A Dictionary of Anglo-Irish: Words and Phrases from Gaelic in the English of Ireland (review)

Abstract

Reviews245 The volume concludes with an appendix offering notes on stereotypes and the Stage Irishman and additionally 1 1 small illustrations (with pictures of, among others, the Celtic Cross, Round Tower, Sheela-na-gig, Ogham Stone, Cromlech , Curragh). Strangely enough, however, the respective headwords do not refer the reader to these illustrations. Lis Christensen's First Glossary ofHiberno-English fills to some extent the gap in Anglo-Irish lexicography and will serve many students of Anglo-Irish literature (not only newcomers). For those interested in more detailed lexicological studies the very much awaited and ambitious A Condse UhterDictionary (Macafee 1996) is already available. References Kiberd, Decían. 1979. Synge and the Irish Language. Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littiefield. Macafee, Caroline, ed. 1996. A Condse UlsterDictionary. Oxford: Oxford UP. Todd, Loreto. 1989. The Language ofIrish Literature. Houndmills and London: Macmillan. Wales, Katie. 1992. The Language ofJamesJoyce. New York: St. Martin's Press. A Dictionary ofAnglo-Irish: Words and Phrasesfrom Gaelic in the English ofIreland. Diarmaid Ó Muirithe. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996. Pp. 240. The last two years have seen publication of three important dictionaries presenting different aspects of the varieties of English spoken in Ireland: a selective glossary of Hiberno-English (Christensen 1996), a comprehensive survey of the Ulster dialect (Macafee 1996), and the reviewed volume. Diarmaid O Muirithe, the editor of The English Language in Ireland (Cork, Ireland: Mercier 1997) and author of, among other things, several minor contributions to Anglo-Irish lexicography, has compiled an impressive collection of Irish (Gaelic) words and phrases used in the English of Ireland. In a quote from professor Henry's 1973 radio lecture, 'Anglo-Irish' is defined as "a rural variety compounded of Irish and English or Irish and Scots. This developed chiefly in the last century and a half ..." (11). Given that terms like 'Anglo-Irish', 'Hiberno -English', and 'Irish-English' carry different implications and are variously defined, the cover term, used in the subtitle of the dictionary, 'the English of Ireland', is very helpful. The book opens with a short introduction (11-16), in which Ó Muirithe quotes at length P.L. Henry, the great authority on the linguistic situation in Ireland, and briefly discusses the form and pronunciation of Irish words in Anglo-Irish. This is followed by a list of abbreviations identifying the sources of quotations (17-20), the main body of the dictionary (21-204), bibliography (205-10), and a very useful index of all the words, i.e., the Irish entries , variants, and the Anglicized forms (211-40). 246Reviews Christensen's glossary and Macafee's dictionary both trace etymologies (not only the Irish ones) of appropriate entries. O Muirithe's dictionary, on die odier hand, provides die Irish original forms followed by English glosses and dierefore is in some sense complementary to Christensen's and Macafee's works. Every headword is followed by the part of speech, variant forms (if any), meanings and English glosses, identification of region (and source, not given here) , for example: A babún interj. As a baboon. 'Said with a shudder of horror at the thought of having to go tiirough some terrible experience ' (Westmeadi). Geis ?. As gesh. Taboo or prohibition. 'It is a gesh to cut down fairy bushes' (Cavan). Leis ?. In form lesh. A permanent disfigurement, such as a scar, or other mark; lameness. '"Look at the lesh of him" — said about a person with a lame step' (Kilkenny) . Radalach n. 1. 'Mud, slime' (n. Waterford). 2. ? lanky, untidy person' (n. Waterford). 3. 'Useless matter'. "What hey we have is only radalach" (mid-Tipperary). According to O Muirithe, die glosses "are valuable both as a guide to die meaning of the words in the districts they come from and as an illustration of the Anglo-Irish syntax of those districts" (14). Some characteristic features of Anglo-Irish syntax are clearly visible in die following two examples from literary language: Bionn v. Reflected in he does be, a literal translation of the Irish habitual present of the verb to be — bionn. James Joyce, Grace, 174: ? know you're a friend of his, not like the others he does be with'. Curach ? ... A light coracle used on the western coast . . . J.M. Synge...