There is a specific word in Irish for the Irish language (Gaeilge). Yet Irish speakers also can refer to it as an teanga (the language) when speaking about it. Clearly an Irish speaking view of the world, “the language” speaks to care and respect, even affection. It’s not any language we’re talking about—it’s the language. In contrast, there’s no proper word for the English language in Irish. An English person is duine Sasanach. The geographic place “England” is Sasana (also from Old Irish for “Saxons”). Yet the word for the English language is Béarla. Why so different? It breaks a common pattern, where the word for a language matches its place name: German/Germany, English/England, French/France, etc. There’s a similar pattern in Irish: Gearmánach/An Ghearmáin, Fraincis/An Fhrainc, except when it comes to “English.” Another exception: in Irish, all words for languages are feminine; English is the only one masculine.

Originally, English was referred to as Béarla gallda (“foreign speech”), and then shortened to Béarla (which came to mean speech, language, cant or jargon). For the Irish, hearing English in Ireland, it was foreign speech. More, a native speaker from Kerry told me that Béarla means “bureaucratic” or “administrative language”—almost like meaningless words (“blah, blah, blah”). This makes sense given the history of colonialism in Ireland. When English was spoken—and had to be spoken—it was when with dealing with authorities, the powers-that-be. To Irish speaking ears, it did sound like “blah, blah, blah.” It wasn’t beautiful or musical or nuanced; it was noise. This language wasn’t connected to a place or the land because the people speaking it weren’t in their own place; they were speaking their “blah, blah, blah” in Ireland—where the Gaels were speaking Gaeilge. That the Irish language is lovingly referred to as an teanga (“the language”) and English as administrative garbly-gook (and a masculine rather than feminine noun), sums up the history of British colonialism in Ireland.