and even more...

I am way too fascinated with all this speech stuff. I laugh at myself. HA HAAA.

I have been thinking of my grandfather today. He was born in Ireland, and came here as a young man He had what I thought were his own idiosyncrasies in his speech, but he was also sensitive and interested and amused with other people's.


He would say things like...veja TAY bles (vegetables)
He liked to read Edjer Allen Poe.
He told me I was a good gar-el
He liked to complain about Jedger Hoover
He would laugh at Evel Kiniver's latest stunt.

BUT

He would sometimes call us on things like saying "sore" for "saw" and never let me live down the way I once imitated a waiter when I was little "I'll have the shock- oh- lateh" (ice cream)

One time these Irish guys stopped in at my folks house. We had met them while vacationing in Cape Cod and they were passing through NY on their way back and looked us up in queens.
My grandfather happened to be over. They were from the same county as he...Cavan, except they made a point to say that the correct pronounciation was more like "Kee-ya-ven" Hanging out with those guys was like the closest he ever got to visiting Ireland again, and I remember one of the guys Owen commented to him that as the night went on his "kiaven" was coming out more and more.
(year's later when I was still with my husband we went out to a bar around Christmas time. These other Irish guys "fresh off the plane" walked in. They became enamored of me partly because of my heritage...but especially because of my ability to pronounce it correctly, authentically. I sang simon and garfunkel tunes with one of them. I was arte)
Anyhow, I remember Owen digging my Grandad and me telling him well, "he is a gentleman, and a gentle man."

He was a great palaverer, and loved a good laugh.
But he also enjoyed a good session of complaining.
(He loved music and baseball too, but Im talking about accents and dialects now)


I miss him at times.