do. Not identical, of course, but it has a lot in common with them.

Probably your best bet is to listen to some movies with Irish actors in them. The Commitments is a good one, where everyone in it is Irish. Liam Neeson is in all kinds of flicks, and he's Irish. The ever-wonderful Gabriel Byrne is too, but he tends to adopt other accents in movies, so be warned; you may not be hearing his normal voice. If you watch Shaun of the Dead, the darkhaired guy with the glasses is Irish; that's a good movie for comparing the Irish accent with all of the other characters' English accents. Circle of Friends is set in Ireland. So is The Snapper. There's even an Irish TV sitcom called Father Ted that you can now get on DVD.
Pete   Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:36 am GMT
Thanks a lot
Glikeria   Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:21 am GMT
To me, the Irish accent is lovely and instantly recognizable, its most outstanding features being the rising tune of the ending (I guess that's "the lilt" Uriel meant) and very rounded vowels - a [kop] of tea, for instance. I don't perceive any similarity to the AE.
sylvia   Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:50 pm GMT
in short irish= hot!
Jim   Tue Jan 09, 2007 11:45 pm GMT
Pauline   Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:48 pm GMT
>> To the English ear, Irish and Scottish accents sound very similar to each other in much the same way that languages like Swedish and Danish sound the same. <<

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Brennus,

I disagree with you.

To me, they sound different. I was in Ireland and how they pronounce is very soft and nice, also more possible for undertand them. When I've heared scottish it sounded with the r trilled like spanish (in Ireland it was like the english /american r ) and the pronunciation I didn't understood nothing.

Also the intonation of Irish is friendly sounding and scottish is another intonation, I don't mean unfriendly just different. I think their vowels are very differently pronounced as well.

I didn't heard swedish and danish so I can't tell my opinion of this. Probably they don't sound the same at all.
Guest   Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:31 pm GMT
The best part of Irish and Scottish accents is when they roll certain sounds...It's almost like they're growling, and I just love it!
fannyboy   Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:47 pm GMT
hello,Today my granny gave me a fiver,but it wasnt enough to buy me the latest garth books dvd collection so i am seriously thiking about shredding her in my new office shredder,she just gets in the way anyways...
Adam   Sun Jan 21, 2007 7:57 pm GMT
Everytime I hear an Irish accent, especially a Northern Irish one, I always think that he's about to kill innocent people with a large bomb.
zzz   Sun Jan 21, 2007 8:19 pm GMT
>> To the English ear, Irish and Scottish accents sound very similar to each other in much the same way that languages like Swedish and Danish sound the same. <<

I heartily disagree. They most certainly don't sound the same. Of course if you'd never been told which was which, you wouldn't know, but they sound very, very different. I think that Swedish and Norwegian sound similar. But Danish in my opinion is one of the most distinct sounding language in the world.
Adam   Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:42 pm GMT
I don't think Irish and Scottish sound similar. But Irish and American do.