Learning Irish
According to the late Daniel Cassidy, linguists have long believed the Irish/Gaelic language had little or no influence on American English. In his book How The Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads [AK Press, 2007], Cassidy dispels what he believes is the myth of no Irish words having entered the American English lexicon.
Daniel Cassidy's Linguistic Studies Explore the Origins of American Slang
Cassidy had inherited a small Irish/English dictionary from a friend who had recently died. That pocket dictionary was to open the doors to a world of language that, combined with a keen interest in his own family’s Irish/American history in Brooklyn, engaged Cassidy’s curiosity for years.
It started with the word Boliver, which was a nickname his grandfather had been given by the older women in his life. No one in the family knew where the word came from. But Cassidy, with the help of his pocket Irish dictionary, unraveled the mystery. The word Boliver was apparently a derivation of the Irish word Bailbhe (pron. baleve) meaning “a mute, silent, inarticulate person,” a description which seemed to fit Cassidy’s grandfather well.
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