Mid Ulster English
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.
Main article: phonemic differentiation.
Phonetics are in
IPA.
Vowels
| | feet | | | | fight |
| | fate | | | | shout |
| | bet | | | | bit |
| | bat | | | | but |
| | pot | | | | bought |
|
| | boat | | | | father |
| | boot | | | | 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.
* in after e.g.
want,
what,
quality.
* and 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 , , ,
* may occur before palatalized consonants, e.g.
king,
fish ,
condition,
brick and
sick.
* may occur in such words as
beat,
decent,
leave,
Jesus etc.
*Lagan Valley before in
take and
make etc.
* before velars in
sack,
bag, and
bang etc.
*Merger of - in all monosyllables e.g.
Sam and
psalm .
* may occur before and in
tap and
top etc.
* before in
floor,
whore,
door,
board etc.
*Vowel oppositions before , e.g.
earn,
for and
four.
Consonants
*
Rhoticity, that is, retention of in all positions.
*Palatalisation of in the environment of front vowels.
*Clear in all positions.
*
Aspiration in words beginning with
dr and
tr for example
drum and
tractor* for in words like
pepper* for in words like
butter* for in words like
packet* - contrast in
which -
witch.
* Dental realisations of may occur through
Irish influence before , e.g.
ladder,
matter dinner and
pillar etc.
*Lenition of in
hand ,
candle and
old etc.
*Lenition of in
lamb and
sing ,
thimble,
finger etc.
* and for
th.
* for
gh is retained in proper names and a few dialect words or pronunciations, e.g.
lough,
trough and
sheugh.
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 ( for "bag"). The accent is also arguably more nasal compared to the rest of Ulster.
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:
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, 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/(eg. "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.
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. |
| duke, jouk, juke | look (usually a noun) | Possibly rhyming slang for "look", maybe from Geoff Duke ([1]), or from Scots jouk, "to dodge". |
| 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 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.
*
Ulster Scots language*
Hiberno-English*
Ulster Irish*
West Midlands dialect#
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".# From p 13 of
Ulster-Scots: A Grammar of the Traditional Written and Spoken Language, by Robinson, Philip, published 1997.#
BBC Your Voice poll results# Elmes, Simon
Talking for Britain: A Journey Through the Nation's Dialects (2005) (ISBN 0140515623) # See
this lexicon of south-west Tyrone for examples
*
A til Azed - a glossary of Mid-Ulster vocabulary at BBC Northern Ireland*
South West Tyrone Dialect
