NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1920, Page 26

NOTES

—' "ffi—■ .iu..— . mrmmm The “Brogue” a Brogue is literally an old shoe, or perhaps better a lough shoe such as peasants wear. The Irish dialect was supposed by English demigods and arch-jin goe^to InL’ToS’ "Jr thi,,g OUl 5' fit !ar such ibjfcls of apiue and robbery as the Christian people who i ought back to England twice the faith from which she was a renegade. As a matter of fact it turns out upon examination that the “brogue” is purer Engpeak of k fc IS H P ° ken \ most Englishmen, not to ■ leak of the north or west country dialects which iot even a German waiter could understand There pere° ai'd that Tp trat6 ** En^h * . Shake" 1 S’, and that , of Pope was pure English. And it is readily shown that the Irish -brogue” is aftet aTI oX the preservation of the idioms ° and pronunciations of the golden age of English. In fact could Shakes pere come back, he would in all likelihood speak with saints. SSS

Vowel Sounds In many parts of Ireland “e” and “i” sounds are interchangeable. Pen in some parts is pi'onomrced pin, and in others yes and yet are yis and yitta sure sign of Hirisli hignorance, isn’t it? However, there is room for difference of opinion on that point. Professor Lounsbury says: “Nearly all eighteenthcentury orthoposts pronounced yes as if it were spelled yis. Indeed Walker took pains to assure us that while it was a mark of incorrectness and vulgarity to give yet the sound of yit, the best and most established usage gave to yes the sound of yis. Yit thus reprobated, was undoubtedly a survival of what was once good usage. The triumph of “e” over “i” merely preceded its later triumph in yes.” Remember that English purists have not lost all traces of this old tradition. How is the “e” pronounced in English and in pretty, we wonder Again, when an Irishman says clargy for clergy and dark for clerk he is merely conservative. Englishmen still say Darby for Derby and Barkley for Berkley. When we hear goold for gold in Ireland let us remember that Shakespere made Rome rhyme with room— Aoa' is if Rome indeed. and room enough. Mr. Richard Grant White considers that the “brogue” pronunciation of either as ayther is analogically correct. and is the same sound as we find for “ei” in weight, freight, deign, etc. An Irishman may say tay for tea and say for sea, but he has rather high authority. Take Pope’s couplet: And thou, Queen Anne, whom four retd ms edict/. Dost sum cf i mes counsel fair and sometimes tea. II an Irishman seems to err when saving sowl for soul, what about the sound of the same diphthong in the words sound, ground, found, foul, etc.? Dr. Johnson pronounced the word pour to rhyme with power. Spenser did the same, as did Pope: I c Tlravens ! from high the deiri/ nectar pour'. And in soft silence shed the kindly shower. Even Tennyson says: 71 oh/ water will I pour Into ever// spin/ flower. On the whole, it may be maintained that if we want the pure English pronunciation we must go back to the brogue” for it. It is the speech of the Englishman that has deteriorated. ° Consonants Everybody knows what the stage-irishman is made to say for the laughter of English people. When they cannot pronounce words like he, his, heat, and hat correctly make an Irshman say murther, shoulthet, shutther, they do not know that there is undeniable proof in Shakespere that the Irish “brogue” is right. When an Irish man says “it is your own faut,” he also has reason on his side. The word fault came to us from the French faulte. , which is pronounced as the Irishman pronounces the English word still. Swift and Pope rhymed the word with ought and thought and taught. In Johnson’s dictionary we are told that the “1” is sometimes sounded and sometimes silent. And for analogy we have such words as half, folk, calm, and walk. Some Irishmen say of-ten for often, but how many Colonials who try to be nice in their language imitate them? Rarely the final “h” is dropped in Ireland, but the use is not common. We. have very seldom heard eart for earth, though we have often heard widout for without. It is said that the expression, “the owld dart” is merely a mistaken spelling for an Irishman’s pronunciation of “the old earth.” Thirty years in Ireland did not qualify us to recognise it. as such. In Ireland you will hear druoth instead of drought, but you are hearing a good old English word. If it is “brogue” to speak of cow-. cumber and sparrow-grass,, do not forget that Walker

said that ~ the corrupted forms of the words wer© so general in his time that to employ the proper terms smacked of pedantry. • , Idioms An Irishman’s us©' of “after” with the verb—e.g. I was after going is an effort to supply a deficiency in English and has logical foundation in more perfect languages than the bastard Saxon. Shall and will are said to be beyond the Irish. They were beyond Scott too, and if one is to judge by modern rules, they were also beyond Shakespere. So that it is not so clear that the Irishman—with Shakespere and. Scott—• is not right and the modern professor wrong. The Irish use of the word “again” is set down as an Irishism ; but here too we have a traditional usage in keeping with the custom of the best English writers 0f,,, the golden age. Ben Jonson has—bid //our fellows get all their flails ready again Income. Lord Bacon frequently uses the word as an Irishman would, and the same usage is common in Shakespere. As for Cockney attempts to make stage-Irish spelling we all know how often ignorance, of the proper English pronunciation is betrayed by such efforts. For instance, is “sure” pronounced shure or sewer, is “often” pronounced often or of-ten ? After all, there was no need to be ashamed of the “brogue.” It was purer English than that of London schools, if judged by the standard of pure English and not by that of he modern schoolmaster. It was not a degeneration but rather an old-fashioned clinging to old ways and mooes of speech. And when all is said and done it jv.ll Jr" that if an English professor wants’ to u.my how pure English was spoken he must take a Id le 7 m ' reaU , C - , H ® had tetter burry. In a little Line he will find nobody there, to speak .English to um. And alas and alack, with the driving out of fftS vT d f the pledge-breakers, the Irish will cut nnrfefil^ 11 " 15 1 I 1 the oT ‘ ly sch ° ol 111 which the Saxon undefiled may be learned.