Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/55

40 between what is ended and what is coming is Ní'l tracht air, ‘there is no talking about it,’ corresponding to the English ‘in short,’ or ‘to make a long story short.’ These Irish expressions are imported into our English, in which popular phrases like the following are very often heard:—‘I went to the fair, and there's no use in talking, I found the prices real bad.’

'Wisha my bones are exhausted, and there's no use in talking, My heart is scalded, a wirrasthru.' (Old Song.)

‘Where is my use in staying here, so there's no use in talking, go I will.’ (‘Knocknagow.’) Often the expression takes this form:—‘Ah ’tis a folly to talk, he'll never get that money.’

Sometimes the original Irish is in question form. Cid tracht (‘what talking?’ i.e. ‘what need of talking?’) which is Englished as follows:—‘Ah what's the use of talking, your father will never consent.’ These expressions are used in conversational Irish-English, not for the purpose of continuing a narrative as in the original Irish, but—as appears from the above examples—merely to add emphasis to an assertion.

‘It's a fine day that.’ This expression, which is common enough among us, is merely a translation from the common Irish phrase is breagh an lá é sin, where the demonstrative sin (that) comes last in the proper Irish construction: but when imitated in English it looks queer to an English listener or reader.

‘There is no doubt that is a splendid animal.’ This expression is a direct translation from the Irish Ní'l contabhairt ann, and is equivalent to the English ‘doubtless.’ It occurs often in the Scottish dialect also:—‘Ye need na doubt I held my whisht’ (Burns).