Stan CareyEavan Boland and the emergence of a poetic self. On the blog: https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2026/03/29/eavan-boland-and-the-emergence-of-a-poetic-self/
"Without knowing, I had used that thing for which the English reserve a visceral dislike: their language, loaded and aimed by the old enemy."
—Eavan Boland, on using the word "amn't" in a London school at the age of 6 or 7
Bodhipaksa@stancarey In Scottish schools the teachers would come down hard on you if you used a Scots word, as if you'd uttered profanity. I'm curious if the same kind of colonial mindset exists in Irish schools.
@bodhipaksa Irish was systematically suppressed here for centuries. That was internalized as shame and extended to Irish English: I know someone who wrote an Irish English idiom in school and was made cut it out of her copybook with a scissors and bury it in a hole in the ground outside
@stancarey I'd imagined that there would be the same kind of linguistic shaming, although I'd hoped to hear that independence had led people to have more pride in their local idioms.
We'll have to remember in Scotland that the colonized mindset can persist for generations after independence.
@bodhipaksa The colonized mindset can also mutate into the wannabe-colonizer mindset, as we're seeing with mass property-hoarding and rental exploitation in a housing emergency.
The linguistic shame diminishes, but slowly. Sharing my appreciation for and interest in Irish English dialect is a longstanding aim of my blog.
I'd never thought of Neoliberalism as colonialism, but it is. It used to be a powerful country taking over a weaker one. Now it's powerful capitalists taking over all countries' political systems.
They buy off the government, change the laws in their favor, and then take control of the entire economy with the aim of owning everything and having us all dependent on them. It's simultaneously capitalism, colonialism, and feudalism.
Mignon Fogarty@grammargirl If it was fiction you'd struggle to believe it
@stancarey The mind boggles at your schoolmaster's reason for reading Shakespeare!
Great piece. You've made me want to reread "Hitchhikers."
Joan of Contention 😷@stancarey @bodhipaksa Holy crap.
@clickhere Miseducation in action!
@stancarey If anything, an understatement.. (I'm still stuck on "Holy crap!" here.)
@stancarey I just remembered the case of a Scots teenager who was jailed for the offense of using a single Scots word — "aye" — in court.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/ayes-dont-have-it-as-sheriff-bans-scots-yes-in-court-2465467
Hamish BuchananThe English did the same to Indigenous languages throughout North America, too.
It's weird that they're so concerned with the purity of their language when it is itself a hybrid of several others, and has evolved a lot over the years.
It's worth remembering that it's the Irish and the Scots who are doing this to themselves. Colonized or formerly colonized people who believe the colonizers provide the norm for language and behavior are just as hard on their own people as any colonial master would be. Often worse.
BTW, @stancarey "amn't" is common in Scotland as well. https://martin-millar.blogspot.com/2010/09/scottish-usage-amnt.html
Yes. There is none so zealous as the converted. I remember my grandfather being proud that Scots soldiers were the bravest, toughest fighters in the British colonial wars.
I'm a life-long Canadian and fell no real connection to Scots history or culture, but I do enjoy the little Scots turns of phrase that turn up in my language now and then.
RE 🇨🇦@hamishb @bodhipaksa @stancarey
I've been aware of "amn't" as a contraction of "am not" for a while, but I've never heard it used.
The word "ain't" is also a contraction of "am not", but it has been banned as slang since I was a child.
I have to wonder if the prohibition on "amn't" is an extension of the prohibition on "ain't".
"Aren't" as the first person contraction apparently is a result of the fact that "an't" (another variant of "ain't") and "aren't" have the same pronunciation in certain dialects of English.
@hewer_of_code @hamishb @bodhipaksa I wouldn't say it's an extension of it, but the prohibitions are related. I touch on this, and the phonetic influences, and the Scottish use of "amn't", in my post about the word, fwiw. None of the usages are really slang, though that characterization of dialect forms is sometimes how people try to belittle them https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/amnt-i-glad-we-use-amnt-in-ireland/
@hamishb @bodhipaksa @stancarey
This reminds me of something that happened in the reverse, seemingly just in Canada.
My dad used to pronounce "khaki" as "car key", in a typical rhotic Canadian English accent. Canadians had added the 'r' in as an over-correction from the non-rhotic English accent, which "khaki" and "car key" are also homonyms because the "r" is not pronounced.
My dad is the only one I knew of. I'm not sure how many Canadians still pronounce it this way, as we tend also to "do it to ourselves" in comparison to American English.
IanMoore3000@stancarey I really can't abide "amn't" and I'm not buying the idea that it is a true Gael's way of striking back at the Brits.
@IanMoore3000 I don't think she ever considered herself a "true Gael". Why do you hate "amn't"?
@stancarey my mother thought me to hate it and I've stuck with that ever since. But it just sounds wrong in a way that "aren't" "don't" and "doesn't" do not. I think it might be because it adds a short vowel before n't (although "doesn't" also does that.
@IanMoore3000 I hope you don't mind my saying that that's a subjective and inconsistent rationalization. It's a pity you were taught to dislike the word. Linguistically it's perfectly fine and is, if anything, more logical than "aren't" in its natural syntactic position – which is why children often produce it instinctively before being taught to avoid it (if they're not Irish or if their guardians/teachers have a thing against it)
rivets@stancarey I have always said amn't. Aren't doesn't make sense. (Scottish)
@rivets Which is why children learning English often produce "amn't", till they're told not to
@stancarey The extracts you selected are incredibly beautiful and moving. Thank you.
@bodhipaksa My pleasure. It's a powerful, beautifully written examination
sailboat@stancarey thanks for this, i was looking up the library loan before i'd even finished your post!
@sailboat Excellent! I hope you enjoy it