Colm O'Regan: What would we do without those words that mean nothing but are a vital crutch?

Sentence-final particles are the term linguists use where people put unnecessary words at the end. In Dublin, it’s ‘but’. In Cork, it’s ‘like’

Colm O'Regan: 'We’ll just have to put up with it. It’s far from perfect/parrfect/purrfect, but that’s how language goes.' Picture: iStock

What would we do without them? The words that mean nothing but are a vital crutch when we just need to say something? 

I was reminded of this last week when complaining about the broadband being down. I don’t complain often. Usually, because what happens is I ring up all self-righteous, and it turns out I had a setting wrong, and actually it’s my fault. This time, the broadband was down.