john p. mullen

Bhoil,

I learned much of my English from Irish speakers. I'm not sure what
Hiberno-Enginsh consists of, but I'd say it is similar to Pennsylvania
Dutch. As with the latter, there are words in the Mother tongue, but
the most noticeable thing is the persistence of grammatical and
linguistic patterns. Here are things people have noticed about me.

1. I tend to pronounce a single vowel clearly in each word, the rest
being schwas.

2. I generally do not use "yes" or "no," but affirm or deny the verb or
statement.

3. My spoken English is often a bit "odd," though people cannot quite
pin the reason down.

4. My tonal patters are also a bit off.

5. I do tend to answer a question with a question.

6. I find it easier to understand and be understood by 2nd generation
Irish.

7. I drove my English teachers into fits.


I've also had the interesting experience of hearing the same jokes, told
at different times, in Irish and and English. For some reason, it made
them especially funny.

Unfortunately, I never learned to read and write in Irish and am now
trying to learn how to do that.

As for similarities, there is some commonalties, but Irish is, at its
core, quite distinct from other European languages. One great
difference is the tendency to mutate the beginning of words, such as in
"ar an mbord."

French and Spanish are Romance languages, and Irish was influenced to
some extent by the monks. For example, "Dia" looks very much like its
latin counterpart, though it is pronounced "Gee." However,
linguistically, Irish broke away at the time of Sanskrit. I'd say that,
regardless of one's native language, learning Irish will involve
learning some new concepts of language.

As well as learning to speak *very* quickly.

Slán,

John Mullen