Dublin English

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Dublin English is the collection of diverse varieties of Hiberno-English spoken in the metropolitan area of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Modern-day Dublin English largely lies on a phonological continuum between two extremes (largely, a broad versus general accent distinction).

The more traditional, lower-prestige, working-class, local urban accent on the one end is known by linguist Raymond Hickey as local Dublin English. As of the 21st century, most speakers from Dublin and its suburbs have accent features falling variously along the entire middle as well as the newer end of the spectrum, which together form what Hickey calls non-local Dublin English, employed by the middle and upper class. On the extreme non-local end, a more recently developing, high-prestige, more widely regional (and even supraregional) accent exists, advanced Dublin English, only first emerging in the late 1980s and 1990s, now spoken by most Dubliners born in the 1990s or later. Advanced Dublic English is also spoken by the same age group all across Ireland (except the north) as it rapidly becomes a new national standard accent, in Hickey's estimation.

Phonology

In the most general terms, all varieties of Dublin English have the following identifying sounds that are often distinct from the other regional accents of Ireland, pronouncing:

• Template:Sc2 as a diphthong, , similar to British Received Pronunciation (RP) or General American (GA) accents.
• Template:Sc2 in the range (local to non-local) of , similar to GA and RP.
• Template:Sc2 as moderately or strongly fronted: .
• Template:Sc2 starting as mid or slightly centralised: .
• Template:Sc2 starting as fronted and/or raised: .

All these sounds are also typical of a standard Irish English accent, which developed out of Dublin but now largely transcends regional boundaries among the middle and higher classes throughout the Republic.

Local Dublin English

Local Dublin English (also, known by Hickey as popular Dublin English or conservative Dublin English) refers to a traditional, broad, working-class variety spoken in Dublin. It is the only Irish English variety that in earlier history was fully non-rhotic; however, as of the 21st century it is weakly rhotic, and among the various Dublin accents it uniquely has:

• Template:Sc2 starting as low and unrounded, Template:IPAblink, or rounded Template:IPAblink.
• Template:Sc2 as widely diphthongal: .
• Template:Sc2 as very narrowly diphthongal, starting as mid and centralised: .
• Template:Sc2 as fronted and raised Template:IPAblink or at its most extreme Template:IPAblink.
• Template:Sc2 as fully open: Template:IPAblink. This potentially merges with Template:Sc2, : the cot-caught merger.
• Template:Sc2 as near-open: . This same quality also defines Template:Sc2, though this set tends to be lengthened.
• A lack of the foot-strut split, with Template:IPAblink used for both sets.
• A lack of the earn-urn merger among particularly conservative speakers: earn or versus urn .
• A traditional distinction between Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2 , thus avoiding a horse–hoarse merger.
• A traditional distinction between the consonants and , thus avoiding a witch–which merger.
• and , respectively, as the stops Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink.
• Intervocalic or word-final as dentalised , a glottal stop , or .
• Certain vowels with "vowel breaking"; specifically, Template:Sc2, Template:Sc2, Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2 in closed syllables are "broken" into two syllables, approximating , , , and , respectively.
• Final cluster consonant reduction occurs, so Template:IPAc-en as , and Template:IPAc-en as .

Notable speakers

• Damien Dempsey – "his distinctly Dublin sounds" and "a working class Dublin accent"
• Conor McGregor – "his famous Dublin accent"
• Becky Lynch
• Rhasidat Adeleke – "her Tallaght accent still clear"; "hearing her Tallaght accent in interviews has 'put Tallaght on the map'”

Non-local Dublin English

Advanced Dublin English

Evolving as a fashionable outgrowth of non-local Dublin English, advanced Dublin English (also, new Dublin English and, formerly, fashionable Dublin English) is a relatively young variety that originally began in the early 1990s among the "avant-garde" and now those aspiring to a non-local "urban sophistication". Advanced Dublin English itself, first associated with affluent and middle-class inhabitants of southside Dublin, is probably now spoken by a majority of Dubliners born since the 1980s.

This "new mainstream" accent of Dublin's youth, rejecting traditional working-class Dublin, has:

• Template:Sc2 as high as Template:IPAblink or even Template:IPAblink.
• Template:Sc2 as narrowly diphthongal: , similar to British Received Pronunciation.
• Template:Sc2 as starting more open than in local Dublin: , though the retracted variant has fallen out of fashion since the 1990s.
• Template:Sc2 may be Template:IPAblink, with a backer vowel than in other Irish accents.
• Template:Sc2 as fully open: Template:IPAblink, perhaps even open central Template:IPAblink. This same quality also defines Template:Sc2, though this set tends to be lengthened.
• Template:Sc2 as high as , thus avoiding a local Dublin-style cot-caught merger, since Template:Sc2 remains low: Template:IPAblink. However, a new split is possible in advanced Dublin, where Template:Sc2 in a closed syllable is Template:IPAblink but in an open syllable is slightly more open Template:IPAblink.
• The foot-strut split, with a Template:Sc2 vowel more open that the of local Dublin and possibly unrounded.
• A completed earn-urn merger, creating a unified Template:Sc2 set, which possibly expands to encompass a third set, Template:Sc2, since both Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2 are potentially rounded Template:IPAblink: thus, a per-pair-purr merger.
• A collapse of Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2, leading to a horse–hoarse merger.
• A collapse of and , leading to a witch–which merger.
• Syllable-initial and possibly affricated, thus: Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink.
• Word-final as possibly velarised: Template:IPAblink.
• as a retroflex approximant, Template:IPAblink, in contrast to most of Ireland, which traditionally has a slightly velarised approximant, Template:IPAblink.

Dublin 4 English

Advanced Dublin English largely evolved out of an even more innovative and briefly-fashionable accent, Dublin 4 (or D4) English, which originated around the 1970s or 1980s from middle- or higher-class speakers in South Dublin before spreading outwards and then rapidly disappearing. Also known as DART-speak after the suburban Dublin commuter railway system, or, mockingly, Dortspeak, this accent rejected traditional, conservative, and working-class notions of Irishness, with its speakers instead regarding themselves as more trendy and sophisticated. However, particular aspects of the D4 accent became quickly noticed and ridiculed as sounding affected or elitist by the 1990s, causing its defining features to fall out of fashion within that decade. Still, it originated certain (less salient) other features that continue to be preserved in advanced Dublin English today. The salient defining features that are now out of fashion include pronouncing the Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2 lexical sets with a back, long and rounded vowel, thus a glass in the bar like . Other sounds, however, like the raising of Template:Sc2 and Template:Sc2 to and , respectively (whereas the two were traditionally merged and low in local Dublin English), have survived from D4 English into advanced Dublin English.

Mainstream Dublin English

The strict centre of the Dublin English continuum is mainstream Dublin English, spoken by the middle class, particularly in the 20th century. Mainstream Dublin English of the early- to mid-20th century was the direct basis for a standard accent of Ireland that is no longer regionally specific, fairly widespread everywhere except in the north of Ireland, where Ulster English persists. However, the majority of Dubliners born since the 1980s (led particularly by females) have shifted towards advanced Dublin English. Advanced Dublin English may be in the process of overtaking mainstream Dublin English as the national prestige variety.

Generally, the vowels of mainstream Dublin fall between the extremes of local Dublin and advanced Dublin accents; for instance, Template:Sc2 falls somewhere between the wider versus narrower diphthongs of these two accents. However, the low back vowels are of special note in mainstream Dublin, where Template:Sc2 (in some analyses, a mere subset of Template:Sc2) is back, open, rounded, and short: , while the vowel in Template:Sc2 is back, open, rounded, and long, . Thus, Template:Sc2 is possibly distinct from Template:Sc2 by height, from Template:Sc2 by length, and from Template:Sc2 by roundness, if at all. Template:Sc2 is less raised than all other Dublin accents, thus: . Much variation exists for intervocalic /t/ (as in city or Italy), which can be the slit fricative Template:IPAblink common throughout Ireland, the glottal stop of local Dublin Template:IPAblink, or a tap Template:IPAblink reminiscent of Ulster and North American English.

Notable speakers

• Saoirse Ronan – "the 'Dub' accent in which she speaks"
• Andrew Scott – "his soft-as-rain Dublin accent"
• Katie McGrath
• Samantha Mumba – described as having a "neutral Dublin" accent
• Orla Brady
• Seana Kerslake
• Fionnula Flanagan
• Elaine Cassidy
• Sarah Bolger
• Angeline Ball
• Dominique McElligott