A voyage into Irish English through the short story 'Brilliant' by Roddy Doyle

Abstract

“Brilliant” is a short story written by the contemporary Irish writer Roddy Doyle. The story has been chosen as an example of the contemporary English spoken nowadays in Ireland. to work on issues connected to the translation of a language’s variety. Starting from the Nineteenth century, Irish English has become Ireland’s vernacular language. It is one of the many different English varieties spoken in the former English colonies. It s origins can be found in the contact of Irish and the languages of the different invaders and colonizers – Vikings, Scots, etc. As an English variety, it mainly reflects the English-English, but it is characterized by some aspects – phonology, morphology and syntax – that can be found only in it or few other English former colonies, whom Ireland was in contact with (Australia or Canada, for example). Roddy Doyle’s short story is a good example of how Irish English is nowadays in the most important Irish city, Dublin. There can be found typical expressions and constructions, sometimes hard to be translated in the proper way, not to lose the real sense of them. In addition to that, the story also reflects Ireland’s – and most of all Dublin’s – sense of belonging to a Nation and a Culture people really feel part of. The aim of the translation of Doyle’s short story is to make Irish English known and to work on issues connected to the translation of a language’s variety.