1. IRISH /IRISH ENGLISH LANGUAGE VARIETIES IN IRELAND : THREE TYPES:
English introduced from Anglo-Irish-Western part of England
Scots dialects : Scottish-type related accent introduced into Northern Ireland from Scotland
Indigenous Irish L: Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, Erse

2. IRISH ENGLISH

5. Irish English
At the beginning of the 19th c, half of the Irish population spoke IRISH but by 1851, only ¼ did so and only 5% were monoglots: no knowledge of E
Now, English: ordinary, vernacular L for about 4.5 million inhabitants
Some Irish still have Irish as their sole tongue
Irish L: official status in the Irish Republic , and taught in schools

6. Irish English
In Irish English speakers: a lot of influence from Irish L
English speakers have appeared in Ireland since 1200 AD but by 1600, English was extinct in Ireland, even in Dublin
Present day Irish English owes its characteristics to the English spoken by the ‘planters’/colonists in the 17th c

7. Irish English: general characteristics
Irish E: very conservative, neither British nor American innovations are found in Ireland
1) NURSE-Merger: not apply in Ireland (‘earn’# ‘urn’)
2)FLEECE -Merger: not applied (‘meet #’mate’)
Neither RP nor other E accents exert much influence on Irish but educacted Dubliners have adopted RP features
RP : not the NORM in Ireland (e.g., full rhoticity)

8. Characteristics of the Irish E Vowels
I) THE ANGLO-IRISH ACCENTS OF THE REPUBLIC: ɪ, ɛ, æ, ʊ, ʌ, ɒ, i:, e:, aɪ (ɔɪ),a:, ɔ:, aʊ, u:, o:
KIT ɪ FACE e: PRICE aɪ MOUTH aʊ
DRESS ɛ PALM a: CHOICE ɔɪ NEAR i:r
TRAP æ THOUGHT ɔ (unrounded) SQUARE e:r
LOT ɒ(unrounded) GOAT o: START a:
STRUT ʌ GOOSE u: NORTH ɔ:
FORCE o: CURE u: HAPPY I, LETTER ər

9. The vowels of Irish English
The vowels of Irish E indicate the Irish influence, similar with consonants (except: /z/, /ʒ/which do NOT appear in Irish but Do appear in Irish E
VOWELS BEFORE /r/
A complete range of vowel oppositions before /r/
Bcs of English influence, r-less speech does appear

10. The vowels of Irish E
All Vs remain in mutual opposition in the environment of a following /r/
_r# _rC _rV
i: beer fierce weary ai fire iron pirate
ɪ myrrh spirit aʊ flour dowry
ɛ err ferry ɔɪ coir Maire
a: bar marry ə better, operate
ɒ, ɔ: for, war sorry, Laura
o: wore hoarse story
ʌ purr nurse hurry what can you observe?
u: poor jury
ʊ hurry (or hʌri)

11. Vowels in Irish English
So, there are lots of vowel oppositions /-r
/i:r/ vs /ɪr/ /e:r/ vs /ɛr/ /o:r/ vs /ɔ:r/
mere myrrh care Kerr hoarse horse
beer fir pair per wore war
They do have both in Irish E: ʌr, ɜ

12. Some representative tokens of Irish E
Typical South Irish Typical Dublin Smart Dublin RP provincial Care, pair e:r e:r ʌr eə Kerr, per ɛr e:r ʌr ɜ: Cur, purr ʌr, ʊr ʌr, ʊr ʌr ɜ: Short vowels: ɪ, ɛ, ʊ: same as RP; æ→[a] CV 4, ɒ→ [ɑ], ʌ→ [centralised, back V] So, the opposition bwn /ʌ/ vs /ʊ/ exists only in educated Standard Irish English but: ‘but’ ‘boot’, ‘stud’ ‘stood’ distinct

13. The vowels of Irish English
/ʌ/ vs /ʊ/ distinct but this opposition is suspended after /l/: ‘dull’ [dʊl]= ‘pull’[pʊl]
Some [ʊ] RP wrds→[u:] ‘book’ [bu:k], ‘brook’ [bru:k]
In some Western Ireland parts: ‘pin’ [pɪn], ‘pen’ [pɛn] a vet(erinary surgeon): [vɪt]
Striking Irish feature: /æ/ not /ɛ/ ‘many’, ‘any’
In Dublin: ‘any’=Annie

14. The vowels of Irish English
TRAP /æ/ , PALM /a:/ but this opposition may be suspended: ‘aunt’, ‘ant’ [ænt]
Confusion bwn: /ɔ:/ vs /ɒ/ bog-off [ɔ:f]
/ɔ:/ is phonetically realised as: [ɑ:] ‘father’ [fɑ:dər], ‘rather’ , ‘drama’→[ɔ:]
The letter ‘R’ : [ɒr] or [ɔ:r]
FACE [fe:s] in provinces but [feɪs] in Dublin
GOAT [go:t], [gɔʊt] i:, u: monophthongs but in some Dublin speech: /u/→[ɛʊ] book: bɛʊk, school: [skɛʊl]

15. The diphthongs of Irish English
/aɪ/, /ɔɪ/: not distinct ‘price’ ‘choice’
Joke: ‘Irish say ‘noice’ ‘toime’
Also: /aɪ/: [ɛɪ] ‘eye’, ‘dive’ =[ʌɪ] ‘line’, ‘ride’
‘buy’, ‘boy’: [bɑ:ɪ]
MOUTH vowel: [aʊ]=[ɑʊ]=[ʌʊ], [æʊ]
Weak vowels: /ɪ/=/ə/: merger of KIT+/ə/
‘Abbot’ , ‘rabbit’: [-ət]
Suffix {-ing}: [ən] ‘lying’=‘lion’ [laɪən]

16. The Vowels-diphthongs of Irish English
Strong vowels even in weak syllables
‘opinion’, ‘official’ /o:/,
‘accept’, ‘affect’: /æ/
So, any conclusions you may draw about Irish E vowels and diphthongs??

17. The consonants of Irish English
The two most striking features: dental fricatives and liquids
Dental fricatives alternate freely in many contexts with: voiceless-voiced plosives /dentalised /t, d/→[ṱ,ḓ dental]/-r
Ulster: /ɵɪn/→[ṱʰɪn]
/t/, [ɾ]:voiced V-V (as in Celtic E)
[h]: the voiced alternant of /t/ in Irish , so in Irish

18. The consonants of Irish English
So, due to influence from Irish: ‘rat’: [ɹɑh],
‘not at all’: [nɒhəˈtɒl], o’clock: [əˈxlɑx]
Glottaling: only in young, working class speech
Dubliners: ‘I hate it’ [əˈhɛɪʔɪʔ]
Liquids: clear in all contexts : ‘milk’, feel’ : [mɪlk],[fi:l]
In Dublin, there is pressure for [ɬ] dark /l/

19. The consonants of Irish English
/r/: dark colour before a ˈV: r→[ɹ]/-[ˈV] but
/r/ →fricative /t,d/_ ‘try’, ‘dry’
In other cases: /r/→[ɻ] ‘far’ ‘farm’ [fɑ:ɻ], [fɑ:ɻm]
No h-dropping : ‘arm’, ‘harm’ always distinct in all social accents
Clusters /hj, hw/ ‘human’ [hju:mən], ‘where’: [hwe:r]
h, x vary freely

20. Other consonantal characteristics of Irish English
Irish, like Russian: systematic distinction btwn
Velar/velarised - palatal/palatilised Cs ‘cabbage’ [ˈkʲabɪdʒ], ‘geese’ [gʲi:s]
[ʃ,ʒ] instead of [s, z]: ‘star’ [ʃtɑ:ɻ], ‘fist’ [fɪʃt]
‘brogue’ Irish speech: /f,v/→[φaɻ], ‘leave’ [le:β]

21. Stress features, intonation of South Irish English
A lot of variability in stress placement: free variation btwn: ˈaffluence ̴ af ˈfluence, muˈnicipal ̴ muniˈcipal Yes/no questions: a low-falling tone instead of a rising in RP ‘Would you like some ˎtea’

22. Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland: linguistically, politically distinct
The plantation of Ulster (1609):two types of E:
Scots dialects from south-west Scotland
English speech from North (Midlands, Far North)
In Ulster (the Republic of Northern Ireland):
1) Scots-Irish 2) Ulster Anglo-Irish/Irish Gaelic

23. The map of Northern Ireland

25. Ulster English main features
FOOT-GOOSE opposition: lost /u/
Dental fricatives do exist as separate phonemes [θɪŋk], [bri:ð]
Full rhoticity: [ɹ], [ɻ]
Clear /l/

26. The vowels and consonants of Ulster English
ɪ, ɛ, ʌ, (ɒ), ʌ, I, e, aɪ, ɔɪ, a, ɔ, u, aʊ, o
In Belfast working class: FOOT wrds: [ʌ] butcher: [bʌtʃə], bull: [bʌl]
/θ, ð/: separate phonemes
/r/→ [ɾ]/V-V
(pre-)Glottalisation: common: [bʌʔņ], bottle: [bɑʔļ]
Palatal /k/, /g/ before front/open Vs: can: kʲan]
Palatal /n/, /l/: union: [junʲən] million: [mɪlʲən]

27. The main features of the Northern Irish consonants
/r/: trill-roll [r] or [ɻ]
L clear , but also dark /- [V, +back] ‘tall’:[tɑ:ɬ]
Wh: [w], [hw] which: [wɪtʃ] or [hwɪtʃ]
/θ/→[h] nothing: [nʌθɪŋ]→ [nʌhɪŋ]
/ð/→ø/V-V mother: [mɔ:ər]

28. The intonation of Northern Irish
Strikingly different from RP and South Irish
In Ulster, Belfast: rising intonation in all utterances but in question tags , exclamations
‘You live on the ˏoutskirts’

29. PRINCIPAL DIFFERENCES BWN IRISH ACCENTS-RP
systemically: no centring diphthongs /ɪə, eə, ʊə/
No /ɜ:/in NURSE: [e:r]=[ɛr] or [ʌr]=[ər]
In south Ireland:/ʌ/ vs /ʊ/ netralised
The distinction bwn /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ not always
H is pronounced everywhere
Fully rhotic
FACE, GOAT: monophthongs
Clear /l/
In the south only /t/, /d/ dentals instead of /θ/, /ð/