Appendix: A Selection of Annotated Texts A number of short annotated texts are provided from written material and from recorded speech. These are meant to give the reader the opportunity to examine the techniques used over larger stretches of language. Most of the texts are from North­ ern Ireland since these are less easy to find than their equiva­ lents from Eire. Notes on these texts are given directly after each extract. A WILD-GOOSE CHASE The writer of A Wild-Goose Chase was a County Down bank manager, called Leslie Montgomery, who wrote under the name of 'Lynn Doyle'. It is said that he adopted his pseudonym from an advertisement for linseed oil, hence 'Lynn C. Doyle', and his interest in language suggests that such a story may be true. The story selected comes from Lobster Salad, which was published by Duckworth of London in 1922. I put all this before Mr Anthony, an' more to the back of it; but I might as well ha' saved my breath; for he was as obstinate as a he-ass when he had his mind made up about a thing. He was out to shoot a wild goose, an' a wild goose he would shoot, an' all the good I did by talkin' was 5 to make him that nervous of being caught that he fetched Appendix: A Selection of Annotated Texts 149 me over four barbed-wire fences an' a march-drain instead of goin' into the demesne by the road. An' if it did lift my heart a bit to see him leave the seat of his new shootin' breeches on the first wire-fence, I fell into the 10 drain myself an' got a cold that nearly brought me to my grave. We were pushin' along the edge of the wee wood that lay between us an' the marsh, Mr Anthony lead in' the way, wi' both barrels cocked, though the wather was a 15 quarther of a mile off yet, when all at once he jukes down behind the stump of a tree. 'Wheesht, Pat,' sez he. 'I see a rabbit on the path in front of us - not eighty yards away. I'll have a shot at it. It'll get my eye in.' 20 'Will ye be wise?' sez I. 'Isn't it bad enough runnin' the risk of a shot in the marsh without firin' wan here, where we're as near again to the Big House.' 'Hang the Big House,' sez he, all in a flurry; 'we're not within half a mile of it. An' I never seen a rabbit sittin' 25 betther for a shot. I couldn't miss it if I tried. It's away,' sez he, all disappointed, peepin' over the stump. 'Wait, it's not. I see it. But it's farther off than I thought; stay over here an' I'll double in among the trees.' An' away he goes, stalkin' in an' out, an crouchin' an' 30 crawlin', till he'd taken the price of half a dozen rabbits out of the remains of the shootin' suit. The divil of a rabbit could I see; an' presently Mr Anthony straightens himself an' steps out into the path again. When I got up to him he was rubbin' the eyeglass on a piece of shammy 35 leather, an' swearing most lamentable. 'What was it, Mr Anthony?' sez I. 'Is it gone?' 'A most extraordinary thing, Pat,' sez he, lookin' a bit foolish, an' rubbin' away like fury wi' the shammy. 'I'll be blest,' sez he, 'if it wasn't a bit of hayseed on my eyeglass 40 all the time. I'd have taken my oath it was a rabbit. I saw the scut an' the two ears as plain as I see you. If ye laugh, ye ould scoundrel,' sez he, 'I'll put the two barrels in ye.' 'Is it laugh at ye, Mr Anthony,' sez I. 'I wouldn't think of such a thing.' An' the next minit I was holdin' on to a 45 tree an' laughin' till I lost my breath. 150 THE LANGUAGE OF IRISH LITERATURE I'd ha' been laughin' yet, 1 believe, between the fun of the thing an' the look of Mr Anthony, but just as 1 was in the middle of a kink, there comes a whistle from up the path in front of us. 50 'By the Lord Harry, it's a gamekeeper; says Mr Anthony. 'Quick, Pat!' He grabbed the gun by the muzzle, an' stuck her well into a bunch of briers, an' the two of us down behind the briers on our hands an' knees. (pp. 108-11) Notes This story was published again in 1979 by Blackstaff Press, Belfast, in a book called Mr Anthony of Ballygullion. This later edition tends to use 'av' instead of 'of although it is somewhat inconsistent in having 'the stump "av" a tree' in one line, followed by 'in front "of' us' in the next. 1. 1 'to the back of it' = in support of my point 1. 2 The unstressed auxiliary 'have' is normally realised as 'a': 'I would a went'. She might a been a lookin'. (Someone might have been looking for her.) 1. 4 The foregrounding of 'an' a wild goose' is a feature of HE. See Chapter 2. 1. 6 The verb 'fetch' has a different distribution in NI. It tends to be used to mean 'go and get and bring with one': You'd betther fetch the taypot up. Sen your man out to fetch the docthor over. 1. 7 'march-drain' = the dividing trench between two properties 1. 11 'Bring' and 'take' are used differently in NI and England, with 'bring' frequently being used where English speakers have 'take': Would ye bring those books into my room, please. I'll be in behind you (i.e. directly). Appendix: A Selection of Annotated Texts 151 ll. 15-16 The interdental quality of the 't' in 'water' and 'quar­ ter' is indicated by the use of 'th'. 1. 16 )ukes' = hides 1. 18 'Wheesht' may have been influenced by the Gaelic struc­ ture 'Bi i do thost' meaning 'Be quiet'. The pronunciation of 'thost' is often 'hoo-isht'. 1. 22 In many parts of NI 'one' and 'swan' rhyme with 'fan'. 1. 23 The 'Big House' was the house in which the local gentry lived. In Tyrone, at least, the same term 'Teach mor' (house big) was applied to the house of the gentry and the lunatic asylum. 1. 25 The conventions in this line indicate that consonant clus­ ters such as 'nd' are often reduced in speech and On' is invariably substituted for 'ng'. 1. 32 There are many Gaelic structures using 'devil' which are found also in NHE. Among these are: 'An diabhal!' The divil! (You don't mean it!) 'Diabhal e!' Divil the bit! (Not at all!) 'An diabhal ort!' The divil tik ye! 'Caide an diabhal ... ?' What the divil ... ? 1. 35 'Shammy' is the regular pronunciation of 'chamois'. 1. 36 The use of an adjective 'most lamentable' for an adverb is a common feature of HE. See Chapter 2. 1. 42 'scut' = tail 1. 44 Such foregrounded constructions as 'Is it laugh at ye' are frequent in HE. 1. 49 'kink' = fit of coughing or laughing 1. 51 The expression 'By the Lord Harry' is old-fashioned in NI now but still heard. The expression also occurs in Henry IV, Part 1. The 'Harry' may have been Henry V. 11. 53-4 The verbless expression 'an' the two of us down' is common in colloquial narrative. NO MATE FOR THE MAGPIE The second text is taken from Frances Molloy'S novel No Mate for the Magpie, published in London by Virago Press in 1985. Molloy was born in Derry and uses a modified Derry dialect in her narrative. 152 THE LANGUAGE OF IRISH LITERATURE Me first impression of Dublin was that it was big an' if ye weren't very careful ye could get lost in it. Me wee brother had gone te Dublin a wheen of weks before me on account of the fact that it was aisier te get te the pictures there than it was in Derry, so when a landed in Dublin a 5 had hes address but a didn't know how te get te it. As luck would have it though, a had a tongue in my cheek so a decided to ask somebody for directions. The oul wan that a quizzed toul me te take a number nineteen bus all the way to the terminus. As soon as a thanked hir a seen a 10 nineteen bus comin' an' a got on it. While a was gettin' aff at the other en' a asked the conductor could he direct me te me brother's digs an' when a gave him the address he toul me it was fifteen miles away. A toul him that an oul wan had toul me te 15 take a number nineteen bus an' that that was what a had done. He toul me that a had got the right bus, only it was goin' the wrong direction. A asked him what the hell the number nineteen bus was doin', goin' in the wrong direction. He started to roar an' laugh at me an' said te 20 the driver, we've got a right culchie here, Mick. Atoui him what he could do way hes number nineteen bus an' gat aff. (p. 140) Notes l. 3 'a wheen' = a few l.