A Survey of Irish English Usage

Contents    Structure

This survey consists of a questionnaire with some 57 sample sentences, each of which contains a structure which is known to occur in some form of Irish English. Respondents were asked to give their reaction to each sentence as it might be used in casual speech among friends. The questionnaire was only done in groups of two or more as respondents tended to be much less prescriptive in groups than as individuals.

Approximately 80% of returned questionnaires were actually used. There were over 1,000 questionnaires which were acceptable, to be precise: 1,042 of which 505 were from male and 537 from female respondents. The criterion for acceptance was the following: each questionnaire must have all three categories used, e.g. any respondent who ticked "no problem" for all sentences was ignored as well as anyone who said that all sentences were "a bit strange" or "unacceptable" as this showed a lack of discrimination on the part of the individual in question. The spread among categories must have been at least 10%. Naturally, all sentences must have been evaluated and the questionnaires of those respondents who inserted prescriptive comments were ignored. The headings of the questionnaire, indicating its structure, were not included in the version given to respondents.

A Survey of Irish English Usage is available on the DVD accompanying A Sound Atlas of Irish English (see relevant node of tree on left) and includes software with which one can examine the set of returned questionnaires (all of which have been entered into databases and are hence now available in electronic form). One can examine, for instance, the distribution of acceptance of structures over counties, age and/or gender. Charts can be generated showing this relative acceptance in different parts of Ireland.

On the sound atlas DVD there is additional software for the interrogation of the databases in A Survey of Irish English Usage. This has been written by the present author for Windows and will be installed to your PC if you go through the installation procedure initiated by starting the program “setup.exe” in the root directory of the DVD. The PC processing software for the survey is slightly different from that used for the Java version, for use on Apple computers, and has some options not found in the latter environment.

  Statistics on respondents to survey

Contents of questionnaire

Morphology

Second person plural

1)	What are youse up to?	plural form for you, 1
2)	What were yez up to?	plural form for you, 2
3)	Are ye going out tonight?	plural form for you, 3

Negation of auxiliaries

4)	Amn’t I leaving soon anyway?	negative of 1 p sg of be, 1
5)	Aren’t I right after all?	negative of 1 p sg of be, 2

Demonstrative pronouns

6

Them shoes are too small for me.

them as demonstrative pronoun

Syntax

Aspectual distinctions

Habitual aspect

7)	She does be worrying about the children.	habitual with do be
8)	They bees up late at night.	habitual with inflected be
9)	I gets awful anxious about the kids at night.	habitual with inflected verb
10)	His uncle does be a hard worker.	habitual as character attribute)

Immediate perfective

11)

She’s after spilling the milk.

immediate perfective

Resultative perfective

12)

She has the housework done.

resultative perfective

Tense range and forms

Extended present

13)

I know her for five years now.

range of present tense

Present-tense marking

14)	Some farmers has little or no cattle.	s-marking on 3rd per pl, 1
15)	John and his wife plays bingo at the weekend.	s-marking on 3rd per pl, 1

Singular existential

16)

There was two men on the road.

singular existential

Epistemic negative

17)

He was born here so he musn´t be Scottish.

epistemic negative must

Past tense verb forms

18)	I seen him yesterday.	preterite of see
19)	They done all the work for us.	preterite of do

For to infinitives

20)

He went to Dublin for to buy a car.

for to infinitives

Be auxiliary

21

They’re finished the work now.

be as an auxiliary

Infinitive without to

22)	She allowed him drive the car.	infinitive without to
23)	They used make me stay in my room for hours.	infinitive without to
24)	Will he come see us in the spring?	infinitive without to

Uninflected auxiliaries

25)	He don’t like me staying up late.	uninflected auxiliary do
26)	I suppose he have his work done now.	uninflected auxiliary have

Conditional modals

27)

It looks as if it might rain, doesn’t it?

might as conditional

Imperatives with continuous form

28)

Don’t be teasing your brother.

imperative with continuous form

Interrogative do-support

29)

Do you have any matches on you?

do support in questions

Copula deletion

30)

She a teacher in the new college.

copula deletion

Double modals

31)

He might could come after all.

double modal

Verb complements

32)

My hair needs washed.

need + past participle

Negation

Negative concord

33)

He’s not interested in no cars.

negative concord

Lack of negative attraction

34)

Everyone didn’t want to hear them.

lack of negative attraction

Negator contraction

35)

I’ll not wait any longer for him.

lack of negator contraction

Singular reference never

36)

She never rang yesterday evening.

singular time reference never

Clause structure

Relative clause marking

37)	I know a farmer that rears sheep.	that animate relative
38)	I know a farmer rears sheep.	zero relative
39)	I know a farmer what rears sheep.	what animate relative

Front clefting

40)

It’s to Glasgow he’s going tomorrow.

clefting for topicalisation

Subordinating and

41)

We went for a walk and it raining.

subordinating and

Embedded inversion

42)	She asked him was he interested.	inversion in embedded questions, yes/no-type
43)	He asked who had she spoken to.	inversion in embedded questions, wh-type

Relevance via on + pronoun

44)	The fire went out on him.	expression of relevance via on + pronoun
45)	He crashed the car on her.	expression of relevance via on + pronoun

Determiners, numerals

Over-use of definite article

46)	He likes the life in Galway.	over-use of definite article, 1
47)	She has to go to the hospital for a check-up.	over-use of definite article, 2
48)	Their youngest son is good at the maths.	over-use of definite article, 3
49)	I suppose the both of us should go.	over-use of definite article, 4)

Singular after numerals

50)

He paid twenty pound for the meal.

singular after numeral

Unbound reflexives

51)

Himself is not in today.

unbound reflexive

Adverbs, focus markers

Adverb marking

52)

The work is real difficult.

unmarked adverbs

Till for until'

53)

Come here till I tell you.

till for until

Sentence-final focus markers

54)	She’s hard-working, like.	like as final focus marker
55)	He’s gone to the races, but?	but as final focus marker

Appendix: contrasting English usage

56)	Did you used to cycle to school?	do support with use
57)	I shall have to leave soon.	use of shall in future

Structure of questionnaire