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Speech example

An example of a middle-class male fromCounty Down (David Trimble)

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Speech example

An example of a male fromDerry (Eamonn McCann)

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An example of a male fromBelfast (George Best)

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Ulster English,^[1] also calledNorthernHiberno-English orNorthern Irish English, is thevariety of English spoken mostly around theIrish province ofUlster and throughoutNorthern Ireland. The dialect has been influenced by the localUlster dialect of theScots language, brought over byScottish settlers during thePlantation of Ulster and subsequent settlements throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It also coexists alongside theUlster dialect of theIrish (Gaelic) language, which also influenced the dialect.

The two major divisions of Ulster English areMid-Ulster English, the most widespread variety, andUlster Scots English, spoken in much of northernCounty Antrim along a continuum with theScots language.^[2][3]South Ulster English is a geographically transitionaldialect between Mid-Ulster English andEnglish spoken south of Ulster, in the Republic of Ireland.

In general, Ulster English speakers'declarative sentences (with typical grammatical structure, i.e.non-topicalized statements) end with arise in pitch, which is often heard by speakers of non-Ulster English as aquestion-like intonation pattern.^[4]

The following phonetics are represented using theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

In the following chart,^[5] "UE" refers to Ulster English, which includes Mid-Ulster English (which may incorporate older, more traditional Mid-Ulster English), as well as Ulster Scots (English). "SSIE" here refers to a mainstream,supraregional southern Hiberno-English, used in the chart for the sake of comparison.

Other, less overarching features of some Ulster varieties include:

• Vowels havephonemic vowel length, with one set of lexically long and one of lexically shortphonemes. This may be variously influenced by theScots system. It is considerably less phonemic than Received Pronunciation, and in vernacular Belfast speech vowel length may vary depending on stress.
• /ɒ/ and/ɔː/ distinction incot andbody versuscaught andbawdy is mostly preserved, except in Ulster Scots (which here follows Scottish speech) and traditional varieties.
• /e/ may occur in such words asbeat,decent,leave,Jesus, etc., though this feature is recessive.
• Lagan Valley/ɛ/ before/k/ intake andmake, etc.
• /ɛ/ before velars, as insack,bag, andbang, etc.
• Merger of/a/–/aː/ in all monosyllables, e.g.Sam andpsalm[ˈsaːm~ˈsɑːm] (the phonetic quality varies).
• /ʉ/ is possible in rural speech before/r/ inFORCE words likefloor,whore,door,board, etc.^[7]
• Vowels are short before/p,t,tʃ,k/.
• Ulster Lengthening, which refers to the use of long allophones of/e,ɛ,a,ɔ/ in any single syllable word that is closed by a consonant other than/p,t,tʃ,k/.
• /uː/ is [yː] after /j/

• Rhoticity, that is, retention of/r/ in all positions.
• Palatalisation of/k,ɡ/ before/a/ is a recessive feature of rural speakers or older Catholic speakers in Belfast.^[8]
• /l/ is notvocalised, except historically; usually "clear" as in Southern Hiberno-English, with some exceptions.
• Unaspirated/p/,/k/ between vowels in words such aspepper andpacket.
• Tapped[ɾ] for/t/ and/d/ between vowels in words such asbutter andcity.^[9] This is similar toNorth American andAustralian English.
• Dental[t̪] and[d̪] for/t/ and/d/ before/r/ in words such asbutter ordry. Dental realisations of/n,l/ may occur as well, e.g.dinner,pillar.^[10] This feature, shared with Southern Hiberno-English, has its origins in English and Scots.^[11]
• /ʍ/–/w/ contrast inwhich–witch. This feature is recessive, particularly in vernacular Belfast speech.
• Elision of/d/ inhand[ˈhɑːn],candle[ˈkanl] andold[ˈəʉl], etc.
• Elision of/b,ɡ/ insing[ˈsɪŋ],thimble,finger etc.
• /θ/ and/ð/ forth.^[9]
• /x/ forgh is retained in proper names and a few dialect words or pronunciations,^[12] e.g.lough,trough andsheugh.

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Themorphology andsyntax of Irish is quite different from that of English, and it has influenced both Northern and Southern Hiberno-English to some degree.

Irish has separate forms for the second person singular (tú) and the second person plural (sibh), ("thou" and "ye" respectively in archaic and some intimate, informal English). Ulster English mirrors Irish in that the singular "you" is distinguished from the plural "you". This is normally done by using the wordsyous,yousuns oryis.^[13] For example:

• "Are yous not finished yet?"
• "Did yousuns all go to see it?"
• "What are yis up to?"

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, Northern and Southern Hiberno-English use "yes" and "no" less frequently than other English dialects.^[14][15] For example:

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

This is not necessarily true in Ulster English where "Aye" for yes and "Naw" for no are used, probably a Scottish influence.

The absence of the verb "have" in Irish has influenced some grammar. The concept of "have" is expressed in Irish by the constructionag ("at")mé ("me") to createagam ("at me"). Hence, Ulster English speakers sometimes use the verb "have" followed by "with me/on me".^[16] For example:

• "Do you have the book with you?" "I have it with me"
• "Do you have money for the bus on you?" "I have none on me"

Muchnon-standard vocabulary found in Ulster English and many meanings of Standard English words peculiar to the dialect come fromScots andIrish. Some examples are shown in the table below. Many of these are also used in Southern Hiberno-English, especially in the northern half of the island.

Furthermore, speakers of the dialect conjugate many verbs according to how they are formed in the most vernacular forms of Ulster Scots, e.g.driv instead ofdrove anddriven as the past tense ofdrive, etc. (literary Scotsdrave,driven). Verbal syncretism is extremely widespread, as is theNorthern subject rule.

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The speech in southern and westernCounty Donegal, southernCounty Tyrone, southernCounty Londonderry, northernCounty Fermanagh, northCounty Armagh, southwesternCounty Antrim and most ofCounty Down form a geographical band across the province from east to west. On the whole, these areas have much more in common with the Derry accent in the west than inner-city Belfast in the east. This accent is often claimed as being the "standard" Northern Irish dialect as it is the most widely used. Parts of the north ofCounty Monaghan (an area centred onMonaghan Town and known asNorth Monaghan) would roughly fall into this category, but only to a certain extent.Bundoran, a town at the southern extremity ofCounty Donegal, also has quite a western Ireland accent, as do parts of the south-west extremity ofCounty Fermanagh.

Thebroad, working-classBelfast dialect is not limited to the city itself but also takes in neighbouring urban areas in the local vicinity (such asLisburn,Carrickfergus andNewtownards), as well as towns whose inhabitants originally came from Belfast (such asCraigavon). 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/ before or aftervelars (/bɛɡ/ forbag). Nowadays, this shift largely only happens before/k/, sopack andpeck are homophones as/pɛk/.

The Belfast dialect is now becoming more frequently heard in towns and villages whose inhabitants would have traditionally spoken with a distinctively rural accent. Examples of such areas areMoira,Ballyclare,Dromore andBallynahinch. It could be said that many young people 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 realisations 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]. Thusdays[dɛːz] anddaze[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. Thusstock[stɒk~stɑk~sta̠k] is distinct fromstalk[stɔ(ː)k]. However, this is complicated by the fact that certain words belonging to theStandard Lexical Set THOUGHT have/ɒ/ rather than the expected/ɔ/. These typically includedraw,fall,walk, andcaught.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 sensitivesocial 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 andnow 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.^[70]

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

The accent ofDerry City, which is also heard in northeasternCounty Donegal (includingInishowen), and northern and westernCounty Tyrone (includingStrabane). There is a higher incidence ofpalatalisation of the velar plosives/k/ and/ɡ/,^[71] (e.g.[kʲɑɹ] "kyar" for "car"). However, the most noticeable difference is perhaps the intonation, which is unique to the Derry,Letterkenny andStrabane area. The accent of theFinn Valley and especially The Laggan district (centred on the town ofRaphoe), both in East Donegal, together with the accent of neighbouring West Tyrone and the accent of the westernmost parts ofCounty Londonderry (not including Derry City), are also quiteScottish sounding. A variety ofUlster Scots is spoken in these areas. This West Ulster variety of Ulster Scots is considered to be quite similar to theScots spoken inAyrshire in south-westScotland.

This region is heavily influenced by the historic presence ofScots and covers areas such as northern and easternCounty Antrim, theArds Peninsula inCounty Down, The Laggan district inCounty Donegal and northeasternCounty Londonderry. The strongScots influence is noticeable in those districts andScots pronunciations are often heard. People from here are often mistaken by outsiders as Scottish. This area includes theGlens of Antrim, where the last native Irish speakers of a dialect native to what is nowNorthern Ireland were to be found. It has been stated that, in the written form, Gaelic of this area continued to use standardised Irish forms, while the spoken dialect continued to use the Scottish variant, and was in effect not different from theScots Gaelic ofArgyll andGalloway.

In the 1830s, Ordnance Survey memoirs came to the following conclusion about the dialect of the inhabitants ofCarnmoney, east Antrim: "Their accent is peculiarly, and among old people disagreeably, strong and broad." The BBC conducted a sociolinguistic survey of Ulster Scots grammar.^[72] East Donegal also has a strong Ulster Scots dialect (see below).

SouthArmagh, southMonaghan, southFermanagh, southDonegal, and a small part of northLeitrim, and northCavan^[73][74] natives speak their own distinct variety of English.^[75] Areas such as southern and westernCounty Armagh, central and southernCounty Monaghan (known locally asSouth Monaghan), northernCounty Cavan and the southern 'strip' ofCounty Fermanagh are the hinterland of the larger Mid-Ulster dialect. The accent gradually shifts from village to village, forming part of the dialect continuum between areas to the North and Midlands (as it once did in Gaelic). This accent is also used in northCounty Louth (located inLeinster) and in part of the northern 'strip' ofCounty Leitrim (inConnacht). There are areas that show a mixture of accents with Ulster-English and Hiberno-English.

These areas fall along the east coastline. South Ulster English's phonology is markedly different from Ulster Scots and majority Ulster English in several aspects, including preservation of dichotomous pattern of phonemic vowel length seen inMiddle English.^[76] Another feature of South Ulster English is the drop in pitch on stressed syllables. A prominent phonetic feature of South Ulster is the realisation of/t/ as a fricative with identical characteristics of the stop, i.e. an apico-alveolar fricative in weak positions.^[77]

• Ulster Scots
• Ulster Irish
• Languages of Ireland
• Hiberno-English

• Hickey, Raymond (2007).Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521852999.
• Wells, J.C. (1982).Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1986.ISBN 978-0521285407

• A til Azed – a glossary of Mid-Ulster vocabulary at BBC Northern Ireland
• South West Tyrone Dialect,South West Tyrone Dialect

• British English
• Dialects of English
• Languages of Ireland
• Languages of Northern Ireland
• Ulster

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