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 from the West Midlands. 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

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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.

Vocabulary

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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 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

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• Ulster Scots language
• Hiberno-English
• Ulster Irish
• West Midlands dialect

External links

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• South West Tyrone Dialect

Ulster | Northern Ireland | Languages of Ireland | English dialects