Notes on a Westmeath dialect

Abstract

1. What follows is a sketch of the phonology of the English spoken in Emper, Co. Westmeath. Emper is a pocket of fertile country partly enclosed in a loop of the River Inny and situate some eleven or twelve miles to the north-west of Mullingar. The population, fluctuating about two hundred souls, is composed mostly of farmers and farm labourers. They are engaged in mixed farming, that is tillage, stock-raising, and dairying; and are a settled community in that the farms in most cases have been occupied by the same families for generations. It is difficult to say at what date exactly the people of Emper ceased to speak Irish and became English speakers. The evidence is scanty and entirely oral, yet sufficient to warrant the conclusion that at some time after the middle of the eighteenth century, and certainly before 1800, Emper had become English speaking. The findings and conclusions below are based on my own (dialect) pronunciation and my memory of auditory observation of the speech of the older stratum of the inhabitants, and especially of those born before 1900. This is my vernacular speech and I have never lost touch with it.