He should have went and spoke proper, like
In any city in England you’ll hear similar. Has he ever heard of dialect? “Sprung” and “sunk” are recognised variants of the past tenses of both verbs. I’ve never heard anyone say “he might have did it,” nor do I imagine has he. “He should have went” is so prevalent that it must be regarded as Cork dialect.
After all in Irish, chím cím, ní chím, ní fheicim and tchím and feicim are variants of ‘I see, I don’t see.’
Or perhaps Mr MacCoitir would like to stick to the school Irish which no one who is a good speaker speaks, or never will speak. Is English the only language in which variation is not allowed? If so, why don’t we go back to Anglo-Saxon.
I hope that people in the north of England continue to say “I were sat on t’wall”, etc, and I do not wish the death of our English dialects either.
Children should be taught ‘standard’ English in school and encouraged to speak it, but not told that what they hear at home is incorrect, if it’s the speech of their town. This is elitist and fundamentally ignorant nonsense. There is no harm in telling them it’s non-standard, and that if they’re going for a job they should speak standard English, as they’ll fall foul of the MacCoitirs of this world, but that should be the end of it.
After all in Oileán Cléire, “do dhearnaigh mé, nor dheineas” was the norm. Should all of these fine speakers be corrected?
Ní dóigh liom é, a chara. Bíodh ciall agat, a Mhic Uí Choitir.
Gearóid Ó Laoi
23 Faiche Mherlyn
Baile an Easpaig
Corcaigh
