Daniel Cassidy's New Book on The Irish Impact on American English

Thanks to historian Ellen Skerret in response to my posting "Dis and Dat" we have a look at the Irish impact on American English.

IRISH NEWS July 18, 2007 Wednesday


Gee Whiz Daddy-o! Irish slang is baloney

Margaret Canning

It is a conundrum that has long confused scholars - why the Irish
language seems to have had little influence on English as spoken in
America.

Millions of Irish emigrated to America but English as Americans now
speak it appears devoid of Irish references - despite the reputation
of the Irish for verbal creativity.

And with other ethnic groups leaving an indelible mark on English -
from the chutzpah of Yiddish spoken by Jews to the zeitgeist of German
immigrants, the lack of an Irish verbal footprint is regarded as an
anomaly.

Now, in good news for Gaelgoiri everywhere, a new book credits the
Irish language for influencing spoken English - and slang most of all.

In How the Irish Invented Slang: the Secret Language of the Crossroads,
Irish American academic Daniel Cassidy demonstrates that the influence
of Irish emigrants on American existence went beyond pubs and politics.

Mr Cassidy, who has an interest in all things Irish and founded an
Irish studies course at the New College of California, nonetheless
balked at taking up the language himself.

That changed when a student, who died at 37, bequeathed him a
battered, dog-eared Irish dictionary.

Mr Cassidy contemplating binning the book but instead, decided to
absorb a word or two of Irish very night.

A Eureka moment came not long afterwards: "Was it possible that some
of the slang words and phrases that I learned as a kid in New York in
the 1940s and 1950s - like 'in dutch' (duais, pron. dush, trouble);
'snazz' (snas, polish, gloss, lustre) and 'dude' (dudach, dud, pron
dood, a foolish-looking person, a dolt) - were derived from the Irish
language?" he writes.

"Americans speak Irish every day, but they do not dig (tuig,
understand, comprehend) it.

"The words and phrases of Ireland are as woven into the clamour (glam
mor, great howl, shout and roar) and racket (raic ard, loud melee) of
American life as the hot jazz (teas, pron j'as, cd'as, heat, passion,
excitement) of New Orleans."

Mr Cassidy hopes to waft the winds of change in studies of English -
but reminds readers that academics have long harboured a snobbish
attitude to Irish.

HL Mencken, author of The American Language, said the Irish had
contributed very few words to Americans.

"Perhaps speakeasy, shillelah and smithereens exhaust the list,"
Mencken wrote.

Instead, Mr Cassidy, who is taking part in the Feile an Phobail in
west Belfast next month, reasserts the Irishness of artistic figures
like playwright Eugene O'Neill and the Brooklyn Irish actress and
writer Mae West.

Mr Cassidy points out that West used the word "babe", meaning a
physically attractive woman, in 1926 - and that the Irish word 'bab'
meant a baby, woman or a term of affection.

And baloney, meaning nonsense - a word synonymous with America if ever
there was one - is derived from the Irish beal onna, meaning foolish
talk.

If you ever need to tell a nosey parker to "mind your own bee's wax",
you could be referencing the Irish saying beasmhaireacht, meaning
morality and manners, Mr Cassidy contends.

So the idea that the Irish have contributed zilch (word meaning
nothing or zero, origin unknown) to American English could be beal
onna, after all.

- Mr Cassidy takes part in Scribes at the Rock at the Rock Bar on
Falls Road, on August 9 at 4pm.

WORDS WITH GAELIC ROOTS

Some American English slang words with Mr Cassidy's version of their
Irish root below:

Buck: a strong and spirited young man
boc: a wag, a playboy

Caca: euphemism for excrement
Cac/caca - excrement, filth, probably derived from the Latin caco

Cantankerous: grumpy, awkward
Ceanndanacht arsa - old obstinacy, aged wilfulness.

Cold turkey: cut off an addiction abruptly
Coilleoireach, coillteoireachta - cutting off, expurgation

Daddy-o - affectionate term for trendy male
Daideo - grandfather

Freaky: strange or unsettling
Fraochaidhe: fierce, fuerious, passionate

Gee Whiz: exclamation
Dia Uas: Great God!

Geezer: fellow
Gaomshar, gaosach: a wise person

Hick: a rural person
Aitheach: a peasant

Racket: organised crime
Ragaireachd: violence, extortion

Razzmatazz: showing off, extravagance
Roiseadh mortas: high spirits and exultation.