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Grammar

Irish English has unique phonology, vocabulary, and grammar.

It’s fully rhotic – “r” is always pronounced – “th” often becomes [t] or [d], “t” is softened, and “l” stays clear. Vowels before “r” keep distinctions like horse versus hoarse.

Vocabulary borrows Irish words: Taoiseach, Gardaí, and slang like craic (fun), eejit (idiot), and sláinte (cheers).

Grammatically, speakers repeat verbs instead of yes/no – “Are you coming?” “I am.” They say “He does be working” for habits and “I’m after hitting him” for recent actions. Reflexives like “himself” can imply status, and plural “you” becomes “ye” or “youse.”

Official languages

The irelandic keltic languages came to the island around 400 years BC with the gaelians that invaded the land from the european continent, and they long dominated in Ireland. Reaching the 1800’s, most of the population had gone over to english.

Today, irish is the official language of Ireland alongside english and active policy is reinforced to try to maintain the irish language. There’s an irish saying which basically translates to “A country without language is a country without a soul”. It tells us how important language is to the population of Ireland. Irish is taught in schools as a mandatory subject.

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