Wordplay

One thing I can’t help but notice is how beautiful the language of the Irish people is. I’m not just talking about the Irish language, which is really cool but absolutely boggles my mind, but the way that the Irish people speak. I have noticed it in my classes among my lecturers and classmates, and I have noticed it in little pieces among my American friends and myself- we have all started to pick up little Irishisms!

The biggest thing you notice when you’re here is the lilt and inflection that Irish people use- it’s really hard to describe other than to imitate, but it is so easy to listen to and it keeps you very engaged. A big thing to do with inflection is when you ask a question, and at first we made fun of Kristen for picking it up, but I’ve noticed that I have started to do it too. I know this isn’t very helpful to you since I’m not being very descriptive, but while they say the same words we would, it has a completely different sound, and it’s not just the accent. “Did he pass his test?” in the US would usually imply the pitch of the voice going up a bit on the word exam, but in Ireland, it’s “DID hepasshistest?” and you can still understand it.

The way that vowels are shaped are different from American English, and especially in the beginning, we found ourselves trying to mimic the sound when someone spoke to us, often right to the Irish person’s face. I still try to mimic it in my head, but I encounter so many different accents over the course of the day, I don’t retain much.

I like to think that I know my way around a brogue- my Dad and I sometimes speak to each other in brogues at home (to the delight of many of my friends), but I feel like my brogue here has just become confused! The brogue I’m familiar with is from Co. Mayo, while the ones I hear here are from Dublin, Cork, Derry, Galway, and many other places, since so many students from all over Ireland come to Trinity to study. I think that once I get home I’ll be able to sort it out, but I’m not very good at it while I’m here.

Other than the accent that is so different, the word choices of so many people make the language so beautifully poetic. You can see it in the work of Joyce and Yeats, but you can also hear it talking to anyone. I always get a kick out of my classmates when they say that one play is “loads better” than another- not “much better” or “a lot better.” People from the West sometimes say “ye” instead of “you” (Danielle and I love this and use it in BBM all the time). Irish use “like” almost as much if not more than Americans, and it’s “em” instead of “um.” A period at the end of a sentence is a “full stop,” and they call eggplants and zucchini “courgette” and “aubergine.”

My favorite quote in the Guinness Factory Storehouse is “THERE’S POETRY IN A PINT OF GUINNESS,” and I couldn’t agree more. I also find poetry in a good cup of tea on a cold day. Between Guinness, tea, and language, I’m surrounded by poetry every day.