How to Speak with an Irish Accent

Top of da marnin' to ye laddie/lassie! Yeh be speakin with en Ayerish brogue, now will yeh? St. Patrick's day is just around the corner and why not have a little fun with it? Well, this article does not guarantee you'll be pro by the time it's over, but it gives some pointers to shape it up.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A voice?

1. Now this is not a full language lesson, as could take books. The first technique is to soften up your vowels. The letter "A" doesn't sound like "ay" it sounds like "ah." "Ah" works for the "O" as well. Consider the word "potato." Americans say it "po tay to." Irish say "patahto." The letter I is not "ai", but "ih." These are examples among many.
2. As you are softening the vowels, make the consonants rough. Emphasize them. In English we run words together like "gonna" for "going to." Annunciate all the consonants.
3. You have to eventually hear an accent for yourself before you can learn to mimic it and pick it up. Do you have Irish friends or relatives? Spend a day with them and listen how they pronounce things. Rent movies of real Irish people, not actors mimicking it, unless they are doing it right.
4. Use the vocabulary in your speech. Learn the words and phrases and how they're used. "Cheers"- A hello, a goodbye, a toast.
5. "C'mere"- means "come here," but has come to mean a general "hey" or "listen."
6. "Right." This is used for clarifying something or asking. "Right, would you like crisps with that?"
7. "Bollocks." This means, well, balls. But it is used as a curse, such as "Bollocks, it's raining again" and is used also in "he just got kicked in the bollocks!"
8. "Peckish"- as in being hungry. "Right, you peckish? Let's go to the pub."