Munster Irish (, ) is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. Gaeltacht regions in Munster are found in the Gaeltachtaàof the Dingle Peninsula in west County Kerry, in the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, in Cape Clear Island off the coast of west County Cork, in Muskerry West; Cúil Aodha, Ballingeary, Ballyvourney, Kilnamartyra, and Renaree of central County Cork; and in an Rinn and an Sean Phobal in Gaeltacht na nDéise in west County Waterford.
The north and west of Dingle Peninsula () are today the only place in Munster where Irish has survived as the daily spoken language of most of the community although the language is spoken on a daily basis by a minority in other official GaeltachtaÃÂ in Munster.
Historically, the Irish language was spoken throughout Munster and Munster Irish had some influence on those parts of Connacht and Leinster bordering it such as Kilkenny, Wexford and south Galway and the Aran Islands.
Munster Irish played an important role in the Gaelic revival of the early 20th century. The noted author Peadar Ua Laoghaire wrote in Munster dialect and stated that he wrote his novel ' to show younger people what he viewed as good Irish:
Peig Sayers was illiterate, but her autobiography, Peig, is also in Munster dialect and rapidly became a key text. Other influential Munster works are the autobiographies Fiche Blian ag Fás by Muiris àSúilleabháin and An tOileánach by Tomás àCriomhthain.
Munster Irish differs from Ulster and Connacht Irish in a number of respects. Some words and phrases used in Munster Irish are not used in the other varieties, such as:
The phonemic inventory of Munster Irish (based on the accent of West Muskerry in western Cork) is as shown in the following chart (based on ; see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). Symbols appearing in the upper half of each row are velarized (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonant is neither broad or slender.
The vowels of Munster Irish are as shown on the following chart. These positions are only approximate, as vowels are strongly influenced by the palatalization and velarization of surrounding consonants.
In addition, Munster has the diphthongs .
Some characteristics of Munster that distinguish it from the other dialects are:
Irish verbs are characterized by having a mixture of analytic forms (where information about person is provided by a pronoun) and synthetic forms (where information about number is provided in an ending on the verb) in their conjugation. Munster Irish has preserved nearly all of the synthetic forms, except for the second-person plural forms in the present and future:
Some irregular verbs have different forms in Munster than in the standard (see Dependent and independent verb forms for the independent/dependent distinction):
Past tense verbs can take the particle in Munster Irish, even when they begin with consonants. In the standard language, the particle is used only before vowels. For example, Munster or "he broke" (standard only ).
The initial mutations of Munster Irish are generally the same as in the standard language and the other dialects. Some Munster speakers, however, use as the lenition equivalent of in at least some cases, as in "O king!" , "gave birth" , "they will not go" .
One significant syntactic difference between Munster and other dialects is that in Munster (excepting Gaeltacht na nDéise), ("that") is used instead of as the indirect relative particle:
Another difference is seen in the copula. is used in addition to .
Some notable Irish singers who sing songs in the Munster Irish dialect include Nioclás TóibÃÂn, Elizabeth Cronin, Labhrás àCadhla, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Seán de hÃÂra, Diarmuid àSúilleabháin, SeosaimhÃÂn NàBheaglaoich and Máire NàChéilleachair.
Four of the most notable Irish writers as Gaeilge (in Irish) hail from the Munster Gaeltacht: Tomás àCriomhthain whose most well-known book is the autobiographical An tOileáineach (The Islandman). Peig and Machnamh Seanamhná (An Old Woman's Reflections) by Peig Sayers was a fixture on the secondary school Irish syllabus for several decades. The other two authors are Muiris àSúilleabháin with Fiche Bliain ag Fás (Twenty Years A-Growing) and EilÃÂs NàShuilleabháin's Letters from the Great Blasket.