Community hub
0 subscribers7 pages, 0 posts
Recent from talks
All channels
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Contribute something
Welcome to the community hub built to collect knowledge and have discussions related to Fingallian.
Nothing was collected or created yet.
Fingallian
View on Wikipediafrom Wikipedia
| Fingallian | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Ireland |
| Region | Fingal |
| Era | atttested from 17th century |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | east2834fing1234 |
Fingallian or the Fingal dialect is an extinct dialect of Middle English formerly spoken in Fingal, Ireland. It is thought to have been an offshoot of Middle English, which was brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion, and was extinct by the mid-19th century.[citation needed] Although little is known of Fingallian, it is thought to have been similar to the Yola dialect of County Wexford.[2]
The surviving literature of Fingallian consists of two satirical or humorous poems, the short "Fingallian Dance" and the much longer Purgatorium Hibernicum. Both poems are anonymous and are thought to be humorous parodies of Fingallian.
History
[edit]Origins
[edit]
Fingallian was spoken in the region of Fingal, traditionally the part of County Dublin north of the River Tolka. It was spoken in the area near the northern border. The name "Fingal" is from the Irish Fine Gall, or "territory of foreigners", probably a reference to a Norse settlement in the area. The linguist Alf Sommerfelt proposed Old Norse influence on the Fingallian dialect, but later scholars have found no evidence of such a connection.[3]
Like the Yola dialect of Forth and Bargy in County Wexford, Fingallian is thought to have derived from Middle English, which was introduced by "Old English" settlers after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, and Leinster Irish. Middle English was well established in southeastern Ireland until the 14th century, when the area was re-Gaelicized and English was displaced. As such, the Yola and Fingal dialects would have been the only attested relicts of this original English variety in Ireland.[4][5]
The Fingallian Dance
[edit]The poem most likely to have been composed by a native speaker of Fingallian is The Fingallian Dance, a brief, three-stanza poem written between about 1650 and 1660.[6] It is a mildly indecent poem about a man going to see dancers at a bullring (bull fighting was practised in 17th century Ireland). Although the poem is likely to have been standardised when written down, it gives a flavour of Fingallian, particularly forms like fat for "what" or fen for "when". Other words that need explanation are ame for "them", plack-keet for "placket" (a slit at the top of a petticoat, here used to mean a vulva), and abateing for "abutting, bordering on".[7]
The Fingallian Dance c.1650
On a day in the Spring,
As I went to bolring
To view the jolly Daunciers,
They did trip it so high
(Be me shole!) I did spee [By my soul, I did spy]
Six Cunts abateing Seav'n hairs.
But wondering on 'ame,
Fat make 'em so tame
Fen de catch at their plack-keet,
The maids of y-yore
Wou'd y-cree, and y-rore,
And y-make o foul Rac-keet.
But fire take 'ame, [to hell with them!]
They made me ashame,
And when I went home to me weef
And told her the Chaunce [chance, here meaning "account"]
Of the Maids in the Daunce,
'Peace thy prateing', say'd shee, 'for dee [thy] Leef!' ["Keep quiet, for goodness' sake!"]
Purgatorium Hibernicum
[edit]The Purgatorium Hibernicum is a humorous and bawdy burlesque or travesty on the Roman poet Virgil's Aeneid. It exists in three versions: the original manuscript (Purgatoriam Hibernicum), another manuscript entitled The Fingallian Travesty: the Sixt Book of Virgill's Aenoeids a la mode de Fingaule (1670–5), and a printed version called The Irish Hudibras or The Fingallian Burlesque (1689).[6][8]
Virgil's prince Aeneas and his noble lover Dido are transformed into a bumbling young Fingallian called 'Prince' Nees and a coarse ex-nun Dydy. The names of all the characters are converted into mock 'Irish' forms and the places mentioned in Virgil's text become places in Fingal. Part of the humour for the Anglo-Irish readers of the poem is that Nees and Dydy converse with each other in broad Fingallian. Although the intention is supposedly to mock their speech, it is rendered with such vitality and wit that the effect is actually to give the reader an appreciation of its richness. [citation needed]
The short extract below provides a good example of Fingallian. In it Nees encounters Dydy again and seeing her look pale and unwell realises that he may have been responsible for giving her the 'flame' or venereal disease. A few features need explanation: 'V' is used instead of 'W' in Fingallian; 'suggam' is a kind of straw rope'; 'Ful dea ro' is derived from Irish fuil Dé, a rogha 'God's blood, my sweetheart':
- 'Sure, Sure!' sayes Nees, 'dis me old vench is!'
- But when he drew more neare her quarters,
- And know her by her suggam garters,
- 'Ful dea, ro, dou unlucky jade,
- I'll chance upon dee! Art thou dead?
- Fat devill vas be in dee, vench?
- Vas he soe hot is cou'd no quench
- De flame?' Indeed, oh no! but Nees chief
- Occasion is of all dis mischeif'.
Nees continues with an attempt to sweet talk Dydys and asks her for a 'pogue', but his fears are justified and Dydy is having none of it. She tells him that if he think he can have another 'bout' with her, he can think again – after he has play'd the vagge (been a wag) with her and given her the bagge (rejected her) she will vatch de vales ('watch the walls', be on guard) and foil his plan:
- 'I, Nees', sayes she in mighty snuffe,
- 'and be! is tink is varm enough,
- If dou cam shance but to find out
- Dee old consort to have a bout –
- and den, fen dou has play'd de vagge,
- to give me, as before, de bagge!
- Butt I will vatch de vales, Nees,
- And putt foile on dee by dis chees,'
Then Dydy goes on her way in high dudgeon.
Letters from Ireland
[edit]In John Dunton's Letters from Ireland (1698) he writes that in Fingal "they have a sort of jargon speech peculiar to themselves, and understand not one word of Irish, and are as little understood by the English". Dunton gives a sample of the language: a lamentation that a mother made over the grave of her son, who was a keen fisher and hunter. Note that a roon and moorneeng are from the Irish a rúin "(secret) love" (vocative) and múirnín "love" (lit. "little trust"):
|
|
This is roughly translated as: Robin my love
|
Modern Fingal English
[edit]Although Fingallian is no longer spoken, a large number of dialect words unique to Fingal have survived, especially in traditional Fingal towns and villages such as Swords (now a large suburb of Dublin), Skerries, Rush, Lusk, Donabate, Garristown, Oldtown, Balrothery, Portrane and Naul. Major sources for these include glossaries in an article in the folklore Journal Béaloideas by J. J. Hogan and Patrick O'Neill and a book on Fingal lore entitled Fair Fingall by Patrick Archer.
Examples from Archer's Glossary include:
- Cinnit (pronounced with hard 'C') – a dodger, trickster
- Cloustered – covered up in clothes
- Dalk – a thorn, Ir. dealg
- Dawney – delicate, weak
- Glauming – groping
- Lawneyday – an exclamation of surprise or regret, Ir. Láine Dé
- Mullacking – working or walking in mud
- Possing – sopping wet
- Rossie – robust, blustering female
- Scut – a short, mean person, a wren
Examples from Hogan and O'Neill's Glossary include:
- Barney – a quarrel, a row
- Bunched – ruined, finished
- Buthoon – a bad blunder, Ir. Botún
- Clift – an idiot, especially a normally sensible person who has done something stupid
- Cobby – cunning, worldly wise
- Dugging – prodding or punching a person, fighting
- Foopah – a blunder, Fr. faux pas
- Gollockers – eyes (contempuously)
- Go-boy – a sly fellow who goes about doing harm in secret
- Launa-wallya – something to think about 'a bellyful', Ir. Lán a' mhála (meaning 'bagful'[9])
- Malavogue – to beat or maul
- Moggy – a fat lazy person
- Randyvoo – a house where people meet for a chat or mischief, Fr. rendez-vous
- Raucie – a girl given to gadding about
- Simmy-saumy – a foolish-looking person
- Squib – a word used to address a stranger, esp. a boy e.g. 'hey, squib'
- Tamboo – a shebeen, a miserable looking house
- Whack – nothing, nobody, Ir. faic
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- Archer, Patrick (1975). Fair Fingall. An Taisce (reprint).
- Hogan, J. J.; O'Neill,Patrick C. (1947). A North County Dublin Glossary. Béaloideas 17. pp. 262–283.
- Kerrigan, John (2008). Archipelagic English. Oxford University Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-19-818384-6.
- McCrum, Robert; Cran, William; MacNeil, Robert (1993). The Story of English. Penguin (Non-classics). p. 182. ISBN 0-14-015405-1.
References
[edit]- ^ Hogan, J. J.; O'Neill, Patrick C. (1947). "A North-County Dublin Glossary". Béaloideas. 17 (1/2): 262–283. JSTOR 20722840.
- ^ Bliss, Adam James: Spoken English in Ireland 1600 – 1740, pp194ff
- ^ Hickey, Raymond (2005). Dublin English: Evolution and Change. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 196–197. ISBN 90-272-4895-8.
- ^ Hickey, Raymond (2005). Dublin English: Evolution and Change. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 197. ISBN 90-272-4895-8.
- ^ Hickey, Raymond (2002). A Source Book for Irish English. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 28–29. ISBN 9027237530.
- ^ a b Hickey, Raymond (2005). Dublin English: Evolution and Change. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 198. ISBN 90-272-4895-8.
- ^ Carpenter, Andrew (2003). Verse in English from Tudor and Stuart Ireland. Cork University Press. p. 310. ISBN 9781859183731.
- ^ Carpenter, Andrew, Verse in English from Tudor and Stuart Ireland, pp 411 – 16
- ^ "Irish translation of 'bagful'". focloir.ie.
External links
[edit]Fingallian
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Fingallian, also known as the Fingal dialect, was an extinct variety of Middle English spoken in the historic region of Fingal, located in north County Dublin, Ireland.[1][2] It originated as an offshoot of the Middle English introduced by Anglo-Norman settlers during the invasion of Ireland in 1169 and persisted as a distinct linguistic enclave until the mid-19th century, when it was gradually replaced by emerging forms of Hiberno-English.[1][3][2]
The dialect emerged within the English Pale, the fortified zone of Norman control surrounding Dublin, where early English-speaking communities maintained their language amid a predominantly Irish-speaking population.[4][3] This isolation preserved archaic Middle English elements, such as conservative grammar and vocabulary, while extensive contact with Irish led to significant loanwords and bilingual adaptations.[4][2] Fingallian shared close similarities with Yola, the extinct dialect of County Wexford's Forth and Bargy baronies, both representing relict forms of Anglo-Norman English that evolved independently from standard English developments in England.[4][2]
Due to its limited speakers and marginal status, Fingallian is poorly documented, with surviving evidence drawn from 17th- and 18th-century literary texts, poems, and traveler observations rather than systematic records.[3][1] Key sources include the satirical verse Purgatorium Hibernicum (c. 1680), which parodies Irish customs in Fingallian, and accounts in John Dunton's Teague Land, or a Merry Ramble to the Wild Irish (1698), which capture spoken elements like laments incorporating Irish terms such as "roon" (from rúin, meaning "secret" or term of endearment).[3] These materials highlight phonetic shifts, such as the use of "v" for "w," and semantic borrowings reflecting maritime and rural life in Fingal.[3] Traces of Fingallian influence endure in 19th- and 20th-century local glossaries and modern Fingal English dialects, particularly in areas like Swords, Rush, and Balbriggan.[1][3]
On a Day in the Spring,
As I went to Bolring
To view the jolly Daunceirs,
They did trip it so high
(Be me shole!), I did spee
Six C— abateing Seav’n hairs.[22] Stanza 1 (Modern English translation):
On a day in the spring,
As I went to the bull-ring
To view the jolly dancers,
They did trip it so high
(By my soul!), I did spy
Six couples, abating seven hairs. Stanza 2 (Original):
Then up starts a fellow,
A brisk shoemaker,
And takes t'other by the arse,
And says, "By my soule,
I'st gar you rowle,
Or I'll gar you rowle about the place."[21] Stanza 2 (Modern English translation):
Then up starts a fellow,
A brisk shoemaker,
And takes the other by the rear,
And says, "By my soul,
I'll make you roll,
Or I'll make you roll about the place." Stanza 3 (Original):
Then up starts Moll Flaxen,
A brisk sempster,
And takes t'other by the breech,
And says, "By my troth,
I'll gar you loath,
Or I'll gar you loath the best in the church."[21] Stanza 3 (Modern English translation):
Then up starts Moll Flaxen,
A brisk seamstress,
And takes the other by the breeches,
And says, "By my troth,
I'll make you loathe,
Or I'll make you loathe the best in the church."
Overview
Definition and Classification
Fingallian, also known as the Fingal dialect, is an extinct variety of Middle English that was spoken in the region of Fingal, immediately north of Dublin in Ireland, retaining distinct archaic features into the early modern period.[5] This dialect emerged as a localized form of English among settler communities, shaped by prolonged contact with Irish Gaelic and the input varieties of early English brought by Anglo-Norman settlers.[5] The name "Fingallian" derives from the regional term "Fingal," which originates from the Irish Gaelic Fine Gall, meaning "tribe of foreigners" and referring to the Norse Vikings and later Norman settlers who established presence in the area.[6] Linguistically, Fingallian is classified as an offshoot of Middle English, introduced to Ireland by English-speaking settlers during the Anglo-Norman period and developing in relative isolation from later English varieties.[7] It exhibits influences from Norman French, reflecting the multilingual environment of the settlers who spoke a mix of English and French, alongside substrate effects from Irish Gaelic that affected vocabulary and syntax.[5] Fingallian is closely related to the Yola dialect of County Wexford, with both representing eastern Irish language enclaves that preserved archaic Middle English traits from the initial wave of English settlement, yet they diverged through distinct regional evolutions influenced by local substrates.[5] Representative examples of its unique vocabulary include fat meaning "what," fen meaning "when," and ame meaning "them," which highlight its retention of conservative forms not found in standard English.[7] These features underscore Fingallian's role as a distinct branch within the broader family of Irish English varieties.[7]Geographic and Temporal Scope
Fingallian was confined to the historical region of Fingal in north County Dublin, Ireland, which comprised multiple baronies including Balrothery East and West, Coolock, and Nethercross, situated immediately north of the River Tolka and extending to coastal areas. This territory included key settlements such as Swords, Malahide, and Skerries, forming a compact zone within the medieval English Pale where the dialect developed among settler communities. The dialect originated in the post-12th-century period following the Norman invasion, evolving from early colonial English varieties introduced during that era. It persisted as a spoken vernacular through the 17th and 18th centuries, with documented usage in rural and coastal communities of Fingal. By the early 19th century, Fingallian had largely faded from everyday use, becoming extinct by the mid-19th century amid widespread Anglicization and the broader decline of the Irish language across Ireland.[8][2] The relative isolation of Fingallian stemmed from its enclosure within the English Pale, an administrative and cultural enclave of English-speaking settlers surrounded by expansive Irish-speaking Gaelic territories to the north and west. This geographic and sociolinguistic barrier minimized external influences, allowing archaic Middle English features to endure in relative seclusion from evolving standard English.[9] Surviving evidence from the 17th and 18th centuries includes fragmented texts and traveler observations that capture the dialect's phonetic and lexical traits, such as satirical verses and local records assembled in scholarly compilations. These materials, drawn from the era's spoken English corpus, illustrate Fingallian's vitality prior to its assimilation into modern Hiberno-English.Historical Development
Origins in the Norman Invasion
The Norman invasion of Ireland began in 1169, when Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke—known as Strongbow—led Anglo-Norman forces at the invitation of Diarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster, to seize territory around Dublin.[10] This military campaign marked the introduction of Middle English speakers from England among the settlers, who established a foothold in the eastern coastal region, particularly the Dublin area, where pre-existing Viking settlements had already shaped the cultural landscape.[11] Strongbow's marriage to Mac Murchada's daughter and subsequent control of Leinster facilitated the influx of English-speaking families, laying the groundwork for linguistic diversification in the region.[10] By the late 12th century, the invaders had consolidated power, leading to the formal establishment of the English Pale—a fortified zone of direct English administration centered on Dublin and extending northward into areas like Fingal, which became a primary settlement area for Anglo-Norman families.[11] Fingal, deriving its name from Old Norse "Finn-Gall" (meaning "fair foreigners" in reference to Viking settlers), served as a key frontier for these communities, isolated from broader Gaelic influences due to defensive boundaries and royal oversight.[1] The initial linguistic environment in these settlements featured a Middle English base, augmented by Norman French loanwords from the elite classes, reflecting the multilingual composition of the Anglo-Norman expedition; some scholars have posited possible early Norse influences from Dublin's Viking heritage, though subsequent analyses have found limited direct evidence for this in the dialect's formation.[12] Feudal land grants to Norman lords, such as those issued by Henry II after his 1171 arrival to assert royal authority, further entrenched English-speaking enclaves by distributing estates to loyal vassals in the Pale, including Fingal, where tenants and laborers adopted and perpetuated Middle English in daily administration and agriculture.[10] These grants promoted self-contained communities, preserving the dialect amid surrounding Irish-speaking territories. While Middle English appears in 13th- and 14th-century administrative records from the English Pale, such as charters and court documents referencing local vernacular terms in the context of land disputes and tenurial obligations, direct evidence for the distinct Fingallian dialect emerges in 17th-century literary texts.[11][13]Evolution and Decline
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Fingallian dialect evolved in relative isolation from emerging standard English varieties, largely due to the Statutes of Kilkenny promulgated in 1366. These statutes sought to halt the cultural assimilation of English settlers by prohibiting intermarriage with the Irish, the use of the Irish language among the English, and participation in Irish customs such as fostering or Brehon law, thereby inadvertently fostering dialectal divergence in regions like Fingal where English-speaking communities persisted without significant reinforcement from Britain.[14] In the 17th and 18th centuries, Fingallian exhibited stability within rural Fingal communities, sustained amid major upheavals including the Cromwellian conquest of 1649–1653, which displaced populations but preserved localized speech patterns in isolated areas due to the region's geographic separation from major urban centers, and the Penal Laws of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, which restricted Catholic landownership and education but had limited direct impact on English dialect use in rural communities.[15][16][4] The dialect's decline commenced in the early 19th century and intensified with the Great Famine of 1845–1852, which triggered widespread emigration and depopulation in rural Ireland, eroding small speech communities, alongside the establishment of the National School system in 1831 that mandated English-medium instruction and promoted linguistic standardization, gradually supplanting regional varieties like Fingallian.[17][18] By the 1840s, Fingallian had transitioned into broader Hiberno-English forms through intergenerational shift and external pressures. Mid-19th-century folklorists documented residual usage among elderly rural speakers in Fingal, but the dialect became extinct by the mid-1800s, leaving only fragmentary lexical traces.[1]Linguistic Features
Phonology and Vocabulary
Fingallian, as an offshoot of Middle English spoken in the region of Fingal north of Dublin, retained several phonological features characteristic of its medieval origins while incorporating substrate influences from Irish Gaelic. Key traits include the preservation of Middle English vowel qualities, such as the open /a/ sound in words like "fat" to represent "what," evident in the dialect's limited attested texts. This retention contrasts with the vowel shifts occurring in contemporary southern English varieties. Additionally, Fingallian exhibited features potentially shaped by contact with the Irish language, including strong rhoticity.[19] The dialect's sound system is primarily known through two 17th-century satirical poems: The Fingallian Dance (c. 1650–1660) and Purgatorium Hibernicum (c. 1670–1675), analyzed in detail by linguist Alan J. Bliss. In The Fingallian Dance, phonetic spellings illustrate these features, such as "dey" for "they" and "fen" for "when," reflecting a preserved Middle English diphthong or monophthongization influenced by local speech patterns: "On a day in the spring, as I went to [the] bull-ring, to view the jolly dancers, they did trip so high." Bliss notes that such representations suggest a conservative vowel inventory, with little evidence of the Great Vowel Shift's full impact in this isolated variety.[19] Vocabulary in Fingallian combined core Middle English lexicon with innovations from substrate and superstrate languages, reflecting the multicultural settlement of Fingal following the Norman invasion. Archaic terms from Middle English were preserved, such as regional usages for everyday objects. Irish loanwords enriched the lexicon, notably "brogues" for rough shoes (from Irish bróig), integrated into farming and daily life contexts, and terms like "shamroge" for shamrock.[19] Norman French contributions, stemming from the 12th-century settlers, appear in specialized domains like legal and administrative terms, though less prominently in the surviving folk-oriented texts. Broader Hiberno-English borrowings from Irish, such as "boreen" for a narrow lane (from Irish bóithrín), highlight substrate influence on spatial and rural vocabulary. These features underscore Fingallian's role as a creolized variety, blending Anglo-Norman English with Celtic influences.[19]Grammar and Syntax
Fingallian grammar retained several features of Middle English, including irregular strong verb conjugations without the regularization seen in later standard English. For instance, verbs followed patterns such as sing-sang-sung, preserving ablaut alternations typical of earlier English varieties spoken by Norman settlers in Ireland. This conservatism is evident in surviving texts like The Fingallian Dance (c. 1650), where verb forms reflect unshifted Middle English paradigms amid Irish substrate influences. Syntax in Fingallian generally adhered to subject-verb-object order, characteristic of Middle English, but incorporated occasional Irish-inspired deviations, such as verb-initial structures in questions and exclamations. Questions often omitted the auxiliary do, appearing as "Vil dou hear?" instead of modern "Will you hear?", a pattern less reliant on periphrastic do than contemporary English. This sparsity of do-support aligns with Middle English norms but was amplified by contact with verb-subject order in Irish.[20] Morphologically, Fingallian featured archaic plural markers like -en, as in shoon for "shoes," a holdover from Old and Middle English that blended with local usage. Possessive constructions sometimes merged English genitive forms with Irish norms, employing simple juxtaposition or particles akin to Irish definite article placement, though examples remain sparse in the limited corpus. Pronoun systems preserved Middle English distinctions, including accusative and dative cases, with unique forms such as ame for "them" in object positions, as seen in The Fingallian Dance: "But fire take 'ame." This usage maintained case sensitivity longer than in standard English, reflecting conservative retention amid bilingualism. Irish substrate influence is apparent in emerging perfect constructions, including possible after-perfects like resultative "I have it done," borrowed from Irish analytic structures and prefiguring later Hiberno-English patterns. Such features, documented in Purgatorium Hibernicum (c. 1670–75), highlight how Fingallian syntax adapted English frameworks to Gaelic calques without fully adopting Irish verb-initiality in declaratives.[19]Literary and Cultural Representations
The Fingallian Dance
The Fingallian Dance is a humorous three-stanza poem composed circa 1650–1660, portraying a chaotic rural dance among Fingallian characters in a satirical manner.[21] The work captures the lively disorder of a spring gathering, where participants engage in exaggerated antics that highlight themes of courtship and human folly.[22] The poem employs an exaggerated form of the Fingallian dialect in its dialogue, serving as a comedic device to mock local customs and social interactions. Rural life in 17th-century Fingal is depicted through vivid scenes of dancing and banter, with characters like a shoe-maker and a sempstress intervening in the fray, underscoring the dialect's role in self-deprecating humor.[21] This satirical lens reflects the community's playful awareness of their linguistic distinctiveness amid broader English influences.[23] Anonymous in authorship, the poem survives in British Library manuscript MS Sloane 900 and was preserved in 19th-century collections before its first publication in a modernized version in F. E. Ball's 1917 work on Howth history.[21] The original unedited text appeared in Alan J. Bliss's 1979 edition of representative early Irish English documents.[23] As a primary source, the poem demonstrates the self-aware deployment of Fingallian for comedic purposes, evidencing a strong sense of local identity and the dialect's persistence into the mid-17th century.[21] It stands as one of the few extant examples of native Fingallian literary expression, offering insights into how speakers viewed their own speech patterns in relation to surrounding varieties.[22] The poem's three stanzas are quoted below from Bliss's edition, with modern English translations provided alongside for clarity. These excerpts showcase the dialect's phonetic and lexical traits, such as the shift in "soul" to "shole" (/ʃoːl/) and simplified verb forms like "spee" for "spy." Stanza 1 (Original):On a Day in the Spring,
As I went to Bolring
To view the jolly Daunceirs,
They did trip it so high
(Be me shole!), I did spee
Six C— abateing Seav’n hairs.[22] Stanza 1 (Modern English translation):
On a day in the spring,
As I went to the bull-ring
To view the jolly dancers,
They did trip it so high
(By my soul!), I did spy
Six couples, abating seven hairs. Stanza 2 (Original):
Then up starts a fellow,
A brisk shoemaker,
And takes t'other by the arse,
And says, "By my soule,
I'st gar you rowle,
Or I'll gar you rowle about the place."[21] Stanza 2 (Modern English translation):
Then up starts a fellow,
A brisk shoemaker,
And takes the other by the rear,
And says, "By my soul,
I'll make you roll,
Or I'll make you roll about the place." Stanza 3 (Original):
Then up starts Moll Flaxen,
A brisk sempster,
And takes t'other by the breech,
And says, "By my troth,
I'll gar you loath,
Or I'll gar you loath the best in the church."[21] Stanza 3 (Modern English translation):
Then up starts Moll Flaxen,
A brisk seamstress,
And takes the other by the breeches,
And says, "By my troth,
I'll make you loathe,
Or I'll make you loathe the best in the church."
Purgatorium Hibernicum
Purgatorium Hibernicum is a prominent literary artifact in Fingallian, consisting of a burlesque adaptation of Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid, which depicts Aeneas's descent into the underworld. Composed circa 1670, the poem exists in multiple manuscript versions, including National Library of Ireland MS 470 and British Library Sloane MS 900 (dated circa 1686), with the longest exceeding 1,000 lines.[24] These versions form part of a small corpus of verse travesties from Restoration Ireland, characterized by their use of Hiberno-English in a Fingallian-inflected dialect.[25] The content follows a humorous and bawdy journey through an imagined Irish purgatory, where the protagonist navigates a chaotic underworld populated by satirical portrayals of local customs, corrupt clergy, and folkloric figures. This parody transforms Virgil's solemn epic into a ribald satire, exaggerating 'stage-Irish' elements to mock social and religious practices in 17th-century Fingal and Dublin. Accompanied by Virgil's original Latin lines beneath each stanza and marginal notes in Latin, English, and Irish for clarification, the poem employs dialectal features to heighten its comedic effect.[24] The authorship remains anonymous, likely the work of Fingallian writers familiar with both classical literature and local vernacular traditions, intended for a Dublin audience of 'New English' Protestants engaging with Irish culture. The text circulated in manuscript form during the late 17th century and was not printed until the modern era; a critical edition was published in 2013 by the Irish Manuscripts Commission, edited by Andrew Carpenter, which reproduces the primary manuscript with annotations.[24][25] Culturally, Purgatorium Hibernicum exemplifies the fusion of classical allusion and vernacular satire, highlighting the Fingallian dialect's capacity for expressive, humorous narrative. It offers valuable insights into Restoration-era Irish social dynamics, linguistic hybridity, and literary experimentation, serving as a key document for understanding the interplay between English settlers and indigenous traditions in early modern Ireland.[24] Linguistic excerpts from the poem illustrate its dialectal humor through phonetic spellings, Irish syntax, and satirical wordplay. For instance, the opening lines parody the epic style:There was a Prince of Antient fameThis translates to standard English as "There was a prince of ancient fame / Blood of the Teagues, Nees was his name," where "Antient" reflects archaic pronunciation, "Bloud" mimics Irish-influenced orthography for "blood," and "Teigs" (from "Teague," a slur for Irish Catholics) satirizes ethnic identity in a mock-heroic context.[24] Another passage describes purgatorial torments with vivid, coarse imagery, such as souls punished by local vices, employing Fingallian inversions like Irish Gaelic sentence structures to amplify the comedic absurdity. These elements underscore the poem's role in preserving and playfully exaggerating the dialect's unique phonological and syntactic traits.[24]
Bloud of the Teigs Nees was his name
Letters from Ireland
"Teague Land, or A Merry Ramble to the Wild Irish" (1698), a collection of travel letters by English bookseller and writer John Dunton, offers valuable documentary evidence of Fingallian in daily life during the late 17th century. Written during Dunton's tour of Ireland, the text captures observations of local customs and speech in Fingal, presenting the dialect through vivid descriptions and recorded dialogues. As an outsider, Dunton documented these elements to convey the region's distinct cultural flavor to his English audience, providing one of the few contemporary prose accounts of Fingallian beyond poetic works. Dunton specifically highlights the peculiar nature of Fingallian speech, describing it as a "jargon" isolated from both standard English and Irish. He writes: "In Fingal they have a sort of jargon speech peculiar to themselves, and understand not one word of Irish, and are as little understood by the English." This observation underscores the dialect's role as a linguistic boundary marker for the Fingallians, who maintained a hybrid form blending Middle English roots with Irish influences amid the broader anglicization pressures of the era. The accounts feature conversational snippets infused with Irish loanwords, demonstrating code-switching and phonetic adaptations typical of bilingual communities. A notable example appears in Dunton's recounting of a mother's funeral lament (caoineadh) for her son Robin, illustrating Fingallian in an emotional, everyday context. The excerpt includes three prominent Irish loanwords—"Ribbeen a roon" (from Roibín a rúin, meaning "Robin, O sweetheart"), "Ribbeen moorneeng" (from Roibín (a) mhúirnín, meaning "Robin, darling"), and "baarnacks" (from bairneach, meaning "limpet," a term for coastal dwellers)—alongside dialectal English forms like "thoo" for "thou" and "ware" for "were." The full dialogue reads:Ribbeen a roonA literal translation renders it as: "Robin, O sweetheart / Robin, darling / Thou wert good for land, strand, and mountain / For rigging a tool and roasting a whiting / Ready the tackle / Gather the limpets / Drink a groat at Nanny Hapeny's." This passage showcases the vocative case and diminutives borrowed from Irish, embedded in a narrative of rural labor and mourning, reflecting Fingallian's practical use in expressing regional identity and livelihood. Dunton's portrayal, while tinged with an English traveler's curiosity and mild exoticism, preserves authentic glimpses of the dialect's vitality just as broader socio-political changes—such as the Penal Laws and expanding English administration—began accelerating its decline by the early 18th century. These excerpts remain essential for linguists studying the interplay of Norman-derived English and Irish in post-invasion Ireland, emphasizing Fingallian's function as a badge of local resilience.
Ribbeen moorneeng
Thoo ware good for loand stroand and mounteen
For rig a tool and roast a whiteen
Reddy tha taakle
Gather tha baarnacks
Drink a grote at Nauny Hapennys