Ulster Scots , also known as , '''Hiberno-Scots''', or '''Scots-Irish''', refers to the
Variety of
Scots (sometimes referred to as ''Lowland Scots'') spoken in parts of the province of
Ulster , which spans the six counties of
Northern Ireland and three of the
Republic Of Ireland .
Native Speakers traditionally called it simply , '''Braid Scots''' or '''Scotch''' (see
Scotch ) - as did
James Orr in ''The Irish Cottier's Death and Burial'': ''"To quat braid Scotch, a task that foils their art; For while they join his converse, vain though shy, They monie a lang learn'd word misca' an' misapply''".
is a
Portmanteau Neologism merging ''Ulster'' and ''
Lallans '' - the Scots for ''Lowlands'' - coined by the physician, amateur historian and politician
Dr Ian Adamson . The magazine of the
Ulster-Scots Language Society is also named ''Ullans'', ostensibly from "'''U'''lster-Scots '''l'''anguage in '''l'''iterature '''a'''nd '''n'''ative '''s'''peech" but ultimately from the other contraction. The German linguist
Manfred Görlach differentiates between the term "Ulster Scots" (the historical spoken variety) and "Ullans" (the revived literary variety).
, unlike "Ulster Scots", refers only to a linguistic tradition; it also mirrors "
Hiberno-English ". The novelist
William Carleton refers in his author's preface to the first edition of his ''Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry'' (vol. 1, 1st series, Dublin, 1830) to "Scoto-Hibernic jargon". The linguist James Milroy used the term "Hiberno-Scots" as early as the 1980s.
See Also: History of the Scots language
in Northern Ireland as shown on this sign is displayed in
Scots, mainly
Gaelic -speaking, had been settling in Ulster since the 15th century, but large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, arrived during the 17th century following the 1610
Plantation , with the peak reached during the 1690s.Montgomery & Gregg 1997: 572 In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one.Adams 1977: 57
Literature from shortly before the end of the unselfconscious tradition at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is almost identical with contemporary writing from Scotland.Montgomery & Gregg 1997: 585 W G Lyttle, writing in ''Paddy McQuillan's Trip Tae Glesco'', uses the typically Scots forms ''kent'' and ''begood'', now replaced in Ulster by the more mainstream
Anglic forms ''knew'', ''knowed'' or ''knawed'' and ''begun''. Many of the modest contemporary differences between Scots as spoken in Scotland and Ulster may be due to dialect levelling and influence from Mid Ulster English brought about through relatively recent demographic change rather than direct
Contact with Irish, retention of older features or separate development.
Scots in Ulster has been influenced by contact with
Hiberno-English ,
Mid Ulster English and
Irish . Mid Ulster English, the dialect of most people in Ulster, including those in the two main cities of
Belfast and
Derry , represents a cross-over area between Ulster Scots and Hiberno-English; it is currently encroaching on the Ulster Scots area, especially in the Belfast commuter belt, and may eventually consume it. Ulster Scots should not be confused with
Scottish Gaelic or
Irish , which are
Celtic Language s.
Although it is usually treated as a has said that "The case for Ulster-Scots being a distinct language, made at a time when the status of Scots itself was insecure, is so bizarre that it is unlikely to have been a linguistic argument." Using the criteria on ''
Ausbau '' languages developed by the German linguist
Heinz Kloss , Ulster Scots could qualify only as a ''Spielart'' or 'national dialect' of Scots (cf. British and American English), since it does not dispose over the ''
Mindestabstand '', or 'minimum divergence' necessary to achieve language status through standardisation and codification. Of the four peripheral varieties of Scots - the others being Insular,
Northern and Southern Scots - Ulster Scots is the only one whose traditional written form is commonly indistinguishable from the main Central Scots variety. The deliberately mispelling "Ulster Scotch" is often used within Northern Ireland by those satirising the promotion of the "language"
{Link without Title} .
Some confuse English spoken with a very broad Ulster Scottish accent with Scots proper. This is because English-speakers familiar with the
Scottish or Northern Irish
Accents of English find Scottish or Ulster English easy to understand and often assume this speech variety to be "broad" Scots.
Ulster Scots is defined in legislation (The North/South Co-operation (Implementation Bodies) Northern Ireland Order 1999) as: ''the variety of the Scots language which has traditionally been used in parts of Northern Ireland and in Donegal in Ireland''
{Link without Title} .
The declaration made by the United Kingdom Government regarding the
European Charter For Regional Or Minority Languages reads as follows
{Link without Title} :
The definition from the North/South Co-operation (Implementation Bodies) Northern Ireland Order 1999 above was used in the
1 July 2005 Second Periodical Report by the United Kingdom to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe outlining how the UK meets its obligations under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
{Link without Title}
The
Good Friday Agreement (which does not refer to Ulster Scots as a "language") also recognises Ulster Scots as ''"part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland"'', and the Implementation Agreement established the cross-border
Ulster-Scots Agency (''Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch''), whose mission statement is ''to promote the study, conservation, development and use of Ulster Scots as a living language; to encourage and develop the full range of its attendant culture; and to promote an understanding of the history of the Ulster-Scots people.''
It will be noted that this is slightly different from the organisation's legal remit to promote Ulster Scots as a "variety of the Scots language".
An example contribution in Ulster Scots made by
Jim Shannon in the
Transitional Assembly follows
{Link without Title} :
Without the eccentric spelling (recently coined pseudophonetic spellings often used by enthusiasts), but using the same dialect words and forms, this passage reads:
During the middle of the 20th century, the linguist
R. J. Gregg established the geographical boundaries of Ulster's Scots-speaking areas based on information gathered from native speakers. The 1999 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey found that 2% of Northern Ireland residents claimed to speak Ulster Scots, which would mean a total speech community of approximately 30,000 in the territory, which does not include
County Donegal . Some have claimed that Ulster Scots is spoken by up to 100,000 people.http://www.geocities.com/athens/9479/eire.html
See Also: Scots language#Pronunciation
(1814-1887) inscribed in paving in Writers' Square, Belfast]]
In Ulster Scots-speaking areas there was traditionally a considerable demand for the work of Scottish poets, often in locally printed editions.
Alexander Montgomerie 's ''The Cherrie and the Slae'' in 1700, shortly over a decade later an edition of poems by
Sir David Lindsay , nine printings of
Allan Ramsay 's ''The Gentle shepherd'' between 1743 and 1793, and an edition of
Robert Burns ' poetry in 1787, the same year as the Edinburgh edition, followed by reprints in 1789, 1793 and 1800. Among other Scottish poets published in Ulster were
James Hogg and
Robert Tannahill .
This was complemented by Ulster ''
Rhyming Weaver '' poetry, of which, some 60 to 70 volumes were published between 1750 and 1850, the peak being in the decades 1810 to 1840. These weaver poets looked to Scotland for their cultural and literary models and were not simple imitators but clearly inheritors of the same literary tradition following the same poetic and orthographic practices; it is not always immediately possible to distinguish traditional Scots writing from Scotland and Ulster. Among the ''rhyming weavers'' were
James Campbell (
1758 -
1818 ),
James Orr (
1770 -
1816 ),
Thomas Beggs (
1749 -
1847 ),
David Herbison (
1800 -
1880 ),
Hugh Porter (1780-1839) and
Andrew McKenzie (1780-1839). Scots was also used in the narrative by Ulster novelists such as
W. G. Lyttle (1844-1896). Scots regularly appeared in Ulster newspaper columns.
By the early part of the 20th century the literary tradition was almost extinct.Montgomery & Gregg 1997: 572 The Ulster Scots revival from the 1980s onwards has moved away from the traditional Scots
Orthographic practices, preferring instead to develop Ulster Scots as an autonomous written variety that's "common denominator is to be as different to English, and occasionally Scots, as possible." This hotchpotch of obsolete words, neologisms, redundant 16th and 17th century spelling conventions and and "erratic spelling which sometimes reflects everyday Ulster Scots speech rather than the conventions of either modern or historic Scots." The resulting pastiche "is also often incomprehensible to the native speaker."
Language, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland by Aodan Mac Poilin
The introduction of standard educational materials in schools for the teaching of Ulster Scots is likely to formalise ongoing discussions about the future direction of language planning.
In recent years a movement has been under way to change the perception of Ulster Scots. The Ulster Scots Agency actively promote Ulster Scots. The Belfast-based Irish language newspaper ''Lá'' ran a column in a revivalist version of Ulster Scots that was at least partly tongue-in-cheek.
Speaking at a seminar on
9 September 2004 , Ian Sloan of the Northern Ireland
Department Of Culture, Arts And Leisure (DCAL) accepted that the 1999 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey "did not significantly indicate that unionists or nationalists were relatively any more or less likely to speak Ulster Scots, although in absolute terms there were more unionists who spoke Ulster Scots than nationalists".
