INTRO TO THE IRISH MIDLANDS DIALECT

Mainstage 2015

HOMEWORK: I LOVE BEING IRISH.

CLIP ONE

WRITE DOWN ANYTHING YOU NOTICE ABOUT HOW THE ACTOR SPEAKS. TAKE NOTE OF THINGS THAT MAKES HIS ACCENT DIFFERENT THAN A STANDARD AMERICAN ACCENT.

WHERE IS IRELAND?

WORLD

EUROPE

BRITISH ISLES

WHERE IS THE MIDLANDS?

IRELAND

CITIES

SOME HELPFUL VOCAB! PHONETICS: THE STUDY OF SPEECH SOUNDS VOWELS: AN OPEN SPEECH SOUND (A, E, I,

O, U, Y) CONSONANTS: A PARTIALLY OBSTRUCTED

SPEECH SOUND (ALL OTHER LETTERS) MONOPHTHONG: SINGULAR VOWEL SOUND

(TEETH, BIRD, POD) DIPHTHONG: A VOWEL CLUSTER; TWO

VOWEL SOUNDS IN ONE SYLLABLE (SOUTH, VOICE, ICE, LOUD, BEARD)

TRIPHTHONG: A VOWEL CLUSTER; THREE VOWEL SOUNDS IN ONE SYLLABLE (HOUR, FIRE, LOYAL)

PHONETICS OF MIDLANDS IRISH ACCENT

PHONETICS CONTINUED The dipthong in kite often starts from a centralized place: IPA kəit. To American and British ears, kite can sound a bit like “koyt.”

KITE KOYT The diphthong in mouth is often fronted to something like IPA ɛu or æu or ɜu, among other variants. Hence mouth can sound like “meh-ooth.”

MOUTH MEH-OOTH Th becomes IPA t and d in words like thing and this (i.e. “tin” and “dis”).

THING TIN THIS DIS