Ulster Irish ( or , ) is the variety of Irish language spoken in the province of Ulster. It "occupies a central position in the Gaelic world made up of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man". Ulster Irish thus has much in common with Scottish Gaelic and Manx language. Within Ulster there have historically been two main sub-dialects: West Ulster and East Ulster. The Western dialect is spoken in parts of County Donegal and once was spoken in parts of neighbouring counties, hence the name 'Donegal Irish'. The Eastern dialect was spoken in most of the rest of Ulster and northern parts of counties County Louth and County Meath.
History
Ulster Irish was the main language spoken in most of
Ulster from the earliest recorded times even before Ireland became a jurisdiction in the 1300s. Since the Plantation, Ulster Irish was steadily replaced by English and Ulster Scots, largely as a result of incoming settlers. The Eastern dialect died out in the 20th century, but the Western lives on in the
Gaeltacht region of County Donegal. In 1808,
County Down natives William Neilson and Patrick Lynch (Pádraig Ó Loingsigh) published a detailed study on Ulster Irish. Both Neilson and his father were Ulster-speaking
Presbyterianism ministers. When the recommendations of the first Comisiún na Gaeltachta were drawn up in 1926, there were regions qualifying for Gaeltacht recognition in the
Sperrins and the northern Glens of Antrim and
Rathlin Island. The report also makes note of small pockets of Irish speakers in northwest
County Cavan, southeast
County Monaghan, and the far south of
County Armagh. However, these small pockets vanished early in the 20th century while Ulster Irish in the Sperrins survived until the 1950s and in the Glens of Antrim until the 1970s. The last native speaker of Rathlin Irish died in 1985.
According to Innti poet and scholar of Modern literature in Irish Louis de Paor, Belfast Irish, "a new urban dialect", of Ulster Irish, was "forged in the heat of Belfast during The Troubles" and is the main language spoken in the Gaeltacht Quarter of the city. The same dialect, according to de Paor, has been used in the poetry of Gearóid Mac Lochlainn and other radically innovative writers like him.[Louis de Paor (2016), Leabhar na hAthghabhála: Poems of Repossession: Irish-English Bilingual Edition, Bloodaxe Books. Page 27.]
Phonology
Consonants
The phonemic consonant inventory of Ulster Irish (based on the dialect 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
velarization (traditionally called "broad" consonants) while those in the bottom half are palatalized ("slender"). The consonants are neither broad nor slender.
Some characteristics of the phonology of Ulster Irish that distinguish it from the other dialects are:
-
is always the approximant . In other dialects, fricative is found instead of or in addition to . No dialect makes a phoneme contrast between the approximant and the fricative, however.
-
There is a three-way distinction among coronal nasals, , and laterals, , as there is in Scottish Gaelic, 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 (compare Scottish Gaelic )
-
is pronounced as if it is spelled ( or ) after consonants other than . This happens in Connacht and Scottish Gaelic as well.
-
is often realised as and can completely disappear word finally, hence unstressed - (a common suffix) is realised as , , or . For some speakers is realised as .
Vowels
The
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 vowel length have short in unstressed syllables and before . In addition, Ulster has the .
-
Before , where an unstressed schwa is found in other dialects, Ulster has with secondary stress (identical to ), e.g. feargach "angry" and iománaíocht "hurling".
-
is more fronted in Ulster than Connacht and Munster (where it is ), as or even preceding slender consonants. Unstressed and merge with as ().
-
Stressed word final , , and preceding a syllable containing tend to represent . For example maith "good" and cathaoir "chair", in contrast to and found in other regions.
-
Stressed , , as well as after an initial , represent which generally merges with in younger speech.
-
has three main allophones: morpheme finally and after broad consonants, before broad consonants, before slender consonants.
-
Stressed and represent rather than which is found in the other dialects.
-
before broad consonants merges with , and vice versa. That is, merges with before slender consonants.
-
represents for many speakers, but it often merges with especially in younger speech.
-
and are pronounced , unless beside where they raise to , the main realisation in other dialects, e.g. fón póca "mobile phone".
-
Stressed , , and mainly represent , not as in the other dialects.
-
Word final unstressed represents , not as in the other dialects,
-
Word final and merge with and , respectively, e.g. leanbh "baby", déanamh "make", samhraidh "summer (gen.)" and bailigh "collect". Both merge with in Connacht, while in Munster, they are realised and , respectively.
-
According to Ó Dochartaigh (1987), the loss of final schwa "is a well-attested feature of Ulster Irish", e.g. for fada "long".
[ PlaceNames NI: Townland of Moyad Upper]
East Ulster and West Ulster
Differences between the Western and Eastern sub-dialects of Ulster included the following:
-
In West Ulster and most of Ireland, the vowel written is pronounced (e.g. fear ), but in East Ulster it was pronounced (e.g. fear as it is in Scottish Gaelic (). J. J. Kneen comments that Scottish Gaelic and Manx generally follow the East Ulster pronunciation. The name Seán is pronounced in Munster and in West Ulster, but in East Ulster, whence anglicized spellings like Shane O'Neill and Glenshane Pass.
-
In East Ulster, in the middle of a word tended to vanish and leave one long syllable. William Neilson wrote that this happens "in most of the counties of Ulster, and the east of Leinster".
-
Neilson wrote was , especially at the beginning or end of a word "is still retained in the North of Ireland, as in Scotland, and the Isle of Man", whereas "throughout Connaught, Leinster and some counties of Ulster, the sound of is substituted". However, broad may become in the middle of a word (for example in leabhar "book").
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 case singular
noun after the
definite article is lenited (e.g. ar an chrann "on the tree") (as is the case in Scottish and Manx), whereas in Connacht and Munster, it is eclipsed (ar an gcrann), except in the case of
den,
don and
insan, where lenition occurs in literary language. 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 do Scottish Gaelic and Manx) or mholfadh siad "they would praise" (standard mholfaidís). The synthetic forms, including those no longer emphasised 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:
-
(gh)níom (independent form only) "I do, make" (standard déanaim) and rinn mé "I did, made" (standard rinne mé)
-
tchíom (independent form only) "I see" (standard feicim, Southern chím, cím (independent form only))
-
bheiream "I give" (standard tugaim, southern bheirim (independent only)), ní thabhram or ní thugaim "I do not give" (standard only ní thugaim), and bhéarfaidh mé/bheirfidh mé "I will give" (standard tabharfaidh mé, southern bhéarfad(independent form only))
-
gheibhim (independent form only) "I get" (standard faighim), ní fhaighim "I do not get"
-
abraim "I say, speak" (standard deirim, ní abraim "I do not say, speak", although deir is used to mean "I say" in a more general sense.)
Particles
In Ulster the negative particle cha (before a vowel chan, in past tenses char - Scottish Gaelic/Manx
chan,
cha do) 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. In some dialects however (Gweedore),
cha eclipses all consonants, except b- in the forms of the verb "to be", and sometimes f-:
|
| "I don't understand" |
| "He isn't" |
| "He will not be" |
| "We do not kiss" |
| "They wouldn't drink it" |
| "I didn't understand you" |
In the Past Tense, some irregular verbs are lenited/eclipsed in the Interrogative/Negative that differ from the standard, due to the various particles that may be preferred:
|
| "I was not" |
| "I did not do, make" |
| "I did not go" |
| "I did not come" |
| "I did not give" |
| "I did not hear" |
| "I did not say" |
| "I did not get" |
| "I did not catch, bear" |
| "I did not eat" |
| "I did not see" |
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 dtugaidh (dtabhairidh, dtabhraidh) mé comhairle duit agus go n-insidh mé mo scéal duit.
- Sit down here by my side, Jamie, till 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 ghabháil ann.
- I would like you to go there.
Lexicon
The Ulster dialect contains many words not used in other dialects—of which the main ones are
Connacht Irish and
Munster Irish—or used otherwise only in northeast Connacht. The standard form of written Irish is now An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. 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:
-
ag déanamh is used to mean "to think" as well as "to make" or "to do", síleann, ceapann and cuimhníonn is used in other dialects, as well as in Ulster Irish.
-
amharc or amhanc (West Ulster), "look" (elsewhere amharc, breathnaigh and féach; this latter means rather "try" or "attempt" in Ulster)
-
barúil "opinion", southern tuairim - in Ulster, tuairim is most typically used in the meaning "approximate value", such as tuairim an ama sin "about that time". Note the typically Ulster derivatives barúlach and inbharúla "of the opinion (that...)".
-
bealach, ród "road" (southern and western bóthar and ród (cf. Scottish Gaelic rathad, Manx raad), and bealach "way"). Note that bealach alone is used as a preposition meaning "towards" (literally meaning "in the way of": d'amharc sé bealach na farraige = "he looked towards the sea"). In the sense "road", Ulster Irish often uses bealach mór (lit. "big road") even for roads that aren't particularly big or wide.
-
bomaite, "minute" (elsewhere nóiméad, nóimint, neómat, etc., and in Mayo Gaeltacht areas a somewhat halfway version between the northern and southern versions, is the word "móiméad", also probably the original, from which the initial M diverged into a similar nasal N to the south, and into a similar bilabial B to the north.)
-
cá huair, "when?" (Connacht cén uair; Munster cathain, cén uair)
-
caidé (cad é) atá?, "what is?" (Connacht céard tá; Munster cad a thá, cad é a thá, dé a thá, Scottish Gaelic dé tha)
-
cál, "cabbage" (southern gabáiste; Scottish Gaelic càl)
-
caraidh, "weir" (Connacht cara, standard cora)
-
cluinim, "I hear" (southern cloisim, but cluinim is also attested in South Tipperary and is also used in Achill and Erris in North and West Mayo). 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)
-
doiligh, "hard"-as in difficult (southern deacair), crua "tough"
-
druid, "close" (southern and western dún; in other dialects druid means "to move in relation to or away from something", thus druid ó rud = to shirk, druid isteach = to close in) although druid is also used in Achill and Erris
-
eallach, "cattle" (southern beithíoch = "one head of cattle", beithígh = "cattle", "beasts")
-
eiteogaí, "wings" (southern sciatháin)
-
fá, "about, under" (standard faoi, Munster fé, fí and fá is only used for "under"; mar gheall ar and i dtaobh = "about"; fá dtaobh de = "about" or "with regard to")
-
falsa, "lazy" (southern and western leisciúil, fallsa = "false, treacherous") although falsa is also used in Achill and Erris
-
faoileog, "seagull" (standard faoileán)
-
fosta, "also" (standard freisin)
-
Gaeilg, Gaeilig, Gaedhlag, Gaeilic, "Irish" (standard and Western Gaeilge, Southern Gaoluinn, Manx Gaelg, Scottish Gaelic Gàidhlig) although Gaeilg is used in Achill and was used in parts of Erris and East Connacht
-
geafta, "gate" (standard geata)
-
gairid, "short" (southern gearr)
-
gamhain, "calf" (southern lao and gamhain) although gamhain is also used in Achill and Erris
-
gasúr, "boy" (southern garsún; garsún means "child" in Connemara)
-
girseach, "girl" (southern gearrchaile and girseach)
-
gnóitheach, "busy" (standard gnóthach)
-
inteacht, an adjective meaning "some" or "certain" is used instead of the southern éigin. Áirithe also means "certain" or "particular".
-
mothaím is used to mean "I hear, perceive" as well as "I feel" (standard cloisim) but mothaím generally refers to stories or events. The only other place where mothaím is used in this context is in the Irish of Dún Caocháin and Ceathrú Thaidhg in Erris but it was a common usage throughout most of northern and eastern Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and North Roscommon
-
nighean, "daughter" (standard iníon; Scottish Gaelic nighean)
-
nuaidheacht, "news" (standard nuacht, but note that even Connemara has nuaíocht)
-
sópa, "soap" (standard gallúnach, Connemara gallaoireach)
-
stócach, "youth", "young man", "boyfriend" (Southern = "gangly, young lad")
-
tábla, "table" (western and southern bord and clár, Scottish Gaelic bòrd)
-
tig liom is used to mean "I can" as opposed to the standard is féidir liom or the southern tá mé in ann. Tá mé ábalta is also a preferred Ulster variant. Tig liom and its derivatives are also commonly used in the Irish of Joyce Country, Achill and Erris
-
the word iontach "wonderful" is used as an intensifier instead of the prefix an- used in other dialects.
Words generally associated with the now dead East Ulster Irish include:
-
airigh (feel, hear, perceive) - but also known in more southern Irish dialects
-
ársuigh, more standardized ársaigh (tell) - but note the expression ag ársaí téamaí "telling stories, spinning yearns" used by the modern Ulster writer Séamus Ó Grianna.
-
coinfheascar (evening)
-
corruighe, more standardized spelling corraí (anger)
-
frithir (sore)
-
go seadh (yet)
-
márt (cow)
-
práinn (hurry)
-
toigh (house)
-
tonnóg (duck)
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:
-
cloigeann "head" (southern and western ceann; elsewhere, cloigeann is used to mean "skull")
-
capall "mare" (southern and western láir; elsewhere, capall means "horse")
Notable speakers
Some notable Irish singers who sing songs in the Ulster Irish dialect include Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Róise Mhic Ghrianna, and Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin.
Notable Ulster Irish writers include Micí Mac Gabhann, Seosamh Mac Grianna, Peadar Toner Mac Fhionnlaoich, Cosslett Ó Cuinn, Niall Ó Dónaill, Séamus Ó Grianna, Brian Ó Nualláin, Colette Ní Ghallchóir and Cathal Ó Searcaigh.
See also
Bibliography
-
(book & 2 CDs in the Ulster dialect)
-
(book & 2 CDs in the Ulster dialect)
Literature
-
Rannafast
-
folklore,
-
folklore,
-
novel,
-
novel,
-
novel,
-
local
-
autobiography,
-
folklore,
-
Kilcar
-
essays,
-
autobiography,
-
novel,
-
folklore,
-
short
-
folklore
-
short
-
essays
-
autobiography,
-
legends,
-
history,
-
short
-
biography,
-
life
-
biography,
-
local
-
short
-
travel
-
folklore, folklore,
-
folklore,
-
folklore,
-
memoirs
-
folklore,
-
biography,
-
mythology,
-
local
-
Rannafast (book & 1 CD in the Ulster dialect)
-
novel
-
the
-
novel,
-
autobiography,
-
short
-
novel,
-
short
-
novel,
-
short
-
novel,
-
the
-
Kilcar
-
folklore
-
travel
-
mythology,
-
the
-
local
External links
