User:TheSilverWolf98/Ossory Irish

=About=

This page is the accumulation of my personal research into the Ossory dialect of Irish, which was originally spoken in Kilkenny, eastern Tipperary, southern Laois, south-west Wexford, and the extreme western edge of Carlow. It is currently unknown to me how far its features extended into eastern and northern Waterford, but it seems likely that the Irish spoken in Waterford City and possibly Tramore could have been tinged a little by Ossory Irish, which was definitely present on the other side of the river Suir. Ossory Irish is distinct from, but closely related to Déise Irish that was present in central and western County Waterford, and still survives in the Gaeltacht of An Rinn. They are both East Munster dialects, and share many similarities with the West Munster dialects still spoken in Cork and Kerry. Ossory Irish had a few influences from the Leinster dialects spoken to the north and east, which are lacking in Déise Irish. Ossory Irish was still flourishing in the 1860's, according to various accounts, and became extinct in the 1930's or 1940's, depending on who is considered the last fluent speaker. We have a single Kilkenny recording from 1936, of Pádraig de Paor, and a couple from Tipperary from a similar period, though I have yet to listen to those to determine whether they are indeed Ossory Irish, or the Connacht Irish that was spoken in the western and northern parts of Tipperary. We also have a number of written texts and a couple of preliminary phonetic and grammatical observations - most notably from John O'Donovan in his mid 19th-century grammar of Irish, among others. Many Irish words have also survived and become part of the Kilkenny dialect of English, and a book has been completed on that subject. Place names, and particularly the anglicisation of those place names, are useful in order to reconstruct the local pronunciation at the time they were adopted into English. The classical Irish spelling used in the early 20th century, and later that of the Caighdeán Oifigiúil (away, foul beast!!!!!), do not provide such phonetic insights, but are useful in ascertaining the meanings of the names, which can be obscured by dialectical sound changes.

Here, I attempt to document the remains of Ossory Irish, in the hope that this information can be used to flesh out the Irish language pages on Wiktionary to give more nuanced dialect coverage, which is severely lacking, at least as far as I can see. Ossory Irish has a number of quirks that are rarely seen in the other dialects of Ireland. I also intend to compare some of the other dialects from the south of Ireland to illustrate how widely the spoken language could vary in its heyday. I am also going to include material from eastern and north-eastern Waterford.

Why am I so interested in this particular form of Irish? Well, it's the Irish my ancestors spoke. I'm descended from Costigans, Lanigans, and Walshes from the south of Kilkenny (Slieverue, Kilmacow, Mullinavat, Mooncoin, Portnascully etc), Morans from the City of Waterford itself, and Griffins from Carrick-On-Suir. Irish was lost in the family before the birth of my beloved great-grandmother, as she knew none, and never heard it from her mother as a child. But the census of 1911 proved that my great-grandmother's grandmother was bilingual. Before her, I would imagine my ancestors were increasingly more monolingual Irish speakers, though I have no solid proof of such (thanks, Four Courts fire). Uncovering the Irish of my ancestors is a way for me to be closer to them, honour them, and give them a legacy. I only wish Great Grandma Gray was here to learn about it with me, but I like to think she's proud, watching me from upstairs. I miss her every day.

Personal aside over, I hope this proves useful and informative to anyone who reads it.

NB: An additional note on spellings used - when quoting a word or phrase from a source document, I will write it as I find it. I will also try to illustrate how it may have been pronounced using IPA. When giving the official spelling of the word, I will *always* use the classical spelling, never the Caighdean Oifigiúil, as, frankly, the CO is an abomination and it needlessly rips apart the Irish spelling system, which was used successfully for centuries. I may in the future also propose an Ossory-specific spelling, based on the classical model, but that is not my primary objective of this page. Once one learns the sound changes, deriving the Ossory pronunciation from the classical spelling is regular and straight-forward in most cases. Where it is not, I will make a clear note of it.

=Phonetics=

Slender ‘r’
Classical r’ > Ossory /ʒ/

This is perhaps the most well-known feature of Ossory Irish, the development of slender r into a fricative somewhere around /ʒ/ or /ʃ/. Outside of Ossory, this phenomenon has only been seen in one other dialect, that of Mayo. This is a feature that sets the Ossory dialect apart from Déise. Historically, the slender r was pronounced something like /ɾʲ/ when it was weak, and /rʲ/ when it was strong. In most dialects outside of Ulster, this strong/weak distinction has been lost in the consonant itself (see below), and the broad/slender distinction in the remaining tapped r sound is vanishing in modern speakers, but is generally marked in the older generations.

The exact nature of this consonant is not completely clear, and may have varied within the dialect itself – in areas of Wexford and Tipperary, for example, at the edge of the dialect, the sound was described at the time as being similar to ‘igh’ – ie. slender lenited g. Something perhaps along the lines of /ʝ/. This may be an intermediate stage in the sound change, but this is difficult to prove. It is also unclear exactly where the ‘igh’ turns into ‘is’ or ‘izh’ as is commonly written in the sources. In the recording of Pádraig de Paor, the sound he uses is very clearly either /ʒ/ or /ʑ/. It is because of this, I have erred on the side of caution, and appointed ‘ʒ’ as the IPA letter to represent all instances of the slender r change on this page, because I can hear it directly from a native speaker. This, naturally, is going to be more correct than any sound I can infer from written documents. Just be aware that there were likely nuances in pronunciation from various areas of the dialect that have not been preserved.

Some examples from written sources:


 * Bóithrín “small country lane” = bosheen ~ boisín ~ boisin ~ bósheen.
 * Muire “Mary” = Muishe ~ Muise.
 * Slughaire = slughaise.
 * Féirin = faysheen.
 * Móir = móish.
 * Bóthair = bótais.

I have found this phenomenon in the following places:
 * Kilkenny: Slieverue, Corluddy, Tobernabrone, Rochestown, Ballyhale, Haggard, Dungarvan, Clomantagh, Connahy, Newtown, Kells, Dunmore, Smartscastle, Kellymount, Lismateige, Weatherstown, Kilbride, Thomastown, Curraghmartin.
 * Tipperary: Ballylusky, Ballingarry, Graystown, Commons.
 * Wexford: New Ross, Rosbercon.
 * Laois: Graigueradrisly, Gorteen, Lisdowney.
 * Carlow: Gowlin.

Word-Final ‘-th’
Classical -th > Ossory -/x/

This is an East Munster dialect sound change, also shared by Déise, and still seen in An Rinn today. It involves strengthening the word-final /h/ sound to /x/. In most other dialects of Irish, this word-final /h/ is usually dropped, except in very careful speech. Some dialects have lost it altogether. This is one of the sound changes that distinguishes East Munster (Déise and Ossory) from West Munster (Kerry and Cork). In An Rinn, this sound change only occurs in monosyllables. In polysyllables, final -th behaves as it does in the West Munster dialects. It is currently unclear to me if this same restriction applied to Ossory Irish, or whether the phenomenon was more widespread. It is audible in the recording of Pádraig de Paor. Strangely, I can never find evidence of this in the word ‘ráth’, which always seems to retain its classical pronunciation. I’m not sure whether this is an introduced irregularity from the Celtic Revival, or just a relic of the past. It is also a feature shared with Clare Irish.

Examples from written sources:


 * Bráth = brauck’ ~ ‘breagh.
 * Liath "grey" = leek.
 * Bláth "flower" = blách /blˠɑːx/.
 * Scáth "shadow" = scách /skɑːx/.

Raising of ‘ó’
=Grammar=

Relative Clauses
According to John O'Flynn, the relative clause inflection of verbs were lost everywhere in Munster except for the Irish spoken in eastern Waterford. In this area, he says the relative form is also used in places that do not require it. He gives the example 'bias fearthainn againn anocht' "we shall have rain tonight". This technically incorrect usage is also seen in Connacht, and is possibly an indication of Connacht influence.

Consonant Mutation
=Wordlist=

Verbs
=Phrases, Proverbs, & Passages=

'Dé cuma bhfuil tú?
This is taken from John O'Flynn and is said to be the most common form of this phrase used in the parishes of Dunhill, Fenor, and Kill, in the east of County Waterford. 'Dé' here is explained as a contraction of 'cadé'.

Bias fearthainn againn anocht.
Taken from John O'Flynn as an example of (mis)use of the relative form of verbs in eastern Waterford. Presumably from the Kill area, like some of his other material, but this is just speculation on my part. The spelling of 'bias' is identical to that of Keating.

=References=