Munster Irish
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Munster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. Gaeltacht regions in Munster are found in Counties Kerry (notably Dingle), Cork and Waterford.
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 chur "at any rate" (other dialects ar chor ar bith)
- fé "under" (standard faoi)
- Gaelainn "Irish language" (standard Gaeilge)
- ná "that...not; do not" (standard nach)
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 | ɣ | 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 [βˠɔg] as opposed to [wɔg] 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 stop + fricative are broken up by an epenthetic [ə], except that stop + liquid remains in the onset of a stressed syllable. For example, eaglais "church" is pronounced [ˈɑgəl̪ˠəʃ], but Aibreán "April" is [aˈbʲrʲɑːn̪ˠ].
- 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 [gʲ], e.g. marcaigh "horsemen" [ˈmˠɑɾˠkəgʲ].
- Stress is attracted to noninitial heavy syllables: corcán [kəɾˠˈkɑːn̪ˠ] "pot", mealbhóg [mʲal̪ˠəˈβˠoːg] "satchel". Stress is also attracted to [ax, ɑx] in the second syllable: coileach [kəˈlʲax] "rooster", beannacht [bʲəˈn̪ˠɑxt̪ˠ] "blessing", bacach [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 |
|---|---|---|
| molair | molann tú | "you (sg.) praise" |
| molaid | molann siad | "they praise" |
| mholas | mhol mé | "I praised" |
| mholais | mhol tú | "you (sg.) praised" |
| mholabhair | mhol sibh | "you (pl.) praised" |
| mholadar | mhol siad | "they praised" |
| molfad | molfaidh mé | "I will praise" |
| molfair | molfaidh tú | "you (sg.) will praise" |
| molfaid | molfaidh siad | "they will praise" |
Some irregular verbs have different forms in Munster than in the standard:
- deinim "I do/make" (standard déanaim) and dheineas "I did/made" (standard rinne mé)
- chím "I see" (standard feicim)
- bheirim "I give/bring" (standard tugaim) and bhéarfad "I will give/bring" (standard tabharfaidh mé)
Syntax
One significant syntactic difference between Munster and other dialects is that in Munster, 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...)
- an seomra go gchodlaím ann "the room that I sleep in" (standard an seomra a gcodlaím ann)
References
- Ó Cuív, Brian (1944). The Irish of West Muskerry, Co. Cork. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 0901282529.
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