yonder - English or Irish?

James Harbeck jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA
Fri Jun 20 02:25:45 UTC 2008


One thing that would help account for the presence of the word
"yonder" in an Irish English song is the fact that Irish Gaelic has
more than one degree of distance available when referring to things
that are not "here." So in order to translate correctly that the hill
is not "that hill not too far away" but rather "that hill way over
there," one could use the word "yonder" in the English rendition.
Which doesn't, of course, make the word "yonder" itself Irish in any
way.

But, of course, as we have all been told, all English slang actually
comes from Irish. And so probably much of the rest of English too. :P

James Harbeck.

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