Accents and Dialects

It depends on what type of Irish accent you want to emulate. Contrary to pop culture, there is more than one Irish accent. The most notable accents in Ireland are the North Dublin Accent, the South Dublin Accent, the Midland Accent, the Western accent, the Northern Ireland Accent and the Cork Accent.

Note: There's no way you'll be able to pull off these accents simply by reading this, it's just a guide. The only way to do these accents is to listen to them. Also, many of these accents are stereotypical and may not accurately represent their region of origin but rather how the accent is commonly portrayed.

North Dublin: North Dublin accents are notable for the substitution of 'th' with 'd' (there becomes dere or dare) and 'ir' become 'oor' (first becomes foorst, burst becomes boorst). Though generally low sounding, North Dublin accents utilize a varied amount of inflections per sentence and sometimes per word. A 'd' sound can often be used instead of or after 'r' sounds in words (parents becomes padents or pardents). Because of the amount of traits and quirks, this is a difficult accent to recreate. North Dublin accents can be heard on the Irish soap 'Fair City' and more exaggerated (although possibly not in many cases) by Irish comedian Katherine Lynch's character, Sheila Sheik.

Ah, howiyas! What's da starry? Are ya well? Ah dah's grand, so it is!

"Ah, how are you all? What's up? Are you alright? Ah that's good."

South Dublin: South Dublin accents are sometimes considered a cross between an Irish accent and an American accent, and are recognisable for their replacement of 't' with 'sh' and 'a' and often 'u' with 'o' - (dart becomes dorsh, right becomes roysh, barf becomes borf). Stereotypical South Dublin or "D4" accents are peppered with "Oh my gawd!"s, "totally"s, "likes", and "hello"s. Like that of North Dublin, this is a difficult accent to emulate. The South Dublin accent is found in the Ross O'Carroll Kelly book series.

Oh my gawd, like, I sooo cawn't believe she totally just did that to you!

Oh my god. I really cannot believe that she did that to you.

Midlands Accent: the Midlands Accent is monotone and rather flat. It is found in the areas of Counties Tipperary, Laois, Offaly,Longford Carlow Westmeath, Kilkenny, and to an extent reaches down to Wexford in the South East. It is not musical by any means. The stronger versions would aspirate the vowel sounds: Get Out would be Ge H-out with the t in Get not pronounced and the vowel O in out being aspirated by a strong H sound.

Western Accents: This covers the areas of Clare, Galway Mayo, on the west coast. The accent I think that is most replicated in the American media is closest to the West Clare accent. Notable traits are the replacement of 's' sounds with 'sh' and 'u' sounds with 'a' (starving becomes shtarving, burst becomes barsht). Like most Irish accents, 'th' is almost always replaced with 't' (thin becomes tin, thick becomes tick) except for the word 'the'.

Howiye, lads? How's she cutting? Feck off now, or I'll barsht ye!

How are you all, gentleman? How are things? Now f*ck off, or I'll punch you.

Northern Ireland: This covers all of Northern Ireland including Donegal which is in the Republic but geographically is in the farthest part of the North West fo the country. Each county has a distinct version of the accent. Possibly the most difficult Irish accent to recreate, the Northern Ireland accent is also one of the more recognisable with the focus on 'e' and 'i' sounds. Many 'a' sounds are replaced with 'aw' sounds (adult becomes awdult, etc). The most notable change would possibly be the replacement of 'ow' and 'oo' with 'eye, igh or aye' sounds (now becomes nigh, bow - bigh, down -dine, do - dye, boo, bigh). 'Wee' can be used to pepper the accent ('Have ye got a wee box?')

Hay, I'm nee in toon, I'm locking for a wee halp.

Hi, I'm new in town, I'm looking for some help.

Cork and Kerry: These are located in the South West. The Cork Accent is one of the most infectious of Irish accents and the easiest to pick up. Its raising inflection and fluidity means that many who visit the county often return with its accent unknowingly. 'Boy' (pronounced like the Northern Ireland 'bigh') is frequently used to pepper sentences and phrases as well as 'Oh my god', all with a wavering but raising inflection. 'O' is commonly replaced with 'a' as well. (Cork becomes Cark, fork becomes fark). The Cork accent tends to have a faster pace than any other Irish accent, often making it the most difficult to understand.

What's the craic, boy? Oh my god! Will ye stop messing, like?!

What's up? Oh my god, will you stop that behaviour?

Misc: Ye is used to represent you (+1) in almost all accents except either Dublin accent where 'you' is used in the South and 'yous' or more accurately 'yis' is used in the North.

If you say 'Top of the morning to you', you will be instantly recognised as an impostor as this phrase is rarely to never used in the country.

'Howiya' is a common phrase meaning 'How are you? and used in many of the dialects, most notably North Dublin.

Well here you go, lots of tips to make you more Irish than the Irish themselves. For a better understanding of the Irish accents, I suggest going on YouTube and watching 'Learn To Speak Dublinese or any video with Katherine Lynch.

But increasingly the younger generation 30s down to teens especially if they are educated are speaking in non regional Irish accents so much so that Americans do not recognise them as Irish. They would be termed Mid Atlantic meaning they sound half way between Irish and American. But they do not speak in the defining nasal American accent; its just that they for example may pronounce the letter T like the BritishIrish T but as a D. Example: a lot of is pronounced as a Lotta. This is not true in all cases.

Also the O sound is getting more British like eouw but not as pronounced. It is not the old O as in OH. This is also the influence of the Dublin accent.

Yes, some animals do vocalize differently based on where they’re from. Scientists believe this is related to forming a group identity.

Some cool examples of this phenomenon:

• Caribbean sperm whales use a pattern of sounds no other group of whales uses, and pilot whales’ noises differ more between groups than within them.
• In one study, bats raised in a lab with their mothers were exposed to a different subset of bat vocalizations through speakers. Instead of just imitating their mothers, the baby bats developed an “accent” more similar to the sounds they heard on the speakers.
• Although they have a pretty limited set of bleats, goats have been shown to modify their calls based on their social surroundings.

So yeah, animal communications can develop regional differences just like human speech.