Adrienne Rich dies at 82; feminist poet and essayist

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-adrienne-rich-20120329,0,4258797.story

Shakespeare Vocabulary: More Hamlet Vocabulary

http://dynamo.dictionary.com/games/42999/shakespeare-vocabulary-more-hamlet-vocabulary/match

Paper One Leaving Cert-Topic of Corruption

After 15 years of investigation, the Mahon Report has exposed what it calls a "culture of rampant public corruption". Ian Kehoe examines the contents of the report and its findings and Paul Murphy reports specifically on the section of the report concerning former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and what lasting effect it will have on his legacy.
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2012/0322/primetime.html#

Watch the video above keeping this exam question in mind

Write an article for a newspaper or magazine, outlining your vision of a better future. (LC2005)

Hamlet Revision Podcasts

http://www.sccenglish.ie/search/label/Hamlet%20Revision%20Podcasts

6th year useful links for composition

•Education  http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1139039

•Job Creation

•http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1140144

•Environment

•Cycle to work scheme & Dublin bikes http://www.independent.ie/health/health-news/real-life-the-chain-gang-1997652.html

•Irish Culture

•http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1141201 

The Isle is Full of Voices

Poet and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney in conversation with Olivia O'Leary as part of The Royal Irish Academy's 'Voices in the Ether: Irish Writing on the Radio' Conference which was recorded at St Anne's Church, Dawson Street on February 2nd, 2012 http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A3232677%3A10366%3A19%2D03%2D2012%3A

How to Speak English Like the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day! To help you get closer to your Irish heritage or simply celebrate as if you were Irish, I’ve asked Benny Lewis to help us speak English like the Irish.

How to Speak English Like the Irish

Benny is an Irish polyglot I met at BlogWorld who travels the globe while helping people learn new languages.

Why Do the Irish Speak Like That?

Despite there not really being a single Irish accent, there are commonalities that stem from a combination of factors, the most important being that just a few generations ago, “Irish Gaelic” (Gaeilge) was the dominant language of the country. Even though fewer people use Gaelic these days, its influence on their English is huge.

How to Sound Irish

English grammar is pretty consistent, but the standard spoken form in Ireland takes on a life of its own.

For example, rather than rely on "to have just done" for a recently completed action, we would say "to be after doing." For example, instead of saying “I’ve just found a Euro on the road!” an Irish speaker would say “I'm after finding a Euro on the road!”

Why Don’t the Irish Use “Yes” and “No”?

Another interesting influence from Irish Gaelic is its absolute lack of the words “yes” and “no,” so when our ancestors were speaking English as a second language, they would speak English as they would speak Gaelic--without these words!

Although international English influences mean young people do this less nowadays, a lot of us Irish still simply don't use these words. In the Irish language (and in other languages, like Thai, for example), the issue is resolved by simply repeating the verb of the question. Can you swim? I can! Do you like tomato juice? I don't. Are you coming? I amn't.

Amn’t

Yes you read that right: amn't. It’s a contraction of “am not.” This is one I'm surprised other English speakers don't use! You say “isn't,” “don't,” and “aren't.” “Amn’t” is logical if you ask me!

Singular and Plural “You”

Also, come on rest-of-the-English-speaking-world. One word word for both singular and plural “you”? What were ye (pronounced “yee”) thinking? Like pretty much every other language in the world, Irish Gaelic has a word for addressing one person (“tú”) [too] and a word for addressing a group of people (“sibh”) [shiv]. So when we speak English, we keep the handy separation. “We say “ye,” “yis,” or even “yous” (depending on the part of the country) to speak to a group of people, and “ya” to speak to one person.

What Are Some Irish Phrases?

How about some fun phrases?

Story? Don't give out about your man! Where's the yoke?

These are very common things you would hear from an Irish person, but sadly I've had to water down my English over the years to be understood when abroad and avoid such interesting words.

“Story?” or “What's the story?” Is a translation of the Irish “Aon scéal?” or “Cad é an scéal?”--where "story" means "news." In other words, “What's going on?” or “What's up?” It’s usually used as a greeting. The more rural of us prefer "How's she cuttin’?" (“She” being used in Ireland more than in other places for inanimate objects.)

“To give out” has nothing to do with distributing leaflets. This is from the Irish “tabhairt amach” and means “to complain.” This is another phrase that Irish people are always surprised to hear isn't international!

"Your man" is a nice avoidance technique for not using someone's name. It is usually clear from the context who you're taking about, and the "your" definitely can't be taken literally, he may have no connection whatsoever to you and even be a complete stranger (although a close friend is just as likely). If we’re talking about a woman, she’s “your one.” “Don’t give out about your one,” for example, if you’re telling someone to stop complaining about Lady Gaga.

“Yoke” is a synonym for "thing" and usually refers to something that we may not be too familiar with and don’t know the actual name of. It’s like “thingamajig” and “watchamacallit,” but we use it way more often.

Carryovers

Then, of course, there are Irish words that we use even when speaking English. The most famous of these is “craic,” which means "fun" or “enjoyment,” but is also used to ask how things are: “How's the craic?” “Any craic?”

The Lovely Accent

Our Irish accent is what really sets us apart from the pack though!

Other English speakers have this strange thing they do where they put their tongue between their teeth and blow a buff of air over the tongue. They call it the “th” sound.

We do away with that unpleasant noise in Ireland! To us, the “th” sound is simply replaced with a “t” (unvoiced) or a “d” (voiced). So do ya see de tirty tree and a tird trees over dere? Dat's roy! Sounds way better, doesn't it?

My friends across the pond (both the Atlantic and the Irish Sea) seem to love putting consonants together that never belonged next to one another in the first place--l and m, for example. How can you say these so quickly at the end of a word? It's totally unnecessary! So to us Irish, a film is pronounced “fill-um.” The Irish name Colm has two syllables, “Coll-um.”

Further, you end words in hard consonants! It's like an abrupt and unexpected car crash! Let's take things easy shall we? The “t” at the end of the word “right” is softened almost to a “sh” sound in the Emerald Isle, or even done away with altogether in North Dublin, and pronounced “roy.”

We also "ch" up our t's and "j" up our d's in certain words. So the second day of the week is “Chooseday”; a tube is a “choob.” “Due” (d-u-e) is pronounced just like “jew” (j-e-w).

And if you are spelling words for us, instead of imitating a pirate when you get to the 18th letter (aaaarrrrgh!), just say it like “or” please.

This article is only a small summary of the many differences between Irish English and other brands of English, but hopefully it explains why we Irish sound so charming when we speak. So, soften your consonants, "trow" away your 'th's, and stop giving out that you don't understand us.

                  

It’s no to newspapers but yes to TV and internet for the class of 2011

By Independent.ie reporters

Thursday October 20 2011

LESS than 10pc of secondary school students read newspapers and most access news from television and the internet, new research from the Central Statistics Office shows.
Just 9.4pc of students read newspapers compared to 39.5pc who access news on TV and 19.3pc who use the internet.

The most popular stories included celebrity, music/film and sport.

A total of 87pc of students have access to a computer, with 50pc owning their own computer. Half of all students surveyed have a games console.

Text messaging is the favoured form of communication among all teenagers with 44pc of girls and 36pc of boys opting to text rather than talk.

The majority of boys said PE was their favourite subject and listed the most popular football teams as Manchester United, Ireland , Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

A total of 7,211 secondary school students were interviewed for the survey which took place between August 2010 and June 2011.

- Independent.ie reporters

Why do we capitalize I?

Why do we capitalize the first-person pronoun, I?

The short answer is because we do. But that’s not a very satisfactory answer. Even though it feels natural to English speakers, capitalizing I is unusual. In fact, English is the only language that does. Germanic and Romantic languages typically have some conventions for capitalizing proper nouns, like Deutschland (in German) or Place de la Concorde (in French), but English is the only one that selfishly insists on capitalizing the personal pronoun. We do not, you will recall, even capitalize we.

Wondering why we capitalize letters at all?

It turns out that this unusual convention was a bit of an accident. In Old and Middle English, the word for “I” was closer to its German cousin, “ich,” and it was often spelled “ic.” At this point, the word was not capitalized. However, the pronunciation changed over time and so did the spelling, losing the consonant c.
At first, the new word, i, was left lowercase. However, it began to grow taller than other words. It grew for a silly reason: a single letter looks bad. Look at it: i. How sad. By the time Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late 1300s, I, the personal pronoun, was slightly taller than its lowercase equivalent. From that point on, it was typically capitalized.
The only other accepted single-letter word in English, a, is a larger presence on the page. Its appearance isn’t as offensive as the thin i.

Today, though, some of us are regressing. In e-mails and instant message conversations, capitalization conventions are backsliding.

Do you think the capitalized I will go extinct?

When Mr. Brown Met Miss Fox: A Love Story

"When Mr. Brown Met Miss Fox: A Love Story" by Rich Russell was the first runner up in the 2011 National Grammar Day short story contest.


Quickly, Mr. Brown jumped ahead of Miss Fox in the queue. “Excuse you,” she huffed.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry,” Mr. Brown apologized. “I didn’t realize you were all ready in line.”
“Well, I was, and––did you say––did you just say ‘all ready’ as in two words, ‘all’ and then ‘ready’?”
"No, I mean––how would you know if I said already (one word) or all ready (two words)? And even if I did say all ready (two words), would it be so uncouth, seeing as how you were ready, all of you completely, to be in line, which I failed to realize––?”
“No, I’m sorry,” Miss Fox insisted, “but––I really think that only the adverb would do in such a case.”
“Well,” Mr. Brown began to acquiesce, “then I defer to you and your most exquisite attention to detail, Miss––Miss––?”
“Fox. Glossy is my first name. And some would call my attention to detail more my being a horrible stickler. I’m supposed to be trying to disabuse myself of the habit, actually. My boyfriend––my now ex-boyfriend used to say, ‘Glossy, why can’t you ever unwind? You won’t even let me split the occasional infinitive, even when we’re alone, even when it’s now perfectly acceptable. You’re so stuffy,’ he would tell me. And it wasn’t just him. I’ve lost a few friends because of my correcting instinct, Mr.––?”
“Gerund––I mean, Gerald. Brown. Gerald Brown is what I am called. And I think it’s charming, Miss Fox. Here, can I help you convey your groceries on to the check-out belt?”
Miss Fox smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Brown. I have always depended upon the kindness of––”
“Oh, I’m an accountant,” Mr. Brown offered. “A numbers man.”
“Well, I have always counted upon such kindness, then.”
“It’s quite alright, Miss Fox,” Mr. Brown said.
Glossy’s face pinched. The cashier began ringing up her purchases. A tense em-dash hung in the air between them––Miss Fox was the one to walk the tightrope.
“Sorry, I know I shouldn’t ask this,” Miss Fox began. “But did you say it’s quite alright?”
The boy behind the register stuck his head into one of the brown bags as he packaged up the purchases. Mr. Brown, a bit buffaloed by the call for clarification, conceded, “Yes, I did. I said, It’s quite alright.”
“Yes,” Miss Fox confirmed, handing over her bank card to the check-out boy, who looked like a scared little misplaced comma caught between two intractable independent clauses. “Well,” Glossy Fox continued, “I know that––I know that I shouldn’t ask this but, it sounded like––”
“Here it comes,” said the comma, handing back the bank card to the woman.
“It’s just that it sounded like you said alright as one word instead of two.”
“Yes, I did. I think alright as one word is very modern and efficient. Character space is at a premium these days, after all.”
“Hmm,” Miss Fox mused a moment. “I’m not sure that that is something I could ever put up with,” she said, maneuvering her cart out of the check-out lane.
Mr. Brown called out after her: “Are you just going to let that preposition hang there?!”
Miss Fox turned back, shaken; then, she smiled at him. “I should learn to appreciate the suspense,” she said, leaving the lazy dog to dangle.