Jesus. In addition, // and /υ/ are distributed in different and unpredictable ways so that
/
υ/ may occur in words such as mother, sup or cut. In addition, there is reportedly a great
deal of variation between /
ɒ/ and /ɔ/ in such words as cross, loss, lost, often, cost. Also
/
/ and /e/ regularly merge before a nasal so that pin = pen.
The actual quality of further vowels may differ markedly. /
ɒ/ is usually unrounded [ɑ],
more like the GenAm realization than the RP version. /
/ is more open [a], and // is
further back [
ɔ
¨
]. The diphthongs /a
/ and /aυ/ tend to have higher initial elements: [ə]
and [
əυ], respectively; and /ɔ/ is not distinguished from /a/ in all environments by all
speakers.
The 24 consonants of RP and GenAm are matched by 22 in some varieties of IrE and
the full 24 in others. The difference of two lies in the fact that for many speakers (in Cork
and parts of Dublin) /
θ/ and /ð/ have merged with /t/ and /d/ respectively. Most speakers,
however, distinguish these phonemes, even though the distinction may not be recogniz-
able to non-Irish ears: /t/ is articulated at the alveolar ridge while /
θ/ is commonly dental
[t
], sometimes the affricate [tθ] and, in more sophisticated speech, [θ]; in the same fashion
/d/ is alveolar, and /
ð/ is [d] as well as [dð] and [ð]. The general lack of phonetic [θ] and
[
ð] as well as the split between dental and alveolar-palatal /t/ and /d/ can be attributed to
the influence of the phonology of Irish. Furthermore, a final /t/ (sometimes even a prevo-
calic /t/) may be realized as a voiceless alveolar slit fricative [t
*] as in hit [ht*]. Note that
intervocalic /t/ may be flapped and voiced [ t
+] (as in GenAm) or even [ɾ] or it may be
glottalized [
ʔ] (as in much popular urban speech in England and Scotland). Indeed, there
seems to be increasing influence from urban British usage due to the great amount of
emigration to Britain (with the consequent return visits in Ireland) and also due to a certain
amount of permanent resettlement in Ireland after a period of work in Great Britain.
In IrE the two palatal stops, /k/ and /
,/, are differentiated into the velar allophones [k]
and [
,] and the more palatal ones [kj] and [,j] as in [kjar] car or [,jardən] garden in
some of the more conservative accents. The latter, ‘palatalized’ realizations are condi-
tioned by a following front vowel and hence correspond to the phonotactic regularities
of Irish. Other instances of the influence of Irish phonology in IrE are the realization of
/w/ as a voiced bilabial fricative [
β] and a clear [l] everywhere. In words borrowed from
Irish /x/ may be retained (Taoiseach ‘Prime Minister’ [
tiʃəx]).
A final interesting example of the influence of the substratum on pronunciation is the
carry-over of what might be called consonant harmony within consonant clusters. In Irish
the last consonant in a cluster determines whether the cluster as a whole will be made up
of palatalized or unpalatalized consonants. In this sense the following consonants of IrE
count as palatal: /t, d,
ʃ, , n, l/ and the following as non-palatal: /t, d, s, z, r/. Concretely
this means that a cluster such as /str/ (strong) will be non-palatal because of cluster-final
/r/. /s/ is already non-palatal and is unproblematic, but /t/ is palatal and will therefore be
realized as [t
] thus producing [strɑŋ]. Most non-Irish will not notice this, but more obvious
is the following case: /l/ and /n/ and /t/ are palatal, hence a preceding /s/ in, say, slow or
snow or stop must be palatal /
ʃ/. The result is [ʃlo] and [ʃno] and [ʃtɑp].
Vocabulary The vast majority of words in IrE are identical with those in other vari-
eties of StE. In non-standard usage IrE does, however, include a number of words which
represent older or regional usage in Great Britain or which reflect the effects of the Irish
substratum. Examples of older items are cog ‘to cheat on an exam’, airy ‘gay, light-
hearted’, or bowsey ‘a disreputable drunkard’; instances of dialect words are kink ‘spasm
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