Munster Irish - Lexicon

Lexicon

Munster Irish differs from the Ulster and Connacht dialects in a number of respects. Some words and phrases used in Munster Irish are not used in the other dialects, such as:

• in aon chor (Corca Dhuibhne, West Muskerry, Waterford) or ar aon chor (Clear Island, West Carberry) "at any rate" (other dialects ar chor ar bith (Connacht) and ar scor ar bith (Ulster)
• fé, fí "under" (standard faoi)
• Gaelainn "Irish language" (Cork and Kerry), Gaeilinn (Waterford) (standard Gaeilge)
• ná "that...not; do not" (standard nach)
• leis "also" (Connacht freisin, Ulster fosta)
• anso or atso "here" and ansan or atsan "there" instead of standard anseo and ansin, respectively
• In both demonstrative pronouns and adjectives speakers of Munster Irish diffentiate between seo "this" and sin "that" following a palatalised consonant or front vowel and so "this" and san "that" following a velarised consonant or back vowel in final position: an bóthar so "this road", an bhó san "that cow", an chairt sin "that cart", an claí seo "this fence"
• the use of thá instead of tá in the extreme west of Corca Dhuibhne and in Ring
• the preposition chuig "to, towards", common in Connacht Irish and Ulster Irish where it developed as a back formation from the 3rd person singular preposition chuige "towards him" is not used in Munster. The form chun (from Classical Irish do chum), also found in the West and North, is used in preference.
• Munster Irish uses a fuller range of "looking" verbs, while these in Connacht and Ulster are restricted: féachaint "looking", "watching", breithniú "carefully observing", amharc "look, watch", glinniúint "gazing, staring", sealladh "looking" etc.
• the historic dative form tigh "house", as in Scots and Manx Gaelic, is now used as the nominative form (Standard teach)
• Munster retains the historic form of the personal pronoun sinn "us" which has largely been replaced with muid (or muinn in parts of Ulster) in most situations in Connacht and Ulster.
• Corca Dhuibhne and Ring use the independent form cím (earlier do-chím) "I see" as well as the dependent form ficim / feicim (earlier ad-chím), while Muskerry and Clear Island use the forms chím (independent) and ficim.
• The adverbial forms chuige, a chuige in Corca Dhuibhne and a chuigint "at all" in Ring are sometimes used in addition to in aon chor or ar aon chor
• The adjective cuibheasach /kiːsəx/ is used adverbially in phrases such as cuibheasach beag "rather small", "fairly small", cuibheasach mór "quite large". Connacht uses sách and Ulster íontach
• Faic, pioc, puinn and tada in West Munster, dada in Ring, ní dúrt pioc "I said nothing at all", níl faic dá bharr agam "I have gained nothing by it"
• The interjections ambaiste, ambaist, ambasa, ambaic "Indeed!", "My word!", "My God!" in West Munster and amaite, amaite fhéinig in Ring (ambaiste = dom bhaisteadh "by my baptism", am basa = dom basaibh "by my palms", ambaic = dom baic "by my heeding"; amaite = dom aite "my oddness")
• obann "sudden" instead of tobann in the other major dialects
• práta "potato", fata in Connacht and préata in Ulster
• oiriúnach "suitable", feiliúnach in Connacht and fóirsteanach in Ulster
• nóimint, nóimit, nóimeat, neomint, neomat, nóiméad in Connacht and bomaite in Donegal
• Munster differentiates between ach go háirithe "anyway", "anyhow" and go háirithe "particularly", "especially"
• gallúnach "soap", gallaoireach in Connacht and sópa in Ulster
• deifir is "difference" in Munster, and is a Latin loan : níl aon deifir eatarthu "there is no difference between them"; the Gaelic word deifir "hurry" is retained in the other dialects.
• deabhadh or deithneas "hurry" whereas the other major dialects use deifir
• -(e)amhail used instead of standard -(i)úil in Dún Chaoin in words such as suimeamhail, cáirdeamhail, oifigeamhail, etc. instead of standard suimiúil, cáirdiúil, oifigiúil, etc.