Mid Ulster English

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mid Ulster English or simply Ulster English is the dialect of most people in the Province of Ulster in Ireland, including those in the two main cities. The dialect has been greatly influenced by Ulster Irish, but also by the languages of the Scots who arrived during the plantations – this includes the Scots and Scottish Gaelic languages. It represents a cross-over area between Ulster Scots in the north and southern Hiberno-English in the midlands.

Despite its name, the term Mid Ulster English is commonly used to describe the dialect of Ulster in general, not simply County Tyrone (where the geographical centre of the province lies). The accent of much of County Monaghan (chiefly the area known as South Monaghan) and the accent of all of County Cavan (both of these counties lying in South Ulster) is largely central and western Ireland in character. The accent of South Armagh, which also lies in South Ulster, is also quite central sounding, closely resembling the accents of parts of County Cavan, north County Louth and South Monaghan. On the other hand, the accent in north County Antrim (in northeastern Ulster) sounds vaguely similar to lowlands Scots. The rest of the province uses Mid Ulster English in differing varieties usually distinguished with reference to the county of origin of the speaker.

Phonology

Phonetics are in IPA.

Vowels

Phonetic notation
/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 influenced by the Scots system. It is considerably less phonemic than Received Pronunciation, and in vernacular Belfast speech vowel length may vary depending on stress.
• /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]
• /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].
• /i/ may occur before palatalized consonants, e.g. king, fish , condition, brick and sick.
• /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, ɡ, ŋ/ in the environment of front vowels.
• /l/ is not vocalised, except historically; generally "clear" as in Hiberno-English, except in the Belfast area, where it is often dark, at least in some environments.[1]
• /b/ for /p/ in words such as pepper.
• /d/ for /t/ in words such as butter.
• /ɡ/ for /k/ in words such as packet.
• /ʍ/ - /w/ contrast in which - witch. This feature is recessive, particularly in vernacular Belfast speech.
• Dental realisations of /t, d, n, l/ may occur through Irish influence before /r/, e.g. ladder, matter, dinner and pillar, etc.
• Elision of /d/ in hand [hɑːn], candle /ˈkanl/ and old [əʉl], etc.
• Elision of /b, ɡ/ in 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.

Grammar derived from Irish

The morphology and syntax of Irish is quite different from that of English, and it has influenced both Ulster English and Hiberno-English to some degree.

Irish has separate forms for the second person singular (tú) and the second person plural (sibh), like English used to have. Ulster English mirrors Irish in that the singular "you" is distinguished from the plural "you". This is normally done by using the words yous, yousuns or yis.[2] For example:

• "Are yous not finished yet?"
• "Did yousuns all go to see it?"

Irish lacks words that directly translate as "yes" or "no", and instead repeats the verb in a question (positively or negatively) to answer. As such, Ulster English and Hiberno-English use "yes" and "no" less frequently than other English dialects.[3][4] For example:

• "Are you coming home soon?" "I am"
• "Is your computer working?" "It's not"

The absence of the verb "have" in Irish has influenced some grammar. The concept of "have" is expressed in Irish by the construction ag ("at") mé ("me") to create agam ("at me"). Hence, Ulster English speakers sometimes use the verb "have" followed by "with me/on me".[5] For example:

• "Do you have the book with you?"
• "Have you money for the bus on you?"

Ulster English by region

Belfast and surroundings

The urban Belfast dialect is not limited to the city itself but also takes in neighbouring urban areas in the local vicinity (such as Lisburn, Carrickfergus and Newtownards), as well as towns whose inhabitants originally came from Belfast (such as Craigavon). It is generally perceived as being associated with economically disadvantaged areas, and with youth culture. This however is not the dialect used in the media (even those outlets which are based in Belfast). Features of the accent include several vowel shifts, including one from /æ/ to /ɛ/ (/bɛɡ/ for "bag").

The Belfast dialect is now becoming more frequently heard in towns in the 'commuter belt' whose inhabitants would have traditionally spoken with a 'country' accent. Examples or such areas are Moira, Ballyclare, Dromore and Ballynahinch. It could be said that many youths in these areas prefer to use the more cosmopolitan city accent, as opposed to the local variant that their parents or people in other areas would use.

Other phonological features include the following:

• Two major realizations of /e/ are to be encountered: in open syllables a long monophthong near [ɛː], but in closed syllables an ingliding diphthong, perhaps most typically [eə], but ranging from [ɛə] to [iə]. Thus days [dɛːz] and daze [deəz] are not homophonous.
• In Belfast, and in mid and south Ulster, the opposition between /ɔ/ and /ɒ/ is better maintained than in other parts of Ulster, though it is restricted to only a few environments, e.g., that of a following voiceless plosive. Thus stock [stɒk ~ stɑk ~ sta̠k] is distinct from stalk [stɔ(ː)k]. However, this is complicated by the fact that certain words belonging to the Standard Lexical Set THOUGHT have /ɒ/ rather than the expected /ɔ/. These typically include draw, fall, walk, and caught. Water often has /a/ (the TRAP vowel).
• The /aʊ/ phoneme is pronounced [əʉ] in most of Ulster, but in Belfast it is extremely variable and is a sensitive social marker. Pronunciations with a relatively front first element, [ɛ̈] or fronter, are working class. Middle class speakers prefer back [ɑ] or even [ɔ]. The second element is [ʉ ~ y ~ ɨ], often with little or no rounding. How and now may receive special treatment in working-class Belfast speech, with an open first element [a ~ ɑ] and a second element ranging over [i ~ ʉ], a retroflex approximant [ɻ], and zero, i.e., there may be no second element.[6]

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

Ulster Scots areas

This region is heavily influenced by the historic presence of Ulster Scots and covers areas such as northern and eastern County Antrim, the Ards Peninsula in County Down, the Laggan valley in County Donegal and northeastern County Londonderry. These districts are strongly Ulster Scots-influenced, and Scots pronunciation of words is often heard. People from here are often mistaken by outsiders as Scottish. This area includes the Glens of Antrim, where the last native Irish speakers of a dialect native to what is now Northern Ireland were to be found. It has been stated that, whilst in the written form, Gaelic of this area continued to use standardised Irish forms, the spoken dialect continued to the Scottish variant, and was in effect no different to the Gaelic of Argyll, or Galloway (both in Scotland).

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.

The results of a BBC sociolinguistic survey can be found here. [7] East Donegal also has a strong Ulster Scots dialect (see below).

Derry City and surroundings

The accent of Derry City is actually that of western County Londonderry (including Dungiven and Limavady), northeastern County Donegal (including Inishowen), and northern and western County Tyrone (including Strabane). There is a higher incidence of palatalisation after /k/ and its voiced equivalent /ɡ/[8](eg. /kʲɑɹ/ "kyar" for "car"), perhaps through influence from Hiberno-English. However, the most noticeable difference is perhaps the intonation, which is unique to the Derry, Letterkenny and Strabane area. The accent of the Finn Valley and - especially - the Laggan district (centered on the town of Raphoe), both in East Donegal, together with the accent of neighbouring West Tyrone and the accent of the westernmost parts of County Londonderry (not including Derry City), are also quite Scottish sounding. A version of Ulster Scots is spoken in these areas. This West Ulster version of Ulster Scots is considered to be quite similar to the way English is spoken in Ayrshire in south-west Scotland.