Saint Enda of Aran (c. 450-c. 530) was a warrior-king of Oriel in Ulster, converted by his sister, Saint Fanchea.
As king of Oriel he went off to fight his enemies, but, when he visited his sister Fanchea, she tried to persuade him to lay down his arms. He agreed, if only she would give him a young girl in the convent for a wife. The girl she promised turned out to have just died, and Fanchea forced him to view the girl's corpse, to teach him that he, too, would face death and judgment.
Faced with the reality of death, and by his sister's persuasion, Enda decided to study for the priesthood, and studied first at St Ailbe's monastery at Emly. Fanchea sent him to Rosnat, a great center of monasticism. There he took monastic vows and was ordained.
There were three dialects in Leinster, Oriel/Meath, Ossory and Leinster Proper. Oriel/Meath was likened to East Ulster, while Ossory was very much like East Munster with a good few quirks from Connacht and Oriel.
Leinster Proper was said to be a mix of both, although it leaned more towards Munster. Most of this evidence had to be gathered from looking at the anglicisation of place names and a few pieces of writing.
This particular post focuses on Wicklow Irish, a part of (or rather, very much the centre) the Leinster dialect. Of course, as with the rest of the Leinster dialect, not much is known.
Sounds
-adh, -amh and -abh: In Wicklow, South Dublin and Offaly (possibly more, including Kildare), suffixes -adh, -amh and -abh were most likely -a as in sofa.
-dh: some parts of Leinster also pronounced -dh endings like 'v', similar to certain parts of Munster (and Scottish).
Slender bh and mh were silent: sléibhe pronounced as though slé (similar to Kerry Irish), though talamh being broad, still rendered as though written tala.
North of this area, these sounds formed -ú (as in Ulster).
Southeast of this area they were pronounced the same as in Kilkenny, Laois and Munster:
-amh = -av
-adh in nouns = -a
-adh in past tense = -ag
-igh, -aigh: As in the rest of Old Leinster, -igh was probably pronounced -e and -aigh was probably pronounced -a in Wicklow. Dublin Irish believes that in Wicklow and Dublin, these two sounds had in fact become identical to the -a above, the implication of which leads to -adh, -amh, -abh, -igh and -aigh all having been pronounced as -a in Old Leinster.
-gh: Words ending -gh were likely pronounced like 'y' in English.
-cn, -gn: Most of Ireland pronounces prefixes cn- and gn- in words such as cnoc and gnóthach as if cr- and gr- due to a change that took place in the 13th century. This can be seen in the placenames Crooksling (Cnoc Slinne) in Co. Dublin and Crukeen (Cnoicín) in Carlow.
Almost everywhere north of a line from Clare (where both forms were used) to South Kilkenny, cr- was the norm. South of this line, in parts of Clare, West Kilkenny and all of Munster, cn- and gn- remained cn-.
In Wicklow, being above this line, cn- and gn- were nearly always heard as cr- and gn-.
-ao- is pronounced either í as in Connacht, a close back unrounded vowel in parts of Donegal, or é as in Kilkenny, Laois and Munster. In Wicklow and South Dublin, the pronunciation followed the Munster é:
gaoth = gaéh
-ch, -cht: While two sources claim that the ch in -cht was silent, there is no conclusive evidence on this. Instead, there is evidence that both -ch and -cht were fully pronounced, as they were everywhere outside Ulster and Louth.
-th might have been pronounced as -ch, as in parts of Wexford, Kilkenny and Laois.
-bh- and -mh- are typically deleted and the preceding vowel lengthened. This would be the same in Munster, Kilkenny and Laois.
leabhar = leár
Gaeilge seemed to have been pronounced similar to Ulster in that it was said like Gaelag.
cad: Wicklow Irish used g- interrogatives
cad = goid / gad
Records show the mixed form goidé an chaoi athá tú from Carlow to the south east of Wicklow. Dublin used goid and gad. From this, we know that Wicklow was surrounded to its west and north by g-forms and therefore almost certainly used it too. North Kilkenny also has goidé.
Duanaire Osraíoch by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin: Collection of poems from Co. Kilkenny between 1750 to 1850; reflects nuances remarkably similar to that of Ulster Irish.
The Last native speaker of Louth dialect recorded
Reddit user u/dublin2001's research: Here is how Irish was spoken in Co. Dublin
Within Ulster Irish, there are two main groups: West Ulster (Donegal Irish) and East Ulster (the rest of Ulster and parts of Counties Louth and Meath, and much of Oriel). When we’ve mentioned Ulster Irish in the past, we have been referring to what we still hear today—i.e. not East Ulster Irish.
East Ulster Irish was used up till the 20th century and is said to be very closely related to the (Scottish) Gaelic of Islay and Arran.
Favoured Spellings
Ársuigh instead of the standard ársaigh (tell)
Corruighe instead of the standard corraí (anger)
Entirely Different Words
Frithir (sore)
Go seadh (yet)
And words clearly similar to Scottish Gaelic (of course including the Ulster ‘cha’ but we’re talking specifically East Ulster):
Coinfheasgar (evening) (Gaelic coin-fheasgar)
Márt (cow) (Gaelic mart, specifically a milking cow)
Práinn (hurry) (Gaelic pràdhainn)
Toigh (house) (Gaelic taigh, though teach is also used)
Tonnóg (duck) (Gaelic tunnag or tonnag, though lach is used for a wild duck)
Pronunciation
In West Ulster and the rest of Ireland, the vowel “ea” is pronounced like “ah”, like as in fear, sean and such. However, in East Ulster, fear would be pronounced as though spelt féar. Names like Seán were also pronounced as though spelt Séan.
We can derive this from how names and placenames were anglicised in the region:
Gleann Seáin: Glenshane (Seán’s Valley)
Seán Mac Cuinn Ó Néil: Shane O’Neill
In East Ulster, th or ch in the middle of a word tended to vanish, leaving what sounded like one long syllable. And at the ends of words, ch sounds a lot weaker. In Southeast Ulster, ch could render much like ‘f”, giving Ó Murchada the anglicisation “Murphy”.
Much like Munster Irish, Outer Hebridean Gaelic (and the Westernmost Inner Hebrides), the broad bh and mh sounds are rendered like ‘V’, though when in the middle of words they tend to conform to the more standard ‘W’ sound.
Within Ulster Irish, there are two main groups: West Ulster (Donegal Irish) and East Ulster (the rest of Ulster and parts of Counties Louth and Meath, and much of Oriel). When we’ve mentioned Ulster Irish in the past, we have been referring to what we still hear today—i.e. not East Ulster Irish.
East Ulster Irish was used up till the 20th century and is said to be very closely related to the (Scottish) Gaelic of Islay and Arran.
Favoured Spellings
Ársuigh instead of the standard ársaigh (tell)
Corruighe instead of the standard corraí (anger)
Entirely Different Words
Frithir (sore)
Go seadh (yet)
And words clearly similar to Scottish Gaelic (of course including the Ulster ‘cha’ but we’re talking specifically East Ulster):
Coinfheasgar (evening) (Gaelic coin-fheasgar)
Márt (cow) (Gaelic mart, specifically a milking cow)
Práinn (hurry) (Gaelic pràdhainn)
Toigh (house) (Gaelic taigh, though teach is also used)
Tonnóg (duck) (Gaelic tunnag or tonnag, though lach is used for a wild duck)
Pronunciation
In West Ulster and the rest of Ireland, the vowel “ea” is pronounced like “ah”, like as in fear, sean and such. However, in East Ulster, fear would be pronounced as though spelt féar. Names like Seán were also pronounced as though spelt Séan.
We can derive this from how names and placenames were anglicised in the region:
Gleann Seáin: Glenshane (Seán’s Valley)
Seán Mac Cuinn Ó Néil: Shane O’Neill
In East Ulster, th or ch in the middle of a word tended to vanish, leaving what sounded like one long syllable. And at the ends of words, ch sounds a lot weaker. In Southeast Ulster, ch could render much like ‘f”, giving Ó Murchada the anglicisation “Murphy”.
Much like Munster Irish, Outer Hebridean Gaelic (and the Westernmost Inner Hebrides), the broad bh and mh sounds are rendered like ‘V’, though when in the middle of words they tend to conform to the more standard ‘W’ sound.
There were three dialects in Leinster, Oriel/Meath, Ossory and Leinster Proper. Oriel/Meath was likened to East Ulster, while Ossory was very much like East Munster with a good few quirks from Connacht and Oriel.
Leinster Proper was said to be a mix of both, although it leaned more towards Munster. Most of this evidence had to be gathered from looking at the anglicisation of place names and a few pieces of writing.
This particular post focuses on Wicklow Irish, a part of (or rather, very much the centre) the Leinster dialect. Of course, as with the rest of the Leinster dialect, not much is known.
Sounds
-adh, -amh and -abh: In Wicklow, South Dublin and Offaly (possibly more, including Kildare), suffixes -adh, -amh and -abh were most likely -a as in sofa.
-dh: some parts of Leinster also pronounced -dh endings like 'v', similar to certain parts of Munster (and Scottish).
Slender bh and mh were silent: sléibhe pronounced as though slé (similar to Kerry Irish), though talamh being broad, still rendered as though written tala.
North of this area, these sounds formed -ú (as in Ulster).
Southeast of this area they were pronounced the same as in Kilkenny, Laois and Munster:
-amh = -av
-adh in nouns = -a
-adh in past tense = -ag
-igh, -aigh: As in the rest of Old Leinster, -igh was probably pronounced -e and -aigh was probably pronounced -a in Wicklow. Dublin Irish believes that in Wicklow and Dublin, these two sounds had in fact become identical to the -a above, the implication of which leads to -adh, -amh, -abh, -igh and -aigh all having been pronounced as -a in Old Leinster.
-gh: Words ending -gh were likely pronounced like 'y' in English.
-cn, -gn: Most of Ireland pronounces prefixes cn- and gn- in words such as cnoc and gnóthach as if cr- and gr- due to a change that took place in the 13th century. This can be seen in the placenames Crooksling (Cnoc Slinne) in Co. Dublin and Crukeen (Cnoicín) in Carlow.
Almost everywhere north of a line from Clare (where both forms were used) to South Kilkenny, cr- was the norm. South of this line, in parts of Clare, West Kilkenny and all of Munster, cn- and gn- remained cn-.
In Wicklow, being above this line, cn- and gn- were nearly always heard as cr- and gn-.
-ao- is pronounced either í as in Connacht, a close back unrounded vowel in parts of Donegal, or é as in Kilkenny, Laois and Munster. In Wicklow and South Dublin, the pronunciation followed the Munster é:
gaoth = gaéh
-ch, -cht: While two sources claim that the ch in -cht was silent, there is no conclusive evidence on this. Instead, there is evidence that both -ch and -cht were fully pronounced, as they were everywhere outside Ulster and Louth.
-th might have been pronounced as -ch, as in parts of Wexford, Kilkenny and Laois.
-bh- and -mh- are typically deleted and the preceding vowel lengthened. This would be the same in Munster, Kilkenny and Laois.
leabhar = leár
Gaeilge seemed to have been pronounced similar to Ulster in that it was said like Gaelag.
cad: Wicklow Irish used g- interrogatives
cad = goid / gad
Records show the mixed form goidé an chaoi athá tú from Carlow to the south east of Wicklow. Dublin used goid and gad. From this, we know that Wicklow was surrounded to its west and north by g-forms and therefore almost certainly used it too. North Kilkenny also has goidé.
Duanaire Osraíoch by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin: Collection of poems from Co. Kilkenny between 1750 to 1850; reflects nuances remarkably similar to that of Ulster Irish.
