In Ireland, there is no doubt that we speak our own version of English. It is often referred to as Hiberno-English.
But what most people who move to Ireland to live or who visit Ireland don’t learn is the amount of differences in accents and phrases across the Country. Arguably every 20 or so minutes you will hear a different accent in Ireland and each locality has its own unique phrases and sayings.
I always describe it to my Guests on Tours that Ireland is a similar size to the state of New Jersey in the US and where there would only be a handful of accents but there is arguably anywhere up to 50 here on the island of Ireland!
I have highlighted below influences on accents in three different areas below:
- The accents in the West of Ireland are definitely influenced by the Irish Language and how letters are pronounced in that Language. That’s a lot to do with the Irish Language being more prevalent in the West of Ireland or as they say “The Whhhest”!!!
- The accents in the Northern Provence of Ulster would be influenced by the Ulster Plantations in the 1600s, mostly coming from Scotland. So there is a lot of Scottish influence in how people sound and speak with examples being words like “wee” and “aye” being commonly used in both.
- And the (posh) accent of Dublin’s Southside is influenced by the aristocracy of England, with elongated vowel pronunciations, who had Dublin as the centre of their historic rule until our Independence.
But Dublin itself has two clear different accents, generally perceived by which part of the River Liffey you live on.
Dublin’s Southside is easier to understand and as outlined influenced by England’s posh artistocracy and arguably Californian TV today. I joke it is Dublin’s version of “Valley Girls”!! Bob Geldof, of Live Aid fame, is a great example of somebody with that accent! Others include Brian O’Driscoll (famous rugby player) and Leo Vardakar (our former Taoiseach/Prime Minister).
But the more authentic (Northside) Dublin accent, which is in truth heard all across Dublin, is much harder to understand for non Dubliners as those with stronger versions of that accent speak fast and with lots of slang. And the joke in Dublin is that those speaking with a true Dublin accent don’t speak English but speak their own version of English, we call “Dublinese”!!!!!!
The (Northside) Dublin accent generally doesn’t pronounce “t” at the end of the sentence and if a word starts with a “th” then that is often pronounced as a “d” like “this, that, these and those” would be pronounced like “dis, dat, dese and do-se”.
Even the word “the” is simply pronounced as the letter “d”!!! The most well known person worldwide with the accent would be UFC Fighter Conor McGregor, but the less we say about him the better.
But what really make Dublin people hard to understand is the amount of slang we use! That is what makes it like a Language in itself. I know that when I speak to a friend I speak so differently that what I would speak on my Tours. If I tried to deliver a Tour speaking our version of “Dublinese” than all I would get from Guests is blank faces!!!!!
These videos give you a flavour of some of Dublin’s most common phrases and their meaning. They are in truth just a small flavour of the multitude of phrases we have but it will give you an idea!
If your looking for something unique to do in Dublin and have a real fun. laid back experience in Dublin then book on Real Dublin Culture Private Tour. The Tour will allow you to really understand Dublin and get the real authentic Dublin experience when you’re visiting Dublin!
On the Real Dublin Culture Private Tour you will get to learn about common Dublin slang, fascinating historic Dublin characters, funny Dublin stories and for a bit of craic possibly get to try out the phrases sitting down in a local Dublin setting!!!
The Tour will enable you to really understand Dublin people but also will be able to really converse with Dublin locals and it will enhance your experience in Dublin tenfold!
G’wan ya good thing, for the love of jaysus, get ur man and ur wan signed up to the Tour!!!!!
DUBLIN PRIVATE TOUR 