Ulster Scots language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ulster Scots Scots, Scotch or Ullans |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland | |
| Region: | Northern Ireland, Ulster | |
| Total speakers: | 30,000 to 100,000 | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic Scots Ulster Scots |
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| Writing system: | Latin alphabet | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | none | |
| Regulated by: | None: the Ulster-Scots Agency promotes and invents usage. | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | sco | |
| ISO 639-3: | sco
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Ulster Scots, also known as Ullans, Hiberno-Scots, or Scotch-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 Scots, 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".
Ullans 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 "Ulster-Scots language in literature and native speech" 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).
Hiberno-Scots, 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.
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[edit] History
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. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one.
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. 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 (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 languages.
[edit] Linguistic status
Although it is usually treated as a variety of the Scots language or, along with all Scots varieties, as a dialect of English, some claim it to be a language in its own right; only the first two views are represented among academic linguists, although at least one academic, Michael Montgomery (2004: 131) has argued for recognition on non-structural, apperceptional grounds. Dr. Caroline Macafee, the editor of The Concise Ulster Dictionary, has said that "Ulster Scots is [...] clearly a dialect of Central Scots (Mid Scots).", while Aodán Mac Póilin 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.
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.
[edit] Legal status
- For the status of Scots in general see Scots language#Status.
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 [4].
The declaration made by the United Kingdom Government regarding the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages reads as follows [5]:
| “ | The United Kingdom declares, in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Charter that it recognises that Scots and Ulster Scots meet the Charter's definition of a regional or minority language for the purposes of Part II of the Charter. | ” |
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.[6]
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 [7]:
| “ | Tha bare facts er, that because o’ tha houl bak oan white fishin, an in tryin tae bring bak tha cod stocks, an tha cloasur an no bein alood tae fish in tha Irish Sea. Tha fishermen haeny much chance o’ feedin ther femilies wi’-oot help. Its no that ther lazy, er dinae want tae adapt. But its becaus tha EU er issuin seeminly impaosible tae meet directives. Directives whuch meen that fer 10 weeks tha boats er banned fae fishin, this is 10 weeks that tha femilies o’oor trawlers hae tae pit up wi’oot a wage. Hoo caun this be richt.
Whun thes restrictions wur pit oan tha Scots: ther DARD gien theim tie-up packages tae enable theim tae survive. Sumthin whuch DARD did iver heer fer a wheen o’ yeers, an then they stapt daein it, fer they saed it wus rang an agin tha law, an it wusnae coast effective. |
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Without the eccentric spelling (very rarely used by native speakers), but using the same dialect words and forms, this passage reads:
| “ | The bare facts are that because o the hauld-back on white fishin, an in tryin tae bring back the cod stocks, an the closure, an no bein alloued tae fish in the Irish Sea, the fishermen haena much chance o feedin their faimlies withoot help. It's no that they're lazy, or dinna want tae adapt. But it's because the EU are issuin seemigly impossible-tae-meet directives. Directives which mean that for ten weeks the boats are banned frae fishing –– this is ten weeks that the faimlies o oor trawlers hae tae pit up withoot a wage. Hou can this be richt?
Whan these restrictions were pit on the Scots, their DARD gien them tie-up packages tae enable them tae survive -- something which DARD did ower here for a wheen o years, an then they stopped daein it; for they said it wis wrang an agin the law, an it wisna cost effective. |
” |
[edit] Speaker Population
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 advocates have claimed that Ulster Scots is spoken by up to 100,000 people.[citation needed]
[edit] Pronunciation
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[edit] Literature
In the Scots-speaking areas of Ulster 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.
[edit] Language planning
By the early part of the 20th century the literary tradition was almost extinct. The Ulster Scots revival from the 1980s onwards has moved away from the previous tradition and Modern Scots orthographic practice, preferring instead to develop Ulster Scots as an autonomous written variety separate from Scots in Scotland, incidentally reducing the language's written comprehensibility to Scots-speakers, including those native to Ulster itself.
Current trends include: adapting the writing system to one based more on the sound values of standard English; often mixing Ulster English and Scots forms; adopting archaic Scots orthographic features; borrowing from phonetic notation; creating independent neologisms; misusing words, or using them in new ways, depending on point of view; and adopting non-standard features of English. Whether this is a sign of vitality or of decay is a matter of sometimes heated debate. Recently the transactional value of publicly commissioned translations has been questioned.
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.
[edit] Promotion
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In recent years a movement has been under way to change the perception of Ulster Scots. Some deride it as "poor English", citing writing in the dialect, modern revivalist examples of which have attracted criticism, although many commentators would be unable to distinguish eye dialect from genuine phonological differences. The Ulster Scots Agency's website gives its address as:
Tha Boord o Ulster-Scotch, Franklin Haw, 5t Flare, 10-12 Brunswick Raa, Bilfawst BT2 7GE
The English version is given as:
The Ulster-Scots Agency, Franklin House, 5th Floor, 10-12 Brunswick Street, Belfast BT2 7GE
It will be noted that "boord" is a Mid Ulster English form, Scotch an English contraction and that "haw" means "hall" rather than "house", while "raa" means "row" rather than "street". However, many Scots-speakers are still capable of using the language correctly and still take pride in it and in the wider Ulster-Scots heritage of which it forms part.
Even though Irish, English and Scots have all been mother tongues of both nationalists and unionists in the past, many people from all branches of the community in Northern Ireland, not only Nationalists and Republicans, but Unionists as well, have derided Ulster Scots as a 'DIY language for Orangemen', arguing that it is a reaction by some Unionists and Loyalists to the promotion of the Irish language in Northern Ireland. Language promotion by the Ulster-Scots Agency is regarded as an attempt to keep funding away from the promotion of the Irish language. While that may be motivation in certain cases, some civil servants may also be using Ulster Scots as a counterbalance allowing them to raise spending per speaker on Irish towards the much higher levels for Scottish Gaelic and Welsh while deflecting criticism from Unionists, who have traditionally been hostile to Irish since the partition of Ireland. 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.
Arguably, given the already high numbers of Catholic and Nationalist users, a neutral approach to promotion and more representative Ulster-Scots Agency board are indispensable, but no Northern member has ever been nominated by a Nationalist political party, since each agency nomination is set against one to Foras na Gaeilge, leading to complaints that Nationalist Scots-speakers are being punished because of the user profile of another language and that the UK Government is attempting to create a Unionist counterbalance to Irish; indeed, some contend that if the Ulster-Scots movement were somehow being directed by the British Government, its aims might hardly differ, given the way in which Unionist politicians have been encouraged to weigh linguistically doubtful demands for the dialect against the general concerns of their community in multi-party negotiations.
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".
[edit] Notes
[edit] See also
- Scots language
- Ulster
- Ulster-Scots
- Ulster Irish
- Dictionary of the Scots Language
- History of the Scots language
- Languages in the United Kingdom
- W.F. Marshall
[edit] External links
- listen to Ulster Scots
- The Ulster-Scots Agency (Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch)
- (Language, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland)
- Aw Ae Oo (Scots in Scotland and Ulster)
- Aw Ae Wey (Written Scots in Scotland and Ulster)
- Ulster-Scots voices (BBC site)
- Pronunciation of Ulster Scots
- Ullans
- Ulster-Scots Research Council and Ullans-L e-mail list
- Ulster-Scots Online
- The Dictionary of the Scots Language
- Scots Online
- www.Ullans.pro.ie is a website promoting Ullans to the Gaelic community of Ireland.
| Major Modern Germanic languages | ||
|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | Danish | Dutch | English | German | Norwegian | Swedish | Yiddish | ||
| Minor Modern Germanic languages | ||
| Faroese | Frisian | Icelandic | Luxembourgish | ||
| Reg. acknowledged Germanic languages/dialects | ||
| Limburgish | Low German / Low Saxon | North Frisian | Saterland Frisian | Scots | Ulster Scots | ||
