HIBERNO-ENGLISH LITERATURE
- The spelling u/vfor initial ffound in some words
such as uoxe(fox),uadir, (father) is a feature of
Middle English dialects of the south and south-
west of England. - The present participle ending of verbs, -end/-ind,
as inglowind(glowing), is a feature of Middle
English dialects of the North and West of
England. - The use of special letter forms (yogh) for yor
gh, and (thorn) for this common to all Middle
English writing at this time, but some confusion
between the two symbols is found in nei fornei
(nigh) in Christ on the Cross, and tou fortou
(tough) in Song of the Times in MS Harley 913. - The present tense ending of verbs are those of
southern dialects of Middle English: singular
endings: -e, -ist/-est, -i /-e ; plural endings: -i/-
e. The occasional final dortinstead of /th, as
inmakitformaki, and the use of thefordein
the name Piers theBermingham indicate a failure
to distinguish between the sounds /t/ and /æ/, still
a notable feature in Irish English today.
The poems of MS Harley 913 also contain some
Irish words in their vocabulary including: eri, probably
a borrowing from Irish éraic(compensation);corrin,
from Irish coirín(can or tankard); ketherin, from Irish
ceithearn(band of soldiers); tromchery, from Irish
trom chroí(liver); capil, (horse) is later found in
England in other fourteenth-century authors including
Chaucer (and may have been borrowed from Irish into
English via Norse), but has its earliest occurrence in
English in The Land of Cokaygne.
Some Other Sources of Medieval
Hiberno-English
The drama now called The Pride of Lifewas written
down some time in the first half of the fifteenth century
by two scribes in the spare spaces of an Account Roll
of the priory of Holy Trinity Dublin (otherwise Christ
Church Cathedral). Its composition may date from the
second half of the fourteenth century. The original was
destroyed in the 1922 fire at the Public Record Office
in Dublin. The play is the earliest known example in
English of a Morality Play, and there is no reason to
suppose that it was not of local composition.
The slates of Smarmore, County Louth, discovered
in 1959–1962, inscribed in English and Latin and prob-
ably intended for schoolroom use, provide limited but
valuable evidence of the English language in Ireland
in the fifteenth century. Though there are difficulties
in identifying and dating the handwriting because of
the unusual materials involved, musical notation on
four of the slates dates them to the second quarter of
the fifteenth century. The English on these slates seems
in general to conform with what is known about the
English language in Ireland at that period.
A complete list of texts containing medieval
Hiberno-English, including town records and legal doc-
uments, is to be found in McIntosh and Samuels’s “Pro-
legomena.” In its medieval form, the English language
in Ireland was virtually overcome by the spread of Irish
among the original invaders as shown as early as the
Statutes of Kilkenny. Two rural areas, however, Forth
and Bargy in South Wexford, and Fingal in North Dublin,
preserved until modern times the Hiberno-English of
the earliest texts. The medieval period of Hiberno-
English ends with the coming of new varieties of
English, including the emerging “Standard English,”
with large numbers of “planters” in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. However, with firmly established
medieval roots, Hiberno-English has the longest
recorded history of extra-territorial English in the world.
ANGELAM. LUCASReferences and Further Reading
Bliss, Alan J. “The Inscribed Slates at Smarmore.” Proceedings
of the Royal Irish Academy64 (1965): 33–64.
Britton, Derek, and Alan J. Fletcher. “Medieval Hiberno-
English Inscriptions on the Inscribed Slates of Smarmore:
Some Reconsiderations and Additions.” Irish University
Review20 (1990): 55–72.
Dolan, T. P., and Diarmuid Ó Muirithe,. The Dialect of Forth
and Bargy, County Wexford. Dublin: Four Courts Press,- Revised edition of Poole, A Glossary of the Old Dia-
lect of Forth and Bargy.
Henry, P. L. “A Linguistic Survey of Ireland: Preliminary
report,” Lochlann1 (1958): 49–208.
Hickey, Raymond. “The Beginnings of Irish English.” Folia
Linguistica Historica14 (1993): 213–238.
———. “A Lost Middle English Dialect.” In Historical Dia-
lectology, edited by Jacek Fisiak, 235–272. Berlin, New
York, and Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter, 1988.
Hogan, Jeremiah J. The English Language in Ireland. Dublin:
Educational Company of Ireland, 1927. Reprint, Maryland:
McGrath, 1970.
Jordan, Richard. Handbook of Middle English Grammar: Pho-
nology. Translated and revised by E. J. Crook. The Hague:
Mouton, 1974.
Lucas, Angela M., ed. Anglo-Irish Poems of the Middle Ages.
Blackrock: Columba Press, 1995.
McIntosh, Angus, and Samuels, M. L. “Prolegomena to a Study
of Medieval Anglo-Irish.” Medium Ævum37 (1968): 1–11.
McIntosh, Angus, et al. A Linguistic Atlas of Mediaeval English.
Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986.
Mills, James, ed. Account Roll of the Priory of the Holy Trinity,
Dublin, 1337–1346. Dublin: Royal Society of Antiquaries
of Ireland, Extra vol. 1890–1891. Reprint, with introduction
by James Lydon and Alan J. Fletcher, in A History of Christ
Church Dublin. Vol. 2. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1996.
See alsoAnglo-Norman Invasion; Dublin; Education;
Gaelicization; Hiberno-Norman (Latin) Literature;
Kildare; Languages; Strongbow; Waterford