Ulster English, also called Northern Hiberno-English or Northern Irish English, is the variety of English spoken mostly around the Irish province of Ulster and throughout Northern Ireland. The dialect has been influenced by the local Ulster dialect of the Scots language, brought over by Scottish settlers during the Plantation of Ulster and subsequent settlements throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It also coexists alongside the Ulster dialect of the Irish (Gaelic) language, which also influenced the dialect.
The two major divisions of Ulster English are Mid-Ulster English, the most widespread variety, and Ulster Scots English, spoken in much of northern County Antrim along a continuum with the Scots language.Higgs, Robert J. Appalachia Inside Out: Culture and custom. University of Tennessee Press, 1995. p.512 South Ulster English is a geographically transitional dialect between Mid-Ulster English and English spoken south of Ulster, in the Republic of Ireland.
Phonology In general, Ulster English speakers' declarative sentences (with typical grammatical structure, i.e. non-topicalized statements) end with a rise in pitch, which is often heard by speakers of non-Ulster English as a question-like intonation pattern.Hickey, 2007, p. 118.
The following phonetics are represented using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
Vowels In the following chart, "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. + English diaphoneme UE SSIE Example words bath, trap, man blah, calm, father conservative bother, lot, top divergent cloth, loss, off all, bought, saw dress, met, bread about, syrup, arena hit, skim, tip beam, chic, fleet e i happy, monkeys, sari bus, flood, young book, put, should food, glue, new eye, five, try bright, dice, site now, ouch, scout lame, rein, stain boy, choice, moist goat, oh, show R-coloured vowels barn, car, park fear, peer, tier bare, bear, there fern, earn, serve fur, urn, fir doctor, martyr, parker for, horse, war (rural: ) four, hoarse, wore moor, poor, tour
Other, less overarching features of some Ulster varieties include: 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. and distinction in cot and body versus caught and bawdy is mostly preserved, except in Ulster Scots (which here follows Scottish speech) and traditional varieties. may occur in such words as beat, decent, leave, Jesus, etc., though this feature is recessive. Lagan Valley before in take and make, etc. before velars, as in sack, bag, and bang, etc. Merger of – in all monosyllables, e.g. Sam and psalm (the phonetic quality varies). is possible in rural speech before in words like floor, whore, door, board, etc.Hickey, 2007, p. 117. Vowels are short before . Ulster Lengthening, which refers to the use of long allophones of in any single syllable word that is closed by a consonant other than . is [yː] after /j/
Consonants Rhoticity, that is, retention of in all positions. is typically realised as a voiced retroflex approximant . Some rural speakers may allophonically use an alveolar tap when preceded by /t/, as in train. Palatalisation of before is a recessive feature of rural speakers or older Catholic speakers in Belfast.Hickey, 2007, p. 112. is not vocalised, except historically; usually "clear" as in Southern Hiberno-English, with some exceptions. Unaspirated , between vowels in words such as pepper and packet. Tapped for and between vowels in words such as butter and city.Hickey, 2007, p. 115. This is similar to North American and Australian English. Dental and for and before in words such as butter or dry. Dental realisations of may occur as well, e.g. dinner, pillar.Harris, John (1985) Phonological Variation and Change: Studies in Hiberno-English, p. 58 This feature, shared with Southern Hiberno-English, has its origins in English and Scots.Maguire, Warren Pre-R Dentalisation in Northern England; Maguire, Warren Pre-R Dentalisation in Scotland, Pre-publication version of Pre-R Dentalisation in Scotland; see also Harris, John (1985) Phonological Variation and Change: Studies in Hiberno-English, p. 216 – contrast in which–witch. This feature is recessive, particularly in vernacular Belfast speech. Elision of in hand , candle and old , etc. Elision of in sing , thimble, finger etc. and for th. for gh is retained in proper names and a few dialect words or pronunciations,Hickey, 2007, p. 116. e.g. lough, trough and sheugh.
Grammar derived from Irish or Scottish Gaelic
The morphology and syntax 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 words yous, yousuns or yis. 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. 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 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". 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"
Vocabulary Much non-standard vocabulary found in 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 Southern Hiberno-English, especially in the northern half of the island.