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Ulster English

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Mid Ulster English is the dialect of most people in the province of Ulster in Ireland, including those in the two main cities. It represents a cross-over area between Ulster Scots and Hiberno-English.

It is an English-based dialect spoken across mid Ulster between the Lagan and Clogher valleys in areas historically planted by settlers, the majority of which came over to Ireland from the West Midlands region in Britain. The dialect has enjoyed higher social prestige than the Ulster Scots dialects that have influenced it to varying degrees. The dialect is currently encroaching on the Ulster Scots area, especially in the Belfast commuter belt, and may eventually consume it.

Phonology

Main article: phonemic differentiation.

Phonetics are in IPA.

Vowels

/i/ feet /əi/ fight
/e/ fate /əʉ/ shout
/ɛ/ bet /ɛ̈/ bit
/a/ bat /ɔ̈/ but
/ɑ/ pot /ɔː/ bought
/o/ boat /aː/ father
/ʉ/ boot /ɔe/ boy
  • Vowels have phonemic vowel length with one set of lexically long and one of lexically short phonemes. This may be variously inluenced by the Scots system.
  • /a/ in after /w/ e.g. want, what, quality.
  • /ɑ/ and /ɔː/ distinction in cot, body and caught, bawdy. Some varieties neutralise the distinction in long environments, e.g. don = dawn and pod = pawed.
  • like, light, meat and beard also with /e/ [lek], [let], [met], [berd]
  • /i/ may occur before palatalized consonants, e.g. king, fish , condition, brick and sick.
  • /e/ may occur in such words as beat, decent, leave, Jesus etc.
  • Lagan Valley /ɛ/ before /k/ in take and make etc.
  • /ɛ/ before velars in sack, bag, and bang etc.
  • Merger of /a/ - /aː/ in all monosyllables e.g. Sam and psalm [sɑːm].
  • /ɑ/ may occur before /p/ and /t/ in tap and top etc.
  • /ʉ/ before /r/ in floor, whore, door, board etc.
  • Vowel oppositions before /r/, e.g. /ɛrn/ earn, /fɔr/ for and /for/ four.

Consonants

  • Rhoticity, that is, retention of /r/ in all positions.
  • Palatalisation of /k, g, ŋ/ in the environment of front vowels.
  • Clear /l/ in all positions.
  • Aspiration in words beginning with dr and tr for example drum and tractor
  • /b/ for /p/ in words like pepper
  • /d/ for /t/ in words like butter
  • /g/ for /k/ in words like packet
  • /ʍ/ - /w/ contrast in which - witch.
  • Dental realisations of /t, d, n, l/ may occur through Irish influence before /r/, e.g. ladder, matter dinner and pillar etc.
  • Lenition of /d/ in hand [hɑːn], candle /'kanl/ and old [əʉl] etc.
  • Lenition of /b, g/ in lamb [lam] and sing [sɪŋ], thimble, finger etc.
  • /θ/ and /ð/ for th.
  • /x/ for gh is retained in proper names and a few dialect words or pronunciations, e.g. lough, trough and sheugh.

Mid-Ulster English by region

Belfast

The urban Belfast dialect is not limited to the capital itself but also neighbouring cities and towns like Lisburn as well as towns whose inhabitants are mostly from Belfast (Craigavon further west in Co. Armagh). The dialect has influenced the way the rest of the province sounds through media (Radio Ulster, BBC Northern Ireland) and a growing number of young people are adopting the Belfast accent and vocabulary through these as well as commuting etc.

Features of the accent include several vowel shifts, including one from /æ/ to /ɛ/ (/bɛg/ for "bag"). The accent is also arguably more nasal compared to the rest of Ulster[1].

Some of the vocabulary used among young people in Ulster such as the word "spide" are of Belfast origin.

North, north-east and east Ulster

The dialect in some places here is similar, if not identical to the Belfast dialect (e.g. in Bangor, Co. Down) but (especially rural) places such as north Antrim are strongly Ulster Scots-influenced and Scots pronunciation of words is often heard.

In the 1830s, Ordnance Survey memoirs came to the following conclusion about the dialect of the inhabitants of Carnmoney, east Antrim:

Their accent is peculiarly, and among old people disagreeably strong and broad.

[2]

Interestingly, the Antrim accent (or rather that of Antrim politician Dr. Ian Paisley) was found in a recent BBC survey to be the "least pleasant" by English, Welsh and Scottish participants but "acceptable" to participants in Northern Ireland[3], which sheds some light on outsiders' opinion of Mid-Ulster English (or of course may also simply reflect people's opinions of the aforementioned person).

Derry/Londonderry

The speech of the inhabitants of Ulster's second largest city and the inhabitants around it is quite different to that of Belfast. There is a higher incidence of palatalisation after /k/ and its voiced equivalent /g/[4](eg. /kʲɑɹ/ "kyar" for "car"), perhaps through influence from Hiberno-English.

Tyrone

The speech in Co. Tyrone is again influenced by Hiberno-English, but still retains a large lexicon with many words from Ulster-Scots[5].

Vocabulary

Much non-standard vocabulary found in Mid Ulster English and many meanings of standard English words peculiar to the dialect come from Scots and Irish. Some examples are shown in the table below. Many of these are also used in general Hiberno-English.

Mid-Ulster English Standard English Notes
Ach!/Och! annoyance, regret, etc. (general exclamation) Usually used to replace "Oh!" and "Ah!". "Ach" is Irish for "but", which is usually use in the same context.
aye yes
bake face From Scots, extension of meaning from beak. Many body parts are also from Scots: see below.
boke, boak vomit From Scots bowk with Ulster vocalisation to /o/.
cowp, cope to tip over, to fall over From Scots cowp with Ulster vocalisation to /o/.
crack banter, fun, eg. "What's the crack (with ye)?" - "What's up?" From Scots or Northern English. Often craic the nativised Irish spelling.
culchie a farmer, rural dweller either from "Kiltimagh" (KULL-cha-mah), a town in Co Mayo or from the -culture in "agriculture".
dander walk (noun or verb) Almost always a noun in (Ulster) Scots (daunder), its use as a verb is English influence.
gob, gub mouth Perhaps from Scots gab, but also Scottish Gaelic and Irish gob, mouth.
gutties plimsolls Note also the phrase "Give her the guttie" - "Step on it (accelerate)". From Gutta-percha, india-rubber, Also used in Scotland.
hallion a good-for-nothing From Scots.
(to have) a hoak, hoke to look for, e.g. "Have a wee hoak" - "Take a look". From Scots howk with Ulster vocalisation to /o/.
jap to spill From Scots jaup.
lug ear Scots, almost certainly from a Scandinavian source, eg. Norwegian lugg, a tuft of hair.
oxter armpit Scots
poke ice-cream From Scots poke a bag or pouch.
scunnered, scundered embarrassed (esp. Belfast area), annoyed (around Tyrone) From Scots scunner.
sheugh Pronounced /ʃʌx/ a small, shallow ditch. From Scots sheuch.
thon that From Scots, originally yon, the th by analogy with this and that.
throughother like "something the cat dragged in" Perhaps from Scots throuither.
wee little, but also used as a generic diminutive Cognate with German wenig, meaning "a little", although more closely related to English weigh.

Furthermore, speakers of the dialect conjugate many verbs according to how they are formed in Scots, eg. driv instead of drove as the past tense of drive, etc.

See also

References

  1. ^ Here an Irish film critic describes the nasal Belfast accent that American actress Gillian Anderson put on for the film The Mighty Celt as "nothing short of the real thing".
  2. ^ From p 13 of Ulster-Scots: A Grammar of the Traditional Written and Spoken Language, by Robinson, Philip, published 1997.
  3. ^ BBC Your Voice poll results
  4. ^ Talking for Britain: A Journey Through the Nation's Dialects (2005) (ISBN 0140515623)
  5. ^ See this lexicon of south-west Tyrone for examples
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