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Ulster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Ulster. The only county in Ulster to include Gaeltacht regions today is Donegal, so that the term Donegal Irish is often used synonymously. Nevertheless records of the language as it was spoken in other counties do exist, and help provide a broader view of Ulster Irish.
Lexicon
The Ulster dialect contains many words not used in other dialects, or used otherwise only in County Mayo. In other cases, a semantic shift has resulted in quite different meanings attaching to the same word in Ulster Irish and in other dialects. Some of these words include:
- amharc, "look" (elsewhere féach, which means rather "try" or "attempt" in Ulster)
- bomaite, "minute" (elsewhere nóiméad)
- cluinim "I hear" (southern cloisim). In fact, the initial c- tends to be lenited even when it is not preceded by any particle (this is because there was a leniting particle in Classical Irish: do-chluin yielded chluin in Ulster)
- eallach "cattle" (southern beithígh)
- gamhain "calf" (southern lao)
- girseach "girl" (southern cailín)
- bealach mór "road" (southern ród and western bóthar). Note that bealach alone is used as a preposition meaning "towards": d'amharc sé bealach na farraige = he looked towards the sea
- druid "close" (southern and western dún; in other dialects druid means "to move relatively to something", thus druid ó rud = to shirk, druid isteach = to close in)
- eiteogaí "wings" (southern sciatháin)
- sópa "soap" (standard gallúnach, Connemara gallaoireach)
- stócach, "youth", "young man"
- cál "cabbage" (southern gabáiste)
- fá "about" (standard faoi)
- Gaeilic "Irish" (standard Gaeilge)
- cad é atá? "what is?" (Connacht céard tá; Munster cad a thá)
- tábla "table" (western bord, southern bord or clár)
- cá huair "when?" (Connacht cén uair; Munster cathain)
- faoileog "seagull" (standard faoileán)
- falsa "lazy" (southern and western leisciúil)
- the word iontach is used as an intensifier instead of the prefix an- used in other dialects
In other cases, a semantic shift has resulted in quite different meanings attaching to the same word in Ulster Irish and in other dialects. Some of these words include:
- druid "close" (southern and western dún; elsewhere, druid is used to mean "move")
- cloigeann "head" (southern and western ceann; elsewhere, cloigeann is used to mean "skull")
Phonology
The phonemic inventory of Ulster Irish (based on the accent of Gweedore) is as shown in the following chart (see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols). Symbols appearing in the upper half of each row are velarized (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonants are neither broad or slender.
| Consonant phonemes | Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Glottal | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Labio- velar | Dental | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Palatal | Velar | |||||||||||
| Plosive | | | | | | | | | | | ||||||||
| Fricative/ Approximant | | | | | | | | | | |||||||||
| Nasal | | | | | | |||||||||||||
| Tap | | |||||||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | | | ||||||||||||||||
The vowels of Ulster Irish are as shown on the following chart. These positions are only approximate, as vowels are strongly influenced by the palatalization and velarization of surrounding consonants.
The long vowels have short allophones in unstressed syllables and before .
In addition, Ulster has the diphthongs .
Some characteristics of the phonology of Ulster Irish that distinguish it from the other dialects are:
- The only broad labial continuant is the approximant . In other dialects, fricative is found instead of or in addition to . No dialect makes a phonemic contrast between the approximant and the fricative, however.
- There is a three-way distinction among coronal nasals and laterals: , , and there is no lengthening or diphthongization of short vowels before these sounds and . Thus, while ceann "head" is in Connacht and in Munster, in Ulster it is
- corresponds to the of other dialects. The Ulster corresponds to the of other dialects.
- Long vowels are shortened when in unstressed syllables.
- is realized as (or is replaced by ) after consonants other than . This happens in Connacht as well.
- Orthographic -adh in unstressed syllables is always (this includes verb forms).
- Unstressed orthographic -ach is pronounced , , or .
Morphology
Initial mutations
Ulster Irish has the same two initial mutations, lenition and eclipsis, as the other two dialects and the standard language, and mostly uses them the same way. There is, however, one exception: in Ulster, a dative singular noun after the definite article is lenited (e.g. ar an chrann "on the tree"), whereas in Connacht and Munster, it is eclipsed (ar an gcrann). Both possibilities are allowed for in the standard language.
Verbs
Irish verbs are characterized by having a mixture of analytic forms (where information about person is provided by a pronoun) and synthetic forms (where information about number is provided in an ending on the verb) in their conjugation. In Ulster and North Connacht the analytic forms are used in a variety of forms where the standard language has synthetic forms, e.g. molann muid "we praise" (standard molaimid, muid being a back formation from the verbal ending -mid and not found in the Munster dialect, which retains sinn as the first person plural pronoun as does Scots Gaelic) or mholfadh siad "they would praise" (standard mholfaidís). The synthetic forms, including those no longer approved in the standard language, may be used in short answers to questions.
The 2nd conjugation future stem suffix in Ulster is -óch- (pronounced ) rather than -ó-, e.g. beannóchaidh mé "I will bless" (standard beannóidh mé ).
Some irregular verbs have different forms in Ulster from those in the standard language. For example:
- ním (independent form only) "I do, make" (standard déanaim) and rinn mé "I did, made" (standard rinne mé)
- tchím (independent form only) "I see" (standard feicim)
- bheirim "I give" (standard tugaim), ní thabhraim or ní thugaim "I do not give" (standard only ní thugaim), and bhéarfaidh mé "I will give" (standard tabharfaidh mé)
Particles
In Ulster the negative particle cha (before a vowel chan, in past tenses char) is sometimes used where other dialects use ní and níor. The form is more common in the north of the Donegal Gaeltacht. Cha cannot be followed by the future tense: where it has a future meaning, it is followed by the habitual present. It triggers a "mixed mutation": and are eclipsed, while other consonants are lenited.:| Ulster | Standard | English |
|---|---|---|
| Cha dtuigim | Ní thuigim | "I don't understand" |
| Chan fhuil sé | Níl sé (contracted from ní fhuil sé) | "He isn't" |
| Cha bhíonn sé | Ní bheidh sé | "He will not be" |
| Cha phógann muid | Ní phógfaimid | "We will not kiss" |
| Chan ólfadh siad é | Ní ólfaidís é | "They wouldn't drink it" |
| Char thuig mé thú | Níor thuig mé thú | "I didn't understand you" |
Syntax
The Ulster dialect uses the present tense of the subjunctive mood in certain cases where other dialects prefer to use the future indicative:
- Suigh síos anseo ag mo thaobh, a Shéimí, go dtuga mé comhairle duit agus go n-insí mé mo scéal duit.
- Sit down here by my side, Séimí, til I give you some advice and tell you my story.
The verbal noun can be used in subordinate clauses with a subject different from that of the main clause:
- Ba mhaith liom thú a ghoil ann.
- I would like you to go there.
References
See also
"Ulster Irish"