A brogue () is a regional accent or

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

, especially an

Irish accent Irish commonly refers to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the island and the sovereign state *** Erse (disambiguati ...

in English. The first use of the term ''brogue'' originated around 1525 to refer to an Irish accent, as used by John Skelton, and it still, most generally, refers to any (Southern) Irish accent. Less commonly, it may also refer to various rhotic regional dialects of English, in particular certain ones of the

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(such as the " Ocracoke brogue"), the English West Country, or

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(although historically Scottish accents were referred to as "burrs", an imitative word due to Scottish English's distinct R sound). Certain regional accents in North America, such as Mission brogue spoken in the Mission District of

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, and Ottawa Valley Brogue spoken in the

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valley of Canada, are associated with Irish or

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populations in those areas. The word was noted in the 1500s by John Skelton; there is also a record of it in Thomas Sheridan's 1689 ''General Dictionary of the English Language''. Multiple

etymologies Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

have been proposed: it may derive from the Irish ''bróg'' ("shoe"), the type of shoe traditionally worn by the people of Ireland and the

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, and hence possibly originally meant "the speech of those who call a shoe a 'brogue.'" It is debated that the term comes from the Irish word ''barróg,'' meaning "a hold (on the tongue)," thus "accent" or "speech impediment." An alternative etymology suggested that brogue means 'impediment,' and that it came from ''barróg'' which is homophonous with ''bróg'' in Munster Irish. However, research indicates that the word for 'impediment' is actually ''bachlóg'' and that the term brogue to describe speech is known to Irish speakers in Munster only as an English word. A famous

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology or pseudo-etymology) is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a folk etymology (or po ...

states that the word stems from the supposed perception that the Irish spoke English so peculiarly that it was as if they did so "with a shoe in their mouths."

References

Culture of Ireland English phonology Language varieties and styles {{phonology-stub

See also

References