How Ireland impacted on the phrases used in modern day Australia
It’s always fascinating to look at how language has developed over time, and English is no exception. With different influences from different nations in each English speaking country, it’s no wonder there are little nuances to English depending on where you are. So we thought we’d take a little look at Australia, and how some of its influences aren’t necessarily from where you’d expect!
Many of us think of Australia’s settlers as coming from English soil but in fact the Irish famine of the 1840s which caused immense poverty and difficult living conditions caused large numbers of Irish people to migrate to Australia too. In fact, by the late 1800s Irish Australians made up around a third of the country’s population.
With the wave of Irish settlers having such an impact on the development of Australia, it makes sense that the Irish language and dialect would have an effect on the development of “Australian English” too.
The original settlers in the mid 1800s weren’t always greeted with open arms. In many cases they were treated with suspicion and looked down upon. Many Australians said they followed Rafferty’s Rules – which came from the Irish surname Rafferty – which meant ‘no rules at all’.
Irish language has played its part in some of the words used in Australian English too. One word that’s synonymous with Australia is ‘Sheila’ – but did you know that it can be traced back to Irish origins?! The proper name, Sheila, was often used as the female counterpart to Paddy, which is a general reference to Irish men. Legend has it that St Patrick had a wife (or mother) who was called Sheila, and the day after St Patrick’s Day was once celebrated as Sheelah’s Day.
The Australian reference to chickens as ‘chooks’ has also been suggested to come from the word ‘tioc’, a Gaellic homophone meaning ‘come’, which Irish people used when calling their chickens in to feed.
There’s even a suggestion that the word ‘didgeridoo’ has been influenced by the Irish. It’s potentially an amalgam of the Irish word ‘dúdaire’ meaning ‘trumpeter or horn-blower’, as well as Irish and Scots-Gaelic ‘dubh’ meaninig ‘black’ and ‘dúth’ meaning ‘native’. Author Dymphna Lonergan claims in her book called “Sounds Irish” that when Irish and Scots-Gaelic speakers first came across the unusual instrument, they could quite possibly have called it ‘dúdaire dubh’ or ‘dúdaire dúth’ (pronounced respectively ‘doodereh doo’ or ‘doojerreh doo’).
The Irish accent itself has also had an impact on Australian English, with some words having a decidedly Irish influence. Sometimes a vowel is added to words like ‘known’ and ‘film’ (making them sound like ‘knowun’ and ‘filum‘).
It’s another fantastic example of how the English language – and indeed all other languages – are fluid, changing and adapting over time as they’re exposed to new influences.