Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/107

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92
ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND.
[CH. VII.

his car he said 'Come now and they'll get you a nice refreshing cup of tay.' 'Yes,' says the dandy, 'I shall be very glad to get a cup of tee'—laying a particular stress on tee. I confess I felt a shrinking of shame for our humanity. Now which of these two was the vulgarian?

The old sound of ea is still retained—even in England—in the word great; but there was a long contest in the English Parliament over this word. Lord Chesterfield adopted the affected pronunciation (greet), saying that only an Irishman would call it grate. 'Single-speech Hamilton'—a Dublin man—who was considered, in the English House of Commons, a high authority on such matters, stoutly supported grate, and the influence of the Irish orators finally turned the scale. (Woollett.)

A similar statement may be made regarding the diphthong ei and long e, that is to say, they were both formerly sounded like long a in fate.

'Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece.'
(Pope: 'Essay on Man.')

In the same essay Pope rhymes sphere with fair, showing that he pronounced it sphaire. Our hedge schoolmaster did the same thing in his song:—

Of all the maids on this terrestrial sphaire
Young Molly is the fairest of the fair.
'The plots are fruitless which my foe
Unjustly did conceive;
The pit he digg'd for me has proved
His own untimely grave.'
(Tate and Brady.)