{"id":4717,"date":"2019-10-05T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bracketyackrc.wpengine.com\/?p=4717"},"modified":"2019-10-05T05:00:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T05:00:10","slug":"derry-girl-for-a-semester-chapter-2-in-which-i-decipher-some-northern-irish-lingo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=4717","title":{"rendered":"Derry Girl for a Semester, Chapter 2: In Which I Decipher Some Northern Irish Lingo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson<\/em><\/p>\n

Here in \u201cNorn Iron,\u201d everyone uses English\u2014but that doesn\u2019t mean we always speak the same language.\u00a0 In the time I\u2019ve been here, I\u2019ve noticed a number of unfamiliar words and expressions and a couple that are genuinely confusing.\u00a0 This week I\u2019d like to share\u2014and hopefully explain\u2014a bit of the vernacular I\u2019ve overheard.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first word is probably the most common one.\u00a0 \u201cCraic,\u201d pronounced \u201ccrack,\u201d comes from the Irish language and simply means \u201cfun.\u201d Someone might walk up to you and ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s the craic?\u201d just as we might ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s up?\u201d This word can be confusing for Americans in particular, given the pronunciation.\u00a0 Just imagine hearing this in a normal conversation: \u201cThat was some great craic (crack) last night!\u201d Or, similarly, \u201cCome over and we\u2019ll have a bit of craic (crack).\u201d Know that all they\u2019re doing is inviting you to hang out!<\/span><\/p>\n

Or there was a time someone said to me, \u201cYou know your man with the glasses and brown hair?\u201d At first, I was baffled.\u00a0 \u201cMy\u201d man? Did they think I was interested in him? Only later did I realize that \u201cyour man\u201d or \u201cyour woman\u201d is merely a way to point out a certain individual.\u00a0 So my friend was just saying, \u201cYou know that guy\u2026?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Another word that pops up all the time is \u201cclass.\u201d This basically means \u201ccool!\u201d Someone might say, \u201cYou went skydiving? That\u2019s class!\u201d Or \u201cThose are some class shoes you\u2019re wearing.\u201d\u00a0 On another note, what would you say if you got a free meal or finished class early? The proper expression would be \u201chappy days!\u201d (\u201csweet!\u201d).\u00a0 And finally, the word \u201cwee.\u201d Technically, this means something small. But in Northern Ireland, people throw this adjective in front of any noun they feel like\u2014and they do it a lot! So you could potentially have this sentence: \u201cJust drive into the wee car park and push the wee button, and you\u2019ll get a wee ticket for the day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, thanks for reading this wee column! Now go have some craic.\u00a0 I hope your week is class, and if you enjoyed this lesson in Northern Irish lingo\u2014happy days!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Til next time,<\/span><\/p>\n

Charissa<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Charissa Roberson Here in \u201cNorn Iron,\u201d everyone uses English\u2014but that doesn\u2019t mean we always speak the same language.\u00a0 In the time I\u2019ve been here, I\u2019ve noticed a number of unfamiliar words and expressions and a couple that are genuinely confusing.\u00a0 This week I\u2019d like to share\u2014and hopefully explain\u2014a bit of the vernacular I\u2019ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folks-at-noke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}