I need to flesh out an Irish character.
The "help" available online is complete shit. Everything is stereotyped and sounds like an old Lucky Charms commercial.
Does anyone have some Irish colloquialisms or tips on phrasing?
Accents and Prases
Dominic Allen
Tyler Bailey
Accents and dialects are incredibly local. It's going to sound like Lucky Charms shit anyways.
David Jenkins
Yeah. I found that applies southern U.S. accents, too.
William Nelson
There is no individual Irish accent, the accent in Dublin is extremely different from the accent in Cork as it is to Belfast. And then you have radical social class variation on top of that.
We're talking about ways of speaking which were developed over millennia that contain every hallmark of every age they passed through from ancient Gaelic to Norman French to Tudor English. You're never going to distill it into phrases and easy to follow rules.
Honestly simply by asking this question you're too stupid to do this. Just pick a firm background for the character, copy the way some Irish actor speaks in a movie then write whatever and get some Irish person to read it over for you if you care about accuracy. It'll probably still be shit but whatever.
t. Dubliner
Bentley Reyes
I use words instead of accents. Transcribed accents are incredibly hard to do well, and it's best to just avoid it as much as possible. If you insist on it, then just google "irish twitter" it's a whole thing.
I'm writing a story that takes place in the south, and I'm just modifying my own slang depending on the person.
Chase Peterson
>I use words instead of accent
Also dangerous in Ireland. There are localized slang variations which aren't mutually intelligible. There's often talk of subtitling some of them.
Ryan Long
I meant english words. Like nae and dinnae.
Elijah Sanders
That's Scots.
Chase Hughes
I don't know, I've watched the rubberbandits skits.
Elijah Nguyen
>in the south
The South what? South Dublin? Munster? The entire Republic?
There is no such place as "the South" in Ireland, there is the North but one can not refer to a generic South. It has no identity as a place in the Irish mind, its simply Ireland.
Its like in reverse how in America you can talk about "The South" but there is no real speaking about "The North" stretching from New York to California. Even in a Civil War context its rarely used.
Jayden Thomas
You're wrong and mistaking them for other words
Mason Diaz
Southern appalachia. I'm from michigan and california originally, but I've got some pretty broad slang that I use. Since there are all kinds of people, I'm just avoiding writing people with thick accents and dialing my own slang up and down depending on the person. Some of em drop the g at the end of ing words, some of them use excessive ain't, y'all. That kind of thing.
If nothing else, I'm writing the story, and if I fucked it up too much, I can just go back and change it.
ok.
Anthony Russell
just have them go on about "craic" a lot
that's what 90% of irish conversations are about anyway
Kevin Thompson
>the rubberbandits skits.
that's middle class kids trying to do working class accents. the joke is that the working class would stab them up for being obvious poseurs/nearby.
Jose Bell
>american spent his tourist time here with crackheads and thought that's just how ireland is
come back anytime cousin
Angel Wright
>t. Dubliner
Aye there laddie! Janey Mack! Top of the mornin to ya! Jakers! Have ya happened to see me Lucky Charms? Saints preserve us! U2! Heard me a banshee keenin last night! With a wee bitty pint! A thousand Irish blessins upon ya, Tillie! James Joyce! (Dies from potato famine)
Lincoln Davis
Some one post the Professor Yank pasta
Jordan Bailey
I wasn't really after accent as much as sentence unique sentence structure, "Irish colloquialisms or tips on phrasing."
The character is an Irish transplant in West Texas. The language, without any specific phrasing, is nearly identical.
This is my fifth novel. Three have been bestsellers. My stupidity doesn't seem to affect book sales.
To the rest of you,
Thanks for the replies.
Adrian Williams
Watch some films/TV shows/etc with Irish people in them.
Doesn't hurt if they are a bit too broad/overdone.
e.g. The Quiet Man
Then just imagine one of those characters speaking in your situation.
Chase Gonzalez
It's not just the accents; this will give you a feel for the sentence structure/phrasing.
For example, at the end of The Quiet Man, IIRC, his wife needs to say, essentially, "I'll go home now because you'll want your supper when you get in."
What she actually says is something like:
"I'll be getting home now, for you'll be wantin' your supper directly you get back."
Aaron Kelly
>His novel has non-americans
Jacob Green
If he's from Northern Ireland just end every sentence with 'so it is'.
Chase Harris
That's exactly what I'm after.
Something to separate it from the way Texans speak. Texans use the same "goin', gonna, thinkin'" as the Irish. It's hard to draw a hard line in the dialogue.
Thanks.
Jacob Russell
Leo Rivera
>Three have been bestsellers.
As if that word means anything
Bentley Nguyen
Watch Irish movies, read Irish books. Don't watch hollyshit movies about Ireland, they're rife with unhelpful crap. Most things made by the Irish film board are a good source. The Guard and In Bruges are two movies I'd recommend for the slang and sense of humour. Father Ted is also a good source.
Gavin Myers
Hai boi, what's the craic? Aye not bad maself, so im not, so im not, hai. Don't spose yuh have a wee feg on ye big lad, am all out so i am. fawking nightmare so it is. Cheers pal.
Jackson Reyes
OK well pick a specific county background for him. For a Dubliner here's some key phrases which are not full on slang
"Ah sure its grand (alright)"
"Hey what's the story?" (What's up)
"Ah sure its no bother"
"Do you fancy (want) that?"
"He's mental (insane/eccentric)"
"He's gone mental (out of control, through anger or insanity)"
Michael Gonzalez
>essex by way of fermanagh
stop
Aiden Diaz
my favorite thing is that they say think instead of thing
Jackson Gutierrez
Other way around you mean right
Brayden Watson
nope. watch dylan moran
Ian Wood
Ian Moore
Henry Morales
Angel Taylor
>that English voice that sounds like they're going to die at any moment
I'm Irish and I never got that joke
Nicholas Sullivan
I kind of see what you mean but it doesn't quite sound like a k. I don't know how to describe the sound though
Connor Perez
It's a sharp g. Sort of nasal, like the back of the tongue is pressed to the far back of the palate. Like the 'ck' in thick.
Aiden Murphy
Ah yeah thats exactly it. Good ear
Liam White
I almost pissed myself trying to understand the shoes in the snow.
This is some good shit. I thought about asking /pol/ about it, accommodating for the time change, but I doubt I'd have gotten nearly the information.
Thanks again.
This is some good shit.
Jonathan Jenkins
Bestsellers doesn't mean much anymore, does it?
The metric was destroyed by Amazon and their freebies.
Samuel Foster
just read finnegans wake that's how real irishmen talk
Sebastian Baker
These clips are great.
I don't know how to read Veeky Forums...I do know I can't thank everybody, but thanks, everybody.
Hunter Wood
>Not posting the ultimate in Irish kino
youtube.com
Ian Jackson
Holy Shit!
I've been trying to remember that title forever.
I read that it was the most underrated books of all time.
Julian Rogers
Feck
Fucks sake
Fucking deadly
Justin Moore
jesus christ
Levi Wright
Irish Gaelic did not have a single word for affirmative like "yes" in English so you'll notice many Irish will respond to "yes or no" questions with a verb.
Example:
Q: "Are you feeling alright today?"
A: "I am."
Q: "Have you gone out today?"
A: "I've not."
They also like to say funny shit like gobshite and eejit.
Matthew Wilson
I've asked for advice on a shitload of other sites, (I just became aware of Veeky Forums through a shitpost on /pol/) and I've never gotten a fraction of the feedback I've gotten here. Shitholes like the Author's Den and the thirty or forty other sites I've created a profile on, are insecure fucks looking to shit on something.
Shit, I feel like that, too.
I was a complete retard in school, and I wrote my first book on a bet, so I don't know shit about writing as most "writers" know it. I didn't start reading classic literature until after I got published. I've read some Vonnegut and Salinger and Tom Robbins and I tried to read Moby Dick (the movies were better), but the best writing I've ever come across has been posted on the internet in sentences and paragraphs.
I read something the other day that sounded cool as shit. Of course, I had to google it to see what the fuck it said. "All the men of the Areopagus are dead!
The dogs lap up their remains in Jezreel!
You’ll know the ransom true when your fetters are struck off!"
Sounds like something Jesus or Speed Racer would say, right?
Ah fuckit, I'm drunk.
Thanks for your help, all of you.
Ethan Russell
That's less about the Gaelic roots and more about Irish people being crafty assholes
Cooper Anderson
Have a good one dude and good luck
Adrian Richardson
yah but that's gypsy Irish, only people in the traveling community speak like that.
The Irish vernacular comes from a fear of definite possibilities. Yes and no answers are too certain for Irish people.
For example, upon asking someone to hang out you are unlikely to hear 'No' but rather 'Aye, maybe sure we'll see what happens'. You are also unlikely to hear 'yes' but rather 'Yeah, probably, that sounds good'. You could hear variations of these answers, as long as there is leeway for the Irish person to not show up at all if they desired.
Time is viewed in a similar manner. A 'wee minute' is anything but a period of time lasting 60 seconds or less. And if someone tells you to wait for a 'few minutes' be prepared for a long boring time. By fooling you into thinking you will be waiting for a very short period of time the Irish person can take as long as they desire.
Also, remember that 'cunt' is a fun word, like in England and Australia. And film is pronounced fil-um.
And sometimes to put emphasis on a point they are making, an Irish person will finish their sentence with 'so it is'. This is especially in the north. Also finishing sentences with 'but'. This really knocks Americans for six. The trick is that a sentence such as 'I like X but I really love Y' could become 'Awwwwwwww anyone else love Y but?'