'Tipperary boys, Although we are cross and _contrairy_ boys';
and this word 'contrairy' is universal in Munster.
In Tipperary the vowel _i_ is generally sounded _oi_. Mick Hogan a Tipperary boy--he was a man indeed--was a pupil in Mr. Condon's school in Mitchelstown, with the full rich typical accent. One morning as he walked in, a fellow pupil, Tom Burke--a big fellow too--with face down on desk over a book, said, without lifting his head--to make fun of him--'_foine_ day, Mick.' 'Yes,' said Mick as he walked past, at the same time laying his hand on Tom's poll and punching his nose down hard against the desk. Tom let Mick alone after that 'foine day.' Farther south, and in many places all over Ireland, they do the reverse:--'The kettle is _biling_';
'She smiled on me like the morning sky, And she won the heart of the prentice _bye_.'
The old English pronunciation of _oblige_ was _obleege_:--
'Dreaded by fools, by flatterers besieged, And so obliging that he ne'er obliged.'
Among the old-fashioned and better-educated of our peasantry you will still hear this old pronunciation preserved:--I am very much obleeged to you. It is now generally heard in Kildare among all classes. A similar tendency is in the sound of _whine_, which in Munster is always made _wheen_: 'What's that poor child _wheening_ for?' also everywhere heard:--'All danger [of the fever] is now past: he is over his _creesis_.'
Metathesis, or the changing of the place of a letter or syllable in a word, is very common among the Irish people, as _cruds_ for _curds_, _girn_ for _grin_, _purty_ for _pretty_. I heard a man quoting from Shakespeare about Puck--from hearsay: he said he must have been a wonderful fellow, for he could put a _griddle_ round about the earth in forty minutes.' I knew a fellow that could never say _traveller_: it was always _throlliver_.
There is a tendency here as elsewhere to shorten many words: You will hear _garner_ for _gardener_, _ornary_ for _ordinary_. The late Cardinal Cullen was always spoken of by a friend of mine who revered him, as _The Carnal_.
_My_ and _by_ are pronounced _me_ and _be_ all over Ireland: Now _me_ boy I expect you home _be_ six o'clock.
The obscure sound of _e_ and _i_ heard in _her_ and _fir_ is hardly known in Ireland, at least among the general run of people. _Her_ is made either _herr_ or _hur_. They sound _sir_ either _surr_ (to rhyme with cur), { 104} or _serr_; but in this latter case they always give the _r_ or _rr_ what is called the slender sound in Irish, which there is no means of indicating by English letters. _Fir_ is also sounded either _fur_ or _ferr_ (a _fur_ tree or a _ferr_ tree). _Furze_ is pronounced rightly; but they take it to be a plural, and so you will often hear the people say _a fur bush_ instead of _a furze bush_.