Hiberno-English

"Irish English" redirects here. Not to be confused with British rule in Ireland, Irish migration to Great Britain, List of English words of Irish origin, or Anglo-Irish people.

Hiberno-English
Irish English
Anglo-Irish
English
Native toIreland
RegionIreland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland); Great Britain; United States; Australia; Canada (diaspora)
EthnicityIrish people
Native speakers
5+ million in the Republic of Ireland[1] 6.8 million speakers in Ireland overall. (2012 European Commission)[2]
275,000 L2 speakers of English in Ireland (European Commission 2012)
Early forms
Dialects
Latin (English alphabet)
Unified English Braille
Official status
Regulated by–
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologiris1255
IETFen-IE
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Speech example
An example of a man with a non-local Dublin accent (Dara Ó Briain)
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Speech example
An example of a woman from Connacht with a supraregional Irish accent (Mary Robinson)
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Speech example
An example of a man with a non-local (advanced) Dublin accent (Donal MacIntyre)
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Hiberno-English[a] or Irish English (IrE),[5] also formerly sometimes called Anglo-Irish,[6] is the set of dialects of English native to the island of Ireland.[7] In both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, English is the dominant first language in everyday use and, alongside the Irish language, one of two official languages (with Ulster Scots, in Northern Ireland, being yet another local language).

Irish English's writing standards, such as its spelling, align with British English.[8] However, Irish English's diverse accents and some of its grammatical structures and vocabulary are unique, including certain notably conservative phonological features: features no longer common in the accents of England or North America. It shows significant influences from the Irish language and, in the north, the Scots language.

Phonologists today often divide Irish English into four or five overarching dialects or accents:[9][10] Ulster or Northern Irish accents, Western and Southern Irish accents (like Cork accents), various Dublin accents, and a non-regional standard accent (outside of Ulster) whose features are shifting since only the last quarter of the 20th century onwards.

  1. ^ "Ireland Population (2021) – Worldometer". Worldometers.info. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  2. ^ English (Ireland) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  3. ^ "Definition of 'Hiberno-'". CollinsDictionary.com. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  4. ^ "Hiberno-English". merriam-webster.com.
  5. ^ Hickey (2007a)
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Christiansen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Hiberno-English Archive". DRAPIer. IE: DHO. Archived from the original on 16 September 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  8. ^ Hickey, Raymond (ed.) (2012). Standards of English: Codified Varieties Around the World. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press. pp. 99–100.
  9. ^ de Gruyter 2004, pp. 90–93
  10. ^ Hickey, Raymond (2004). A Sound Atlas of Irish English. Vol. 1. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 57–60. ISBN 978-3-11-018298-9. Archived from the original on 16 May 2015.


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