Sunday 16 March 2008

ILUG 08 a guide to Irish Idiom for our non-irish guests Part 7

If you have registered for ILUG and plan to come then it is possible that you will encounter at least one (me) if not more of the inhabitants of the northern 6 counties of Ireland. Not for us the soft brogue of the southern Irish which is probably more instantly recognizable as "Irish" for we use what is referred to as "Ulster-Scots". In fact when I travel I am more often mistaken for a Jock than I am for a Paddy. If anything we are harder to understand that the southerners, partly due to the fact that very very few tourists came to Ulster during the troubles so we only had ourselves to talk to. Even Dubliners find us hard to understand so don't feel bad if you can only pick up one word in 10 :) So here for your edification and elucidation is a short guide to some of the Ulsterish words that cause confusion , sowtizz....


Ulsterish

English

A hinney onny sex

My supply of sacks is exhausted

Anorn

Another

Asse lef?

Has he left?

Bake

Mouth as in “I’ll draw ma haud across ye bake!”

Bare Chews

A pair of shoes

Bertie

Birthday

Biusabunma

Purchase for me a bun mother

Calusatate

Call me at 8

Cowld

Cold

Chaps

Chips (Fries)

Childer

Children

Clod or Cloddin

Throw or Throwing

Cowl Swate

A cold sweat

Cryin bawkets

Inconsolable crying

Cumhereayewanya!

Would you come in NOW! (the NI mothering instinct call)

Dirt Bird

A person of poor personal hygiene

Dunt

A Bump or light thump

Deadly Crack

Considerable fun

Eejit

A pleasant fool

Fash

Fish

Fooster

To do nothing

Futter

To Fooster energetically

Gan

Going as in “Im gan hame” = I am going home

Gawn yacodya

Literally “Go on you cod you” = “are you joking?”

Greet

To cry pitifully

Gulpin

An annoying eejit

Haun

Hand

Hanneeanounce

The level of stupidity possessed by a gulpin

Haut

Hot

Heffate

Half past 8

Hellyin

Half past 1 (you get the idea)

Jinno..

Do you know …as in “jinno Ed Brill?”… Do you know Ed Brill?

Leton

Pseudo … as in “Leton Bananas” = Plastic fruit

Leararintait

Literally “leather in to it” as in do it quickly

Monmoan

I am on my own

Muchyurlukin

Literally “how much are you looking?” = How much is that

Mup

I am up, usually used in relpy to Yup?

Naawalnat!

No I will not!

Parritch

Porridge

Passion

Heavy Rain

Riz

I have got out of bed

Scar

It is a car

Sages

A long Time

Savan

Seven

Shizzent

She is not as in “Shizzent hir” = she is not here

Skite

Like a Dunt but harder

Soam

So I am, indicates resolve as in “Im gam soam” =

I am definitely leaving now

Sowtizz

So it is, usually added at the end of an observation to show the person’s shock as in “squareandeed sowtizz” can also be used in the past tense as “SoTwaz”

Sodayi

So do I as in “he likes Notes 8.0.1 sodayi”

Sporing!

It is pouring … Response to the observation of “Passion”

Sqaureandeer

That is very expensive

Starvin

Either Cold or Hunger as in “I am starving way hunger” or “I am starving way cowl”

Stakenchaps

Steak and Chips (Fries)

Steeming

Very heavy rain, one up from passion

Taste

Toast

Thowl

Put up with as in “I Thowl thon eejit” = I put up with that idiot

Till

To .. As in “am away till the shaps” = I am going to the shops

Yup?

Are you out of bed yet?

Wance

Once

Whinge

The complaining a child does before getting a skite and starting to greet

Weelgupni

We will go up now = meaning We will go to bed now

Weeshire

A small shower of rain

8 comments:

Thomas "Duffbert" Duff said...

These are classic!

Unknown said...

Thomas
Aye well I do want our visitors to be culturally up to speed. Lest there be any misunderstanding about the lovely "Sex" everyone got at the conference.
Steve

Unknown said...

PS let alone the problems should the weather be ...well..Irish and a this is heard to be said..."It's passion outside and my sex is all wet"

Thomas "Duffbert" Duff said...

LOL... I'm sure most all the Americans would just stand there and stare. :)

Unknown said...

Tom, what worries me more is the a misdirected desire to join in. There could be an international incident!

Oooo i have just thought of a B for the dictionary that I left out "brill" is Norn Irish for "very very good".. OOOOOOOOO! Ed's a speaker isn't he .. perhaps we should warn him about comments like "our sex is fulla brill thingies" ?

Thomas "Duffbert" Duff said...

Yeah... a wee warning might go aways towards settling any confusion that might arise in the mind of our esteemed guest...

Ed Brill said...

I run into the "Brill" definition from time to time... I think it's short for "brilliant", right? Nuff said :-P

Unknown said...

@Ed

Well we wouldn't want an esteemed colleague being embarrassed by a description of the ILUG rucksack contents :-)

Steve

Disqus for Domi-No-Yes-Maybe