Abrogue (/broʊɡ/) is a regionalaccent ordialect, especially anIrish accent in English.[1]
The first use of the termbrogue originated around 1525 to refer to an Irish accent, as used byJohn Skelton,[2] and it still, most generally, refers to any (Southern) Irish accent. Less commonly, it may also refer to variousrhotic regional dialects of English, in particular certain ones of theUnited States (such as the "Ocracoke brogue"), theEnglish West Country, orScotland (although historically Scottish accents were referred to as "burrs", animitative word due to Scottish English's distinctR sound).[3]
Certain regional accents in North America, such asMission brogue spoken in the Mission District ofSan Francisco, andOttawa Valley Brogue spoken in theOttawa River valley of Canada, are associated withIrish orIrish American populations in those areas.[4][5]
The word was noted in the 1500s by John Skelton; there is also a record of it in Thomas Sheridan's 1689General Dictionary of the English Language.[6] Multipleetymologies have been proposed: it may derive from theIrishbróg ("shoe"), thetype of shoe traditionally worn by the people of Ireland and theScottish Highlands, and hence possibly originally meant "the speech of those who call a shoe a 'brogue.'"[7] It is debated that the term comes from the Irish wordbarróg, meaning "a hold (on the tongue)," thus "accent" or "speech impediment."[8]
An alternative etymology suggested that brogue means 'impediment,' and that it came frombarróg which is homophonous withbróg in Munster Irish. However, research indicates that the word for 'impediment' is actuallybachlóg and that the term brogue to describe speech is known to Irish speakers in Munster only as an English word.[9]
A famousfalse etymology 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."[9]
