oooh - I'd forgotten the use of Irish. Yes, definitely one of my gives. I love languages so I just have to use them where it's almost to be expected. I should probably add in the whole "Catholic" thing too - Seamus normally makes some allusion to being Catholic or being around Catholics.
Your number 2 has tears in my eyes. That's exactly what I go for, even in the most gutwrenching of stories - I want it to flow like a river, at times with rapids and waves but then back to the regular flow. And I'm not at all certain what I do mechanically that's different from others to do that, either. I was looking at the wikipedia article on Pennsylvania Dutch English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch_English) and I think that's part of it. The way that the Pennsylvania Dutch speak is very lyrical - much more so than traditional German (to my ear, at least). It carries over to English and I know that I'm guilty of quite a few of the grammatical "sins" that the wiki lists. So maybe that's part of it. Add in that I grew up speaking French and English interchangeably and maybe that helps, too. IDK. /verbose thoughts on language
no subject
Your number 2 has tears in my eyes. That's exactly what I go for, even in the most gutwrenching of stories - I want it to flow like a river, at times with rapids and waves but then back to the regular flow. And I'm not at all certain what I do mechanically that's different from others to do that, either. I was looking at the wikipedia article on Pennsylvania Dutch English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch_English) and I think that's part of it. The way that the Pennsylvania Dutch speak is very lyrical - much more so than traditional German (to my ear, at least). It carries over to English and I know that I'm guilty of quite a few of the grammatical "sins" that the wiki lists. So maybe that's part of it. Add in that I grew up speaking French and English interchangeably and maybe that helps, too. IDK. /verbose thoughts on language