Brogue

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This article is about the accent. For the shoe, see Brogues.

A brogue is a strong dialectal accent, notably in Irish dialects of the English language. For example, in the folksong "Finnegan's Wake", the character of the song, Tim Finnegan, was said to have a "beautiful brogue so rich and sweet".

It is from the Irish (Gaeilge) word "bróg", meaning "shoe". The term has been said to have been coined by an Englishman who met an Irishman whose accent was so thick that he spoke "as though he had a shoe in his mouth", but it more likely derives from the association of Irish workers with their rawhide shoes.

The term is also used in reference to Scottish, and other Gaelic-influenced dialects. The term is sometimes applied to dialects of the Britannic tongues such as Welsh as well.