Is there any diffence between Ireland and American, language wise?

Question

I know that Ireland has different slang than the US (if you could also list some of that, it'd muc much appreciated, thank'e) but do they speak English? I was told they speak english, but then I was told by another person that they speak Gaelic. Any help would be awesome, thanks!

Answer 1

There is a huge difference between US and Hiberno-English. Absolutely enormous. As great a difference as between US and UK English, actually.

Ireland has two official languages, English and Irish, which is also called Gaeilge. Gaelic is the dialect of Irish spoken in Scotland. Many Americans make this mistake.

Everyone in Ireland speaks English, every region has its own accent and dialect, there are places where Irish is the language used by the locals, these places are known as Gaeltachts.

English spoken in Ireland, particularly in the West, is very strongly influenced by Irish idioms and phrases. I have heard local people in the west where I live say 'I had no mass on him' which probably makes no sense to anyone who has not learned some Irish. This is a literal translation of the phrase 'Ni raibh aon meas agam air', of which the English equivalent is 'I had no respect for him'.

As for slang, well, the likes of MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and all those social networking sites are spreading slang all around the world.

Answer 2

I'm an American and visited there last summer. Everyone spoke English, but many people also new Gaelic fluently. I'm guessing a tiny, tiny, tiny number of Irish people only know Gaelic. I'm guessing everyone you'll meet will speak English.

Whether you can understand their accents is a different story... ;D

Answer 3

some people speak irish but that is only in  the gaeltacht areas (the places where Irish is spoken fluently)

Irish is an official language in Ireland

English is the second official language

but there ar some slang words that are always used.

the word hurling is a sport here, NOT throwing up!!!

and if you have trouble understanding the irish Dont go to Kerry because their accent is strong

the irish-english words are colour(color), curtains(drapes) Parking lot (car park), boot of a car(trunk)

the irish names of places are also put on sign posts

but you shouldnt have much difficulty if your going there on understanding the accent and language

=) :)

Answer 4

If you mean north Ireland then being british its easy to get along. South is a mixture of gaelic and other things and english. They speak at the speed of a bullet train for some unknown reason but if you can stay there a while you will gradually underestand some of it.

Answer 5

Gaelic is the official language, although only about 1% of the population speaks it daily.  

English is the second official language, and is spoken by almost everybody.

Answer 6

I've talked to many Irish and they talk English but have a few off words much like we do. there more slang words.I have no problem understanding them..they just have an accent.. but then again they say i have one also

Answer 7

from talking to people online that are American, there is an awful lot of words different than what we'd use everyday in Ireland.

only parts of counties Donegal (north west) Mayo, Galway, Clare (all in the west), Cork, Kerry (south), waterford (south east) and meath (north-east) have gaeltacht regions and it's in these places where they speak Irish (gaelic) everyday. the rest of the country speaks English as their first language. I live in county meath but not in rathcairn or Baile Ghib (which are meath's gaeltacht areas) and I speak English everyday.

for some Irish slang:

http://www.dublin1850.com/general/4mymof...

Answer 8

yeah, everybody speaks english (for better or worse, haha).

irish is like compulsory in schools nd a lot of people hates to study it. government isnt really doing very well in keeping the language alive- such a pity!

anyway, in some areas in the west irish is still spoken, mostly among older population. irish is anyway compulsory to be able to work in certain places for government, tvs or papers.

irish influences very much the way they speak. these are some words with gaelic origin that are now widely used: shamrock, whiskey, bother, blarney, smithereens, banshee.

these words are used in ireland, and also have gaelic origin: craic, lad, coleen, potheen, tinker, culchie, bewer, cham, scam...

among specific pronunciation xaracteristics, u may notice:

-pron. of 't' in words such as 'think' or 'thirty', is not /zink/ or /zerty/, but just /Tink/ and /Terti/.

-pron of 'x' in words such as 'sixty' or 'dismal' is not /sikxti/ or /dismal/ but /shiksti/ and /dishmal/.

-**** is not /****/ but /shait/. except in dublin, where they say /shoit/. also, in dublin other words such as 'car', 'right' are not pron /kar/ and /rait/ but /kor/ and /roish/.

obviously this is not always true as each eprson has been exposed to different inputs, but you probably might hear all these things around the country ;)

Answer 9

Irish speak English with a particular accent. Irish (or Gaelic, like some people call it) is the official language but only a few people are fluent. The English spoken in Ireland is more similar to the UK English, but the accent is unique, and each county has its particular accent. Also they use some expressions that come from the Irish language. Americans tend not to understand some of the typical Irish/British expression, but Irish and Brits have no problem with the American English (thanks to TV, probably!).

Some example of very Irish expressions:

Craic (Irish word, means "fun")

Thanks a mill (comes from "mile", meaning 1,000, and sometimes people say "thanks a million")

It's half 1, 2, 3 etc (meaning its 1:30, 2:30, 3:30 etc... for time)

Here's how the Irish would say very american expressions instead:

Awesome - Brilliant

Potatoes - Spuds

Bacon - Rashers

Chips - Crisps

Fries - Chips

There are loads of examples. You should just visit Ireland and you'll see for yourself!

Answer 10

Is there a major difference? No

However - as with most regions - Ireland has it's fair share of slang. With regards to the slang - you will probably be able to grasp it's meaning from the sentence in full, and if not a) ask or b) do exactly what the other people who listened to the sentence do, pretending you understood every word. You will probably find that, moving further away from the capital, the language becomes slightly more (but not in a way that would hamper you) coloquiallised (sp?). There is a reasonably strong Irish accent - especially in The extreme North and South but again, nothing that would prevent you from understanding the vast majority of conversations.

As has been said - The Republic of Ireland has two official languages - Irish (gaelic) and English. The vast, vast majority of the country speaks English day-to-day, whilst a small number of regions (known as Gaeltachts) speak Irish day-to-day (but will also speak English fluently).

Oh and also - if you are staying in the countryside - be prepared to be called a "yank" alot (but in a nice way).

Answer 11

the majority speak english everyday...almost everyone can speak irish too

there is different slang in almost every county!  you can have a look here for  some of it...http://slang.ie/

Answer 12

Have a look at this article about the type of English spoken in Ireland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno_Eng...

It tells you about the slightly different phrase structures (which come from the Irish language) and some slang.