38: Ancient language & Irish dialects in County Cavan

Published on the 10^th of August 2024 by Linden Alexander Pentecost. This article contains a note, to begin with, followed by the primary sections: Introduction, Bréifne and pre-Indo-European language, Features of Cavan Irish, Reference:. This article contains 1303 words.

Note that in terms of the actual content in relation to Cavan Irish, this article only briefly introduces some features of these dialects. This is partially because whilst I have developed spelling systems for Scottish Gaelic dialects, I have not done this for Irish, and my research in many Irish dialects is not advanced enough at this stage to be able to work out any possible means of spelling particular Irish dialects, thus here I am mainly identifying primary phonetic features.

Introduction, Bréifne and pre-Indo-European language

County Cavan, in Irish: Contae an Chabháin or Condaidh an Chabháin in Ulster Irish, is a part of the traditional province of Ulster, a landlocked county, bordering County Fermanagh, Contae Fhear Manach, County Monaghan, Contae Mhuineacháin, County Meath, Contae an Mí, County Longford, Contae an Longfoirt and County Westmeath, Contae an hIarmhí.

County Cavan was once a part of the ancient kingdom of Bréifne, which I have discussed elsewhere, including the likely pre-Indo-European etymology of this place-name. A certain group of pre-Celtic languages in Ireland can likely be identified through the appearance of certain sounds and sound clusters in unusual words, note the br- in Bréifne for example, and the f. I have also written about this, and the manifestation of certain consonant clusters in relation to pre-Celtic languages in Ireland, many times elsewhere.

Little is known, at least from presently known records, of the Irish dialects of County Cavan as a whole. The possibility that a pre-Celtic language (other than Shelta) could have survived here until relatively recently, can also not be entirely ruled out, as I have already indicated elsewhere in relation to Bréifne. Earlier this year I had an article published in Silly Linguistics about a possibly identifiable pre-Celtic language known as Béarlagair na Saor. Another likely attested (with two words), pre-Celtic language is the ancient Iarnnbērlæ language of Ireland, see the article in the following link for an introduction to this on this website: https://www.bookofdunbarra.co.uk/website-articles-10-19/14-iarnnberlae-a-pre-celtic-language-in-ireland

The most attested, in my opinion partially pre-Indo-European language in Ireland, is Shelta. I am not convinced that Shelta was the primary pre-Indo-European language of Bréifne, but the two are no doubt connected. I also met some indigenous Irish traveller people in Enniskillen (close to the border with County Cavan) who spoke some Shelta, which did imply to me the continuation of pre-Indo-European language in this part of Ireland, even if their language is not, I don’t think, the same as that connected to Bréifne.

Features of Cavan Irish

The only records for Cavan Irish I have been able to find are available as audio recordings with transcriptions on the Doegen records website. All of these recordings are of the native Cavan Irish speaker, Seán Éamuinn Ruaidhrí Mhag Uidhir, of Gleann Gaibhleann in northwestern County Cavan. Phonetic transcriptions of his language are available in source (1), Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects - Vol. IV: The dialects of Ulster and the Isle of Man, specimens of Scottish Gaelic dialects, phonetic texts of East Ulster Irish, by Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Ph.D.

The first thing I would like to mention is the interesting treatment of the Irish slender r in an initial consonant cluster, where in the Cavan Irish of Seán Mac Uighir, the [ɾʲ] can become a semivowel, [j]. In source (1) which has transcriptions of the recordings of Seán Mac Uighir, this can be more clearly observed, and is found for example in the word breithiúnas – “judgement”, where the initial [bʲɾʲ] is pronounced as [bʲj], from what I understand of the transcription given for this word in Source (1). A similar thing can be seen in for example: preátaí – “potatoes”, where the initial [pʲɾʲ] consonant cluster is pronounced as [pʲj], according to how I understand the transcriptions in source (1). This is quite interesting in relation to the previous section, in which I talk about the occurrence of certain consonant clusters in relation to possibly pre-Indo-European languages in Ireland, although it would seem perhaps in this case that the Irish of this part of Cavan, and whatever previous languages were present there, may not have pronounced these ancient consonant clusters in the same manner.

There are various other features of Cavan Irish that immediately set it apart from other Ulster Irish dialects. One example is the pronunciation of raibh, “was”, as [ɾˠəi]. I have based my phonetic spellings of the previous two words on the pronunciations given in source (1) but have not written it exactly as so in this source. This pronunciation is not a specifically Ulster feature. Generally in Ulster Irish, what is represented in the Caighdeán Oifigiúil spelling as raibh is sometimes written and pronounced as though robh or rabh in Ulster Irish, with rabh being common in East Ulster. The pronunciation as [ɾˠəi] suggests that this Cavan form is in many ways closer to the Connaught and Munster pronunciations than to Ulster pronunciations in general. Note a form of raibh containing an [e]-like vowel rather than an [a] is also found in the language of Seán Éamuinn Ruaidhrí Mhag Uidhir according to transcriptions in source (1).

Another curious feature of the language of Seán Éamuinn Ruaidhrí Mhag Uidhir is the pronunciation of fuíolach – “remainder” is pronounced with what I understand to be an initial [fwyə]- (i.e. the fuío-) part of this word, according to what I understand of the transcription given in Source (1), although I am unsure of the exact value of [y] given for Cavan Irish in source (1). Certainly this would seem to indicate that a long [i] sound can become [y] in this dialect, although fuíolach, spelled fuíollach in source (1) is in itself a rare word of unknown etymology, to my knowledge.

As a final comment, for now, I would like to comment briefly on the classification of the language of Seán Éamuinn Ruaidhrí Mhag Uidhir. Certainly, at least from my own feelings, this dialect of Irish is quite “central” and does not contain many of the features that commonly set apart the dialects of West and East Ulster as a whole. Could this perhaps be because Irish was spoken alongside other languages in this part of Ireland until relatively recently, hence why the language of Seán Éamuinn Ruaidhrí Mhag Uidhir could have been ideal for communication with other dialects, but not necessarily the only language in this part of Ireland? In terms of the prosody, indeed I do feel that this varies significantly from that of other Ulster dialects, although this is something that I will study in more detail in the future and publish about in a future publication. In a separate, future publication, I hope also to write about the Roscommon Irish dialects of Connaught.

See also this relatively recently published article via the following link which includes information on Louth Irish: https://www.bookofdunbarra.co.uk/website-articles-30-45/33-language-in-leinster-and-louth-irish-dialects

Reference:

.(1). Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects - Vol. IV: The dialects of Ulster and the Isle of Man, specimens of Scottish Gaelic dialects, phonetic texts of East Ulster Irish, by Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Ph.D.