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Hiberno-English – Some Distinctive Features
1. To Have
Learners of Standard English know that the verb to have forms the negative and the interrogative differently, depending on whether it is used as an auxiliary verb or an ordinary verb:
Positive Negative Interrogative I have forgotten I haven’t forgotten Have you forgotten? I have one brother I don’t have any brothers Do you have any brothers?
Unlike Standard English, in many parts of Ireland, Scotland and many areas in the north of England, "to have" is treated at all times like an auxiliary verb when it comes to forming the negative and interrogative forms:
- Have they any money?
- She hadn't any butter in the fridge.
2. Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs often differ in use from standard British English. For example, where shall is used in British English in the first person singular and plural to suggest or volunteer an action:
- (^) Shall I make some coffee?
- Shall we go the theatre tonight?
Irish speakers of English frequently use will:
- Will we go to the theatre?
- Will I help you with that suitcase?
This, to an English ear, sounds whimsical and amusing and invites the response : "I don't know - will you? You tell me!"
3. Mustn’t and Can’t
To contradict a hypothesis in Standard English, we use can't:
- He can't have paid the telephone bill - the phone's been cut off.
Hiberno-English expresses the same idea with mustn't:
- He mustn't have paid the telephone bill.
- She mustn't have seen me because she walked straight past.
This variant is unknown in most of England, but it is found in Liverpool and in Australia and parts of the US, almost certainly because of the large Irish immigrant populations there.
4. To be after + Gerund
One of the best-known features of Hiberno-English is the syntactical calque construction to be after
- She is after calling the doctor.
To anyone who has learnt and uses Standard English, this might suggest intention, i.e. "She is in favour of calling the doctor", but such an interpretation would be wrong. In fact, it means "She has just called the doctor." The construction is used to express recently completed actions, usually expressed in Standard English with a Perfect tense and “just”, e.g.:
- She's after getting married (She has just got married)
- (^) They were after buying a house (They had just bought a house)
5. Habitual versus Non-habitual Present
Influence from Irish (Gaelic) is likely the origin of a peculiar feature of Hiberno-English with regard to present tenses: both constructions use the present participle. The equivalent of the Present Continuous, for on-going actions, is the same:
- I am writing (Non-habitual - at the present moment, on-going etc.)
But in many areas in Ireland the equivalent of the Present Simple, for habitual actions / frequency, is formed using the auxiliary Do followed by the base form of the verb to be and also completed with the present participle:
- He does be working every day (Habitual)
- They do be talking on their mobiles a lot (Frequency)
Note the difference between the following:
- It’s her I am thinking about.
- It’s her I do be thinking about.
6. Avoidance of Perfect Tenses
Again, in the area of verb tense aspect, the Standard English present perfect is replaced (see #4) in Hiberno-English with the present simple:
- How long are you together? (How long have you been together?)
- She's dead these ten years (She has been dead for ten years)
- He is working here since five years. (He has been working here for 5 years)
- How long are you living here? (How long have you been living here?)
** Interesting ambiguity:
- How long are you home for?
- (^) How long are you stopping here? [to stop in Hiberno English = to stay]
These two sentences could refer to either past or future time.
7. Position of the direct object in perfect tenses
- She has milked the cow. In modern Standard English, as we can see from this example, the direct object of the verb to milk follows the past participle of the verb. However, allowing for the tendency in Hiberno-English to avoid Standard English perfect tenses, it is quite common to find different construction (which was also common in the 16th century English in England):
- Is he already here? - He is.
This is because Gaelic does not have simple yes or no forms, but rather something like "indeed" or "sure", and repeats the verb used in the question.
13. Prepositions
Till is often used for Standard English to , in order to or so that :
- It's a quarter till two (It's a quarter to two)
- I'm going out for till post the letter (I'm going out [in order] to post the
letter)
- Come here till I kiss you (Come here so that I can give you a kiss)
14. Vocabulary
When it comes to vocabulary, there are numerous Irish English dialect words:
- to blather (to talk nonsense)
- delph (crockery)
- crack (fun, a good time)
- destroyed (upset)
- oxter (armpit)
- to dander (to stroll)
- this weather (these days, nowadays)
- your man (person or even thing under discussion)
- soft weather (mild weather).
- culchie (country bumpkin – derogatory term for people who live in the country)
- jacks (toilet)
