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How does the language in the drama "Riders to the Sea" differ from today's language?
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The language in "Riders to the Sea" differs from today's language primarily due to its regional and cultural context. Set in the Aran Islands, the play reflects Irish speech patterns with Gaelic syntax influences, such as using "Is it Bartley that is there? It is" instead of a simple "yes." Additionally, it includes past tense constructions like "he is after writing a letter" and interjects pious phrases, adding local color and reflecting the islanders' beliefs.
First, it is important to distinguish the issue of geography from that of chronology. In other words, the Aran islanders have their own regional speech that is distinct from that of, say, people living in Yorkshire, England, or Mississippi in the United States. A reader from the United States might find many regional expressions unfamiliar, just as someone from Ireland might find many American idioms strange.
Next, the dominant language in the Aran Islands is not English but Irish. Thus, people encountering Riders to the Sea are hearing Synge's reconstructions of how the Irish speech of the Aran Islanders might have sounded if they spoke English (which they would have only spoken as a second language). Thus, many of the peculiarities of the language are due to ways in which Synge carried over Gaelic syntax into English. For example, rather than there being a single word for "yes" in Gaelic,...
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a speaker might answer the question "Is Bartley there?" by repeating the question and affirming it as follows: "Is it Bartley that is there? It is.” Pious phrases such as "God rest his soul" are interjected into the dialogue, giving a sense of local color and beliefs.
Another unusual feature is the construction of the past tense in Irish English, especially in areas where Irish was commonly spoken. Rather than saying "he wrote a letter," as one would say in most forms of British and North American English, in Irish English, one would say "he is after writing a letter," with the word "after" indicating that the action happened in the past.
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