How to say hello?

Well,  mo Chara, if you've been to Texas you got yourself a good taste of southern dialect.

And I think it is safe to say there is no way we could ever translate southern talk into Irish. lol

Over the week-end I have heard...dudn't it....looks like it's gonna rain now dudn't it. 

I'm not that bad but I am close to it, Sooooo, I am trying to think in "Proper English"
so I don't get too confused when I'm trying to put a simple Irish sentence together.

Oh and on a English note...I was talking with a Scottish friend of mine who asked me..
Why do you not speak the Queen's English?
My answer was simple...I dunno 

Hi Bama and Dale, Yes, I think all languages run words together. In Irish there are a lot of words which are the product of running words into each other like y'all. For example, dom is do + mé, agam is ag + mé. And the Irish for Dublin is Baile Átha Cliath, but it's sometimes jokingly written as Bleá Cliath because that's how you pronounce it! Dale, you're right about is - it can be either agus or the copula. However, your guess about im was less successful - it isn't from imirt. It stands for i mo sheasamh (= in my standing). This is the way that states are expressed in Irish - bhí sé ina chónaí i mBaile Átha Cliath - he was in his living in Dublin. There are other words like this: do do becomes dod'. However, these are not acceptable in the Standard language. 

Keep 'em coming, y'all! 

Hi, seano,

I guess I wasn't thinking of prepositional pronounds, but certainly they are what in English we would refer to as a "compound" word, although perhaps not in the strictest sense.  True compoud words maintain both components pretty much, such as handywork, or somewhere.  The prepositional pronouns have such variety of forms, though, that I don't think they really qualify as either compounds or contractions.  Do + mé = dom, and do + tú sort of = duit, but do + sé = dó?  You don't even get that with the objective form, do + é = dó!  And for the plural it's even worse, do + siad = dóibh?  So I understand that the prepositional pronounds probably had their beginning as compounds, but their "conjugation" doesn't line up that way.

A chara Bama, I don't know what all variances Irish has from English construction, but they are many and different.  Many also convey into English.  When the Irish respond to a question with a repeat of the verb (and a pronoun added), they are working from their native language.  "Will you come to my house tonight?"  "I will."  It's not so much that it's an unusual construction, but certainly not widely used, at least here in the US.

One Irish way of expressing things that I have been curious about, because I've also heard it used in the north of England where it may have been derived from Scotch Gaelic, is the formation of a sort of past tense by using the word "after."  As in, "I'm just after gettin' home." or "I'm only after gettin' up."  Maybe seano can enlighten us on that one as well.  I know Irish has a past tense, so that's why I'm curious to know the origin of that particular construction, as it is quite out of the ordinary for English construction, insofar as I'm aware.  (There's another compound word!)

Another place I have seen Irish contract things, and it is truly a contraction, is with certain possessives, such as "m' athair" "my father", which means you have to listen really closely to hear the difference when someone says "mathair" "mother".  The Irish love to confuse us!  ;o}

Dale D

Well, good-day, y'all. Jus' pictyuh me he-a in ma white suit sittin on the veranduh o' ma faan antebellum manshun sippin an oul' mint julep ...

Hum, maybe not. Sounds a bit too much like Boss Hogg. Anyway, I don't think leanin' towards has any equivalent in Irish. You would normally say "thinking of" (ag smaoineamh ar rud éigin a dhéanamh), so sorry to disappoint. But the wake reference sounds pretty Irish to me. Dale, you are quite right about the use of a repeated verb for yes and no. There is no word for yes or no in Irish, so you say things like "Ar chuala tú an scéal?" "Chuala." (Did you hear the story/news? Heard)

As for the structure with "after", it is very common in Ireland. I don't know if it exists at all in England. I would be surprised if it does. It certainly might exist in Scotland, though I don't know enough Scots Gaelic to know whether they use a structure like that. The usual wisdom is that this was borrowed into English from Irish, where constructions like "Tá mé díreach i ndiaidh mo bhricfeasta a ithe" (I'm just after eating my breakfast) are very common and are found in all dialects. This differs from other past tense forms because it is used for recent action. 

Well, I'd laak tuh spend the rest o the day chewin the fat wi you folks, but ah hev things tuh do, folks tuh see ...

A Chara seano,

Weed lahk tuh thaynk ye fer yer wunderfol atteyumpt et spaykin' lahk a reel genu-wine Southerner.  Wayel Dun!

And if you ever get the chance to check out a pair of small volumes somewhere, you should: they are titled "How to Speak Southern" and "More How to Speak Southern".  Both have the subtitle, "Wrote in the Hopes of Teachin' Yankees to Speak Raht!"  They are a wonderful read, and you obviously have the drift of them, but as an example:  The books are written like a dictionary, providing a term and its definition followed by an example of usage, to wit:

Ah     The personal pronoun denoting individuality; also the things you see with.  Ah think ah've got sumthin' in mah ah.  (Show is a drawing of "Sam Spade, Private Ah")

bud   A small, feathered creature with wings that is in most cases capable of flight.  Look, ma, the cat's chasin' after that bud!

bub   A glass globe that emits light when electricity is applied.

laht  A type of energy emitted by the sun, and also by certain electrical items.  Ah think the laht bub's burned out.

That's the general drift.  If you ever decide to visit the south, as in the southern section of the United States, you may do well to seek a copy of these volumes and peruse them, for they contain valuable information useful in understanding the language spoken there.  Otherwise, you might think that you have gone to a foreign country where English is not spoken at all.  It arguably ain't English, evun tho sum sutherners wood argy the point witcha.

Thank you for the clarification on the past tense form using "after"; I was familiar with the form, but had not realized the specific usage was only for recent actions.  That does make a lot more sense to me now.  The Irish construction (which I hadn't seen before and am grateful you provided) also lends some illumination to it, as the specific terms used in the construction are not necessarily what I would have expected, but there I go thinking in English again!  To use the term "direach" (directly) for "just" makes perfect sense, especially considering the favoritism with which the term "directly" is applied in the southern United States, where many Irish people settled and had a profound affect on the vocabulary as well as the accent.  However, in the South, they speak of having done something or doing something "torekly".  It's another term found in the volumes I referred to earlier.

Gee, I'm having so much fun I don't know what to do with myself.....

Dale D

Hi Dale, Thanks, Very good! I am always interested in these regional uses of language. The great Myles na Gopaleen did some very good pieces in his Irish Times column which look like Irish but if you read them according to the phonetic rules of Irish they come out as very heavily accented English:

Iú cain suí fait aidh mín, aidhm siúr. (Yoo can see fwat I meen, aym shoor)

I'll certainly keep an eye open for those books. Thanks for recommending them. That's the great thing about this forum. It's just a bunch of people (in the words of Miss Blanche Dubois) "relah-in' aan the kaandness o strain-juhs." 

All the best!

I love this...my turn to throw a dialect at ya..hahaha

You mustn't confuse the "Southern" dialect with the "Country" dialect when learning.
What?? You didn't know there was a difference?  Why child of course there iz.

I speak country, but my Aunts speak southern.
Southern is the proper way to speak country. ROFL

This is so true. Example:  My Aunt would say to a bunch of rowdy children:

You kids quiet down.

Ohhhh but I would say...You youngin's  hush for a minute.  Kids vs youngin's

Then we have  Ya'll want a drink?  I would say... Ya'll want sump-than to drank?

Yeppers, and there you have it.  We won't go over the " mountain people and swamp people
dialect until a later date. hahahahaha

Now off to learning more Irish. :)   Bye ya'll

Hi Bama,

I wondered if I was mixing up country, Western old-timer, and hillbilly. Apologies for that. I don't like the sound of the swamp people ...  I've seen a couple of films about them and they have a reputation for being a little clannish and intolerant of outsiders! 

Not that we don't have areas like that around here, too ...

Okay, this is another "How to say..." but not "Hello."  I am under the impression that the proper way to say "Happy Saint Patrick's Day!" in Irish is:

Lá Fhéile Pádraig fá bhéasa!

But I wasn't sure if "Féile" should be lenited; I assume since it's a possessive that it does, and that makes it genitive case?

Also, what's the literal meaning of the expression?  Is it something like, "Enjoy the Feast Day of St. Patrick"?  Am I anywhere close?

If there's an alternative expression (or a more accurate one), I'd appreciate knowing about it.

Go raibh maith agat!

Dale D

Hi Dale, I'm wondering about where this came from. I couldn't find it at all on Google. Lá Fhéile Pádraig is fine, the séimhiú is on the Féile as it should be, and you would think there should be lenition on Pádraig as well but for some reason Pádraig is resistant to these changes - Downpatrick is Dún Pádraig, not Dún Phádraig. Just one of the many exceptions. "fá bhéasa" is a puzzle. Béasa means "manners", so I suppose it would mean somthing like "a well-behaved St Pat's".

Anyway, it isn't the usual expression. People normally say:

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit! (which some purists don't like because it's a bit Englishy)

or

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig Duit!

(The Blessings of the Feast of Patrick To You!)

Of course, if you are talking to more than one person, it's Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig Daoibh! 

So, in case I don't get the chance tomorrow ...

BEANNACHTAÍ NA FÉILE PÁDRAIG DAOIBH!!!!

Go raibh maith agat, seano!

I wish I remember where the expression I had before came from; I thought it was from a man who ran an Irish shop in San Francisco.  He was originally from Cork, so maybe it's a Munster thing?  You're right, I didn't find it anywhere online either, so maybe it's gone out of fashion.....

Likewise to you and all others who read my post:  Beanachtaí na Féile Pádraig daoibh! Agus tá chuimhin agat do caith an glas smaragaide....

(Probably not the right way to say that either.....)

Dale D

GRMA, a Dale, a chara. I will certainly remember to wear emerald green! Beannachtaí, Seán.

lol You were doing just fine mo chara..  We do have many different southern dialects but nobody pays any attention to who speaks what. hahahaha
Now as for "Swamp " people... I do have a few in my family but to be honest, they scare me too. And why I don't know because if they like you, you
are considered family whether you are blood kin or no.
But if they don't like you...well, let's just say I'm glad they like me.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day.

Hey, sean, did I get my noun and adjective backwards?  Woud it be glas smaragaide, or the other way around?  I guess I was thinking of "green" as the noun in this case, but was concerned because in the dictionary it's only listed as an adjective.

Go raibh maith agat.

Dale D