As to the third main source--the gradual growth of dialect among our English-speaking people--it is not necessary to make any special observations about it here; as it will be found illustrated all through the book.
Owing to these three influences, we speak in Ireland a very distinct dialect of English, which every educated and observant Englishman perceives the moment he sets foot in this country. It is most marked among our peasantry; but in fact none of us are free from it, no matter how well educated. { 8} This does not mean that we speak bad English; for it is generally admitted that our people on the whole, including the peasantry, speak better English--nearer to the literary standard--than the corresponding classes of England. This arises mainly--so far as we are concerned--from the fact that for the last four or five generations we have learned our English in a large degree from books, chiefly through the schools.
So far as our dialectical expressions are vulgar or unintelligible, those who are educated among us ought of course to avoid them. But outside this a large proportion of our peculiar words and phrases are vivid and picturesque, and when used with discretion and at the right time, give a sparkle to our conversation; so that I see no reason why we should wipe them out completely from our speech so as to hide our nationality. To be hypercritical here is often absurd and sometimes silly.
I well remember on one occasion when I was young in literature perpetrating a pretty strong Hibernicism in one of my books. It was not forbidding, but rather bright and expressive: and it passed off, and still passes off very well, for the book is still to the fore. Some days after the publication, a lady friend who was somewhat of a pedant and purist in the English language, came to me with a look of grave concern--so solemn indeed that it somewhat disconcerted me--to direct my attention to the error. Her manner was absurdly exaggerated considering the occasion. Judging from the serious face and the voice of bated breath, you might almost imagine that I had committed a secret murder and { 9} that she had come to inform me that the corpse had just been found.
The various Irish modes of affirming, denying, &c., will be understood from the examples given in this short chapter better than from any general observations.