Our Favourite Irish Sayings, Part 1

The melodic accents, charming rhythm, and welcoming phrases make Ireland a beautiful place to pick up some interesting new phrases. Of course, Chris' pitch changed as soon as we landed and he usually thinks he has acquired the lilt enough that he can go unnoticed as a foreigner.

Irish phrases are sometimes a challenge to interpret, particularly when paired with a thick accent or rapid speech. But real Irish language - that is another level. We have an app for the phones - strictly for fun at this point. This is a tough language, with several unique rules that make the modern English speaker challenged to inhibit overlearned responses. The diphthongs in particular are tough to encode since they contradict much of how we use vowels in modern English and many have multiple variations. For example:

ao: 3 ways to pronounce: é-ah (w/stress at the front on é), ah-ú (w/ stress at front on ah), or í

I have read on several sites that the grammar of Irish is much more sensible than English, but grammar is still a mirage when you are treading through a new language letter-by-letter.

It was exciting to see the delight on the faces of Seamus' brothers when telling us that a few Irish sports matches were being announced in Irish, on the Irish language channel.

Real Irish Language is spoken in several regions, identified with signs such as these

 Some resources suggest this is a disappearing language, but here is to the pride and stubbornness that might be required reverse this trend!






 Here are a few of our favourite phrases after the first week in Eire:

Pint of the Black

Trousers, not pants

Yer-man: your man; referring to anyone really

A barman (not bartender) in Dundalk gave Chris change and said something like: One for your right and also for your left.  Seamus did not know that one either...

We'll have to go in about 2 minutes. Now, this is a tricky one. You have to carefully read the face and posture, and consider several contextual features. We have found that this means: We'll leave some time between 5 and 45 minutes from now.

Good Craic of course refers to the vibe of the place

The Fear is that uncertain feeling about whether you will survive the day after a busy night at the pub, maybe one with too much Craic or a well intentioned barman.

How ya gettin' on: Wassup?

Windscreen not windshield. Apparently it is more porous?

Nice work - whenever you do anything, work or nice or neither

(the kids fav so far is the trunk being called the boot - Ronan and Stella cackle every time)