Re: "I'm after ..." (Re: Maybe Spam? "Sorunsuz Yathamanýn Kefyi .. .")

Keith Gaughan wrote:

> Mark J. Reed wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 07:39:20PM +0100, Keith Gaughan wrote:
>>
>>> I'm after getting it
>>
>>
>> I know this came up before, but I don't recall - is that an English
>> dialectism or a translated non-Englishism?  (In my 'lect, "I'm after X"
>> can only mean "I'm out to get X", "I want X", not "I've just gotten X")
>
>
> You know, you just don't notice your own dialectism when you're typing.
>
> Be assured, I'm quite fluent in English and have spoken it since I was a
> wee child. If you pay really good attention to what I write, you'll
> probably notice that I've a tendancy to slip back into Sligo
> Hiberno-English, so I do.
>
Sligo, eh?  I used to live in Leitrim (Drumshanbo, to be exact).  Not
too far.  Used to go shopping in Sligo.  But that was a long time ago,
back when I was around 7.

> What you picked out is a pretty salient example of the dialect. The
> adverb 'after' is used to modify the sentence to a near-past perfect
> tense when used with the present continuous. It does other effects when
> used in with the future, e.g. 'you'd/'ll be after a drink, won't you?',
> meaning 'Do you want a drink?'. I think this crops up in some british
> dialects, but I'm not sure which.

'You'll be after a drink' is a different construction, though - since
'after a drink' means 'wanting a drink', in British English, anyway.
Though the 'will be' is different - the future seems to be used to a
greater extent in Hiberno-English than British English.  I suspect I
probably use it more than the average Englishman, however.


>
> The meaning comes from the use of the phrase 'tar eis' (these days
> written by some as 'tareis', but that looks terrible and Irish is rarely
> their first language when they do), meaning... no, guess! Yup, 'after'.
> The Hiberno-English usage is identical to the one in Gaelic, all forms.
>
Welsh, too.  'Rydw i wedi gwneud' - 'I have done' - 'Am I after doing'.

> The meaning you mentioned would be understood, but we wouldn't use it
> here.
>
> K.
>
> P.S. You mission, if you choose to accept it, is to pick out some other
>      dialectisms in the above text.
>
'fraid I couldn't spot any - apart from 'wee'.  But I speak British
English, spent two years living in Ireland, and have an Irish
grandfather. So I might just be adapted to it.

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