The examiner. (Hartford, Conn.) 1881-188?, 1886-08-28
T H E
A Difference of Opinion Among Irish
men ms to Whether Any Exist.

The Irishman is attracting the worlds
eye and ear, and the pecIdiarities of Irish
character are subjects OF discussion in
every corner grocery. The Irishman has
been the butt of jokes from time unre,
corded, and Pat and Bridget, with their
brogue, have furnished many an amateur
comedian with his stock in trade. AS the
Irishman advances 10 position of indie
pendence he becomes very sensitive con-
corning his weaknesses, and on no point is
he more tender than on the subject of his
perfect mastery of the English language.
A fortnlg ut since two Irishmen qRarreled
in this city over the pronunciation of the
word sword. One would have it shword,
and the other insisted upon sard. The
quarrel was ended by one man drawing
knife and stabbing the other severely in
the breast. Another hishman, Quinn Bo-
hannon, is awaiting execution at Minden,
Neb., for killing man who insisted that
he did not know how TO spell peddler.
Irishmen do not believe that they have a
dialect, and are often much displeased by
the stage caricatures Of their accent,
There are some very smart deteetiyes and
Others la this country WHO assert That they.
can tell the province from which an irish
man comes by his speech. Mr.. John
Finerty, whu has travelled in every county
of Ireland, and has made a study of Irish
character in his journalistic work, says he
cannot tell u mans province unless he
comes from Ulster, in the north of Ireland.
"There," he says, stheir accent ap-
proaches the Scotch. 1t is very broad.
They claim that their pronunciation Is
like the Anglo-SaXon, more correct than
the modern English. They follow the
continental pronunciation of the vowels
generally. For instance, they call meat
mate, or stream stramc. This sound of ea
is used in some of the earlier English poets
and it Is the sound given to ea in the an
cient Hibernian, which is still spoken In
many parts of Ireland. l never heard OF
Irishlnen in the old country quarreling
about the pronunciation of words. knew
several Ulster men who attended school
in the south of Ireland, but never heard
them twitted on their accent. Tho speech
of Munster and Connaught is much alike.
There is not much difference In pronuncea-
tion rs in the information of voice, the slow
ness OF rapidity of speech. OF course
there are among the very poor and ignor-
ant some who have bad pronunciation,
SO odd, sometimes, that you can scarcely
understand them. But that is not an
Irish dialect. / do not think there are as
many variations of speech in Ireland as
there are in England, France, Italy, or
Germany. The stage Irish which we hear
Is an absurd caricaturc. The comedians
do not get it from the Irish, but from each
other. Some of them have an idea that
they must act the fool in order to be Irish.
Irishmen are getting tired of that sort of
thing. Boucicault's wake scene was hissed
off the stage"
"There is difference of accent in vari-
Gus parts of Ireland" said w. j. Hynes,
ssbut l do not think there is much differ
ence in pronunciation. In Cork they have
a habit of giving the rising infection at
the end of sentence. The broadest ac-
cent is found in the north of Ireland. You
can't tell an kAntrin man from Down
man, but you will know ut once that they
arc both fFom-the- province OF Ulster.
You can tell north of Ireland man no
matter how long he has been in America.
/ suppose the Irish as class have ma
tional cast of speech, just the same as the
English and the Scotch have. Even in the
upper classes in Ireland have an accent,
but it is nothing like what we hear on the
stage or read in the funny paragraphs of
the newspapers A stage Irishman says
shwate for sweet. 1 never heard an Irish
man speak it in that way. They might
say shweet, but they always pronounce ee
as you do. You say you heard an Irish
man say dimmycrassy for democracy.
That is not Irish; it is individual bad
English"
There used to be an Irish politician on
the west side whose pronunciation was
very broad, and would have delighted the
ear of an Irish comedian. He said dim
mycrassy and dimmycrat, commytay for
committee, ~wist for west, cheerman for
chairman, prisedint for president. Both
Mr.. Hynes and Mr.. Finerty insisted that
such a pronunciation was not common in
Ireland, and might not be heard there In
many days.
Few comedians have a more perfect
Irish accent than Mr.. +. J. Mccarthy, who
is now playing with Grenier's Opera COM
pany. Mr.. Mccarthy Is native Of Erin.
He has paid no attention to the conven-
tional stage dialect but has studied the
Irish tongue as spoken in Ireland and by
newly arrived immigrants here. and rem
ders the Munster broguc in its purity.
"There are comedians who pay no at
tention to the conventional brogue," said
Mr.. Mccarthy, .tbut they are few. Many
fall into errors In following the accepted
ideas of Irish accent. For instance, Joe
Murphy in playing in The Colleen Bawn'
in San Francisco was criticised for saying
the lard lieutenant In Ireland they
pronounce it 'leftenant.' In studying the
Irish tongue you win find that you can
follow general rules in pronunciation, but
that will occasionally lead you wrong.
An Irishman might say .lave' for leave
but he would not say srelave' for relieve
Irishmen coming to America often get
pronunciation here which iSapdder than
anything you will hear in Cork. They
got cross between the broad Irish and
the straight American. / find that it
helps one very much to have correct
pronunciation of the Hibernian. The Irish
accent is simply English Hibernianized.
Irish-Americans do not pronounce their
names here as they do in Ireland. We
accent Moran on the last syllable. In
Ireland it is Morn with long O. The a
in the final syllable is scarcely heard.
Parnen is given a strong accent on the
last syllable, with a trill on the II, and
there is close approach to u bur on the r.
Irishmen do not say loike or foine for like
or fine. That is nearer the Lancashire
dialect. One of the best authorities on
the Irish dialect is William Carleton. in
his "Tales and Sketches of the Irish
Peasantry.' '"-IChicago News.