Munster Irish

The three dialects of the Irish language, with Munster in the south.

Munster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. Gaeltacht regions in Munster are found in the Dingle Peninsula Gaeltacht of west Kerry, in the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, in Cape Clear Island off the coast of west Cork, in West Muskerry; Coolea, Ballingeary, Ballyvourney, Kilnamartyra, and Renaree of central Cork; and in the An Rinn and An Sean Phobal in Gaeltacht na nDéise in west Waterford.

History

The north and west of Corca Dhuibhne are today the only place in the province of Munster where Irish has survived as the daily spoken language of most of the community although the language is spoken on a daily basis by a minority in other official Gaeltacht areas in the province.

Historically, the Irish language was spoken throughout the province of Munster and Munster Irish had some influence on those parts of Connacht and Leinster bordering Munster such as Kilkenny, Wexford and south Galway and the Aran Islands.

Munster dialect played an important role in the Gaelic revival of the early 20th century. The noted author Peadar Ua Laoghaire wrote in Munster dialect and stated that he wrote his novel Séadna to show younger people what he viewed as good Irish.^[1]

Peig Sayers was illiterate, but her autobiography, Peig, is also in Munster dialect and rapidly became a key text. Other influential Munster works are the autobiographies Fiche Blian ag Fás by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin and An tOileánach by Tomás Ó Criomhthain.

Lexicon

Munster Irish differs from the Ulster and Connacht dialects in a number of respects. Some words and phrases used in Munster Irish are not used in the other dialects, such as:

• in aon chor (Corca Dhuibhne, West Muskerry, Waterford) or ar aon chor (Clear Island, West Carberry) "at any rate" (other dialects ar chor ar bith (Connacht) and ar scor ar bith (Ulster)
• fé, fí "under" (standard faoi)
• Gaelainn "Irish language" (Cork and Kerry), Gaeilinn (Waterford) (standard Gaeilge)
• ná "that...not; do not" (standard nach)
• leis "also" (Connacht freisin, Ulster fosta)
• anso or atso "here" and ansan or atsan "there" instead of standard anseo and ansin, respectively
• In both demonstrative pronouns and adjectives speakers of Munster Irish differentiate between seo "this" and sin "that" following a palatalised consonant or front vowel and so "this" and san "that" following a velarised consonant or back vowel in final position: an bóthar so "this road", an bhó san "that cow", an chairt sin "that cart", an claí seo "this fence"
• the use of thá instead of tá in the extreme west of Corca Dhuibhne and in Ring
• the preposition chuig "to, towards", common in Connacht Irish and Ulster Irish where it developed as a back formation from the 3rd person singular preposition chuige "towards him" is not used in Munster. The form chun (from Classical Irish do chum), also found in the West and North, is used in preference.
• Munster Irish uses a fuller range of "looking" verbs, while these in Connacht and Ulster are restricted: féachaint "looking", "watching", breithniú "carefully observing", amharc "look, watch", glinniúint "gazing, staring", sealladh "looking" etc.
• the historic dative form tigh "house", as in Scots and Manx Gaelic, is now used as the nominative form (Standard teach)
• Munster retains the historic form of the personal pronoun sinn "us" which has largely been replaced with muid (or muinn in parts of Ulster) in most situations in Connacht and Ulster.
• Corca Dhuibhne and Ring use the independent form cím (earlier do-chím) "I see" as well as the dependent form ficim / feicim (earlier ad-chím), while Muskerry and Clear Island use the forms chím (independent) and ficim.
• The adverbial forms chuige, a chuige in Corca Dhuibhne and a chuigint "at all" in Ring are sometimes used in addition to in aon chor or ar aon chor
• The adjective cuibheasach /kiːsəx/ is used adverbially in phrases such as cuibheasach beag "rather small", "fairly small", cuibheasach mór "quite large". Connacht uses sách and Ulster íontach
• Faic, pioc, puinn and tada in West Munster, dada in Ring, ní dúrt pioc "I said nothing at all", níl faic dá bharr agam "I have gained nothing by it"
• The interjections ambaiste, ambaist, ambasa, ambaic "Indeed!", "My word!", "My God!" in West Munster and amaite, amaite fhéinig in Ring (ambaiste = dom bhaisteadh "by my baptism", am basa = dom basaibh "by my palms", ambaic = dom baic "by my heeding"; amaite = dom aite "my oddness")
• obann "sudden" instead of tobann in the other major dialects
• práta "potato", fata in Connacht and préata in Ulster
• oiriúnach "suitable", feiliúnach in Connacht and fóirsteanach in Ulster
• nóimint, nóimit, nóimeat, neomint, neomat, nóiméad in Connacht and bomaite in Donegal
• Munster differentiates between ach go háirithe "anyway", "anyhow" and go háirithe "particularly", "especially"
• gallúnach "soap", gallaoireach in Connacht and sópa in Ulster
• deifir is "difference" in Munster, and is a Latin loan: níl aon deifir eatarthu "there is no difference between them"; the Gaelic word deifir "hurry" is retained in the other dialects.
• deabhadh or deithneas "hurry" whereas the other major dialects use deifir
• -(e)amhail used instead of standard -(i)úil in Dún Chaoin in words such as suimeamhail, cáirdeamhail, oifigeamhail, etc. instead of standard suimiúil, cáirdiúil, oifigiúil, etc.

Phonology

The phonemic inventory of Munster Irish (based on the accent of West Muskerry in western Cork) is as shown in the following chart (based on Ó Cuív 1944; see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). Symbols appearing in the upper half of each row are velarized (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonant /h/ is neither broad or slender.

Consonant phonemes	Bilabial		Coronal						Dorsal				Glottal
			Dental		Alveolar		Palato- alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Plosive	pˠ pʲ	bˠ bʲ	t̪ˠ	d̪ˠ	tʲ	dʲ			c	ɟ	k	ɡ
Fricative/ Approximant	ɸˠ ɸʲ	βˠ βʲ			sˠ		ʃ		ç	j	x	c	h
Nasal		mˠ mʲ		n̪ˠ		nʲ				ɲ		ŋ
Tap						ɾˠ ɾʲ
Lateral approximant				l̪ˠ		lʲ

The vowels of Munster Irish are as shown on the following chart. These positions are only approximate, as vowels are strongly influenced by the palatalization and velarization of surrounding consonants.

In addition, Munster has the diphthongs /iə, ia, uə, əi, ai, au, ou/.

Some characteristics of Munster that distinguish it from the other dialects are:

• The fricative [βˠ] is found in syllable-onset position. (Connacht and Ulster have [w] here.) For example, bhog "moved" is pronounced [βˠɔɡ] as opposed to [wɔɡ] elsewhere.
• The diphthongs /əi/, /ou/, and /ia/ occur in Munster, but not in the other dialects.
• Word-internal clusters of obstruent + sonorant, [m] + [n/r], and plosive + fricative are broken up by an epenthetic [ə], except that plosive + liquid remains in the onset of a stressed syllable. For example, eaglais "church" is pronounced [ˈɑɡəl̪ˠɪʃ], but Aibreán "April" is [aˈbrɑːn̪ˠ] (as if spelled Abrán).
• Orthographic short a is diphthongized (rather than lengthened) before word-final m and the Old Irish tense sonorants spelled nn, ll (e.g. ceann [kʲaun̪ˠ] "head").
• Word-final /j/ is realized as [ɟ], e.g. marcaigh "horsemen" [ˈmˠɑɾˠkɪɟ].
• Stress is attracted to noninitial heavy syllables: corcán [kəɾˠˈkɑːn̪ˠ] "pot", mealbhóg [mʲal̪ˠəˈβˠoːɡ] "satchel". Stress is also attracted to [ax, ɑx] in the second syllable: coileach [kəˈlʲax] "rooster", beannacht [bʲəˈn̪ˠɑxt̪ˠ] "blessing", bacacha [bˠəˈkɑxə] "lame" (pl.).
• In some varieties, long /ɑː/ is rounded to [ɒː].

Morphology

Irish verbs are characterized by having a mixture of analytic forms (where information about person is provided by a pronoun) and synthetic forms (where information about number is provided in an ending on the verb) in their conjugation. In Munster synthetic forms are more often used than in the standard language, where analytic forms (those with a general ending + personal pronoun) are more common.

Munster	Standard	Gloss
Present
molaim	molaim	"I (sg.) praise"
molair	molann tú	"you (sg.) praise"
molann sé	molann sé	"he praises"
molaimíd	molaimid	"we praise"
molann sibh	molann sibh	"you (pl.) praise"
molaid (siad)	molann siad	"they praise"
Past
mholas	mhol mé	"I praised"
mholais	mhol tú	"you (sg.) praised"
mhol sé	mhol sé	"he praised"
mholamair	mholamar	"we praised"
mholabhair	mhol sibh	"you (pl.) praised"
mholadar	mhol siad	"they praised"
Future
molfad	molfaidh mé	"I will praise"
molfair	molfaidh tú	"you (sg.) will praise"
molfaidh sé	molfaidh sé	"he will praise"
molfaimíd	molfaimid	"we will praise"
molfaidh sibh	molfaidh sibh	"you (pl.) will praise"
molfaid (siad)	molfaidh siad	"they will praise"

Some irregular verbs have different forms in Munster than in the standard (see Dependent and independent verb forms for the independent/dependent distinction):

Munster independent	Munster dependent	Standard independent	Standard dependent	Gloss
chím	ní fheicim	feicim	ní fheicim	"I see, I do not see"
(do) chonac	ní fheaca	chonaic mé	ní fhaca mé	"I saw, I did not see"
deinim	ní dheinim	déanaim	ní dhéanaim	"I do, I do not"
(do) dheineas	níor dheineas	rinne mé	ní dhearna mé	"I did, I did not"
(do) chuas	ní dheaghas/níor chuas	chuaigh mé	ní dheachaigh mé	"I went, I did not go"
gheibhim	ní bhfaighim	faighim	ní bhfaighim	"I get, I do not get"

Past tense verbs can take the particle do in Munster Irish, even when they begin with consonants. In the standard language, the particle is used only before vowels. For example, Munster do bhris sé or bhris sé "he broke" (standard only bhris sé).

The initial mutations of Munster Irish are generally the same as in the standard language and the other dialects. Some Munster speakers, however, use /ɾʲ/ as the lenition equivalent of /ɾˠ/ in at least some cases, as in a rí /ə ɾʲiː/ "O king!" (Sjoestedt 1931:46), do rug /d̪ˠə ɾʲʊɡ/ "gave birth" (Ó Cuív 1944:122), ní raghaid /nʲiː ɾʲəidʲ/ "they will not go" (Breatnach 1947:143).

Syntax

One significant syntactic difference between Munster and other dialects is that in Munster (excepting Rinn Ua gCuanach), go ("that") is used instead of a as the indirect relative particle:

• an fear go bhfuil a dheirfiúr san ospidéal "the man whose sister is in the hospital" (standard an fear a bhfuil...)

Another difference is seen in the copula. Fear is ea mé is used in addition to Is fear mé.

Music

Some notable Irish singers who sing songs in the Munster Irish dialect include Nioclás Tóibín, Elizabeth Cronin, Labhrás Ó Cadhla, Diarmuid Ó Súilleabháin, Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich and Máire Ní Chéilleachair.

Notes

1. Ua Laoghaire, Peadar (1915). Mo Sgéal Féin. p. 215. In the original Irish:

   Ag machtnamh dom air sin do thuigeas am' aigne ná raibh aon rud i n-aon chor againn, i bhfuirm leabhair, le cur i láimh aon leinbh chun na Gaeluinne do mhúineadh dhó. As mo mhachtnamh do shocaruigheas ar leabhar fé leith do sgrí' d'ár n-aos óg, leabhar go mbéadh caint ann a bhéadh glan ós na lochtaibh a bhí i bhformhór cainte na bhfilí; leabhar go mbéadh an chaint ann oireamhnach do'n aos óg, leabhar go mbéadh caint ann a thaithnfadh leis an aos óg. Siné an machtnamh a chuir fhéachaint orm "Séadna" do sgrí'. Do thaithn an leabhar le gach aoinne, óg agus aosta. Do léigheadh é dos na seandaoine agus do thaithn sé leó. D'airigheadar, rud nár airigheadar riamh go dtí san, a gcaint féin ag teacht amach a' leabhar chúcha. Do thaithn sé leis na daoinibh óga mar bhí cosmhalacht mhór idir Ghaeluinn an leabhair sin agus an Béarla a bhí 'n-a mbéalaibh féin.

References

• Breatnach, Risteard B. (1947), The Irish of Ring, Co. Waterford, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, ISBN 0-901282-50-2
• Ó Cuív, Brian (1944), The Irish of West Muskerry, Co. Cork, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, ISBN 0-901282-52-9
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931), Phonétique d'un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux
• Ó Sé, Diarmuid (2000), Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne (in Irish), Dublin: Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann, ISBN 0-946452-97-0

External links

• a blog and resources for the study of Cork Irish (Irish)