| Note: This page uses the IPA to transcribe Irish. Readers familiar with other conventions may wish to see International Phonetic Alphabet for Irish for a comparison of the IPA system with those used in learners' materials. |
Ulster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the Province of Ulster. The largest Gaeltacht region today is in County 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. When the recommendations of the first Comisiún na Gaeltachta were drawn up in 1926, there were regions qualifying for Gaeltacht recognition in the Sperrin Mountains on the border between County Tyrone and County Londonderry, as well as in the northern Glens of Antrim around 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 the Gaeltacht of the Sperrin Mountains survived until the 1950s and the Glens of Antrim Gaeltacht survived until the 1970s. The last native speaker of Rathlin Island Irish died in 1985.
In the 1960s, six families in Belfast formed the Shaw's Road 'Gaeltacht', which has survived and even grown.[1][2] The Irish-speaking area of the Falls Road in West Belfast has recently been designated the 'Gaeltacht Quarter'.[3] Manx and the southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic share similarities with Ulster Irish, due to their historical connections with Ulster.
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The Ulster dialect contains many words not used in other dialects, or used otherwise only in the west of 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:
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:
The phonemic inventory of Ulster Irish (based on the dialect of Gweedore[4]) 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 /h, n, l/ are neither broad or slender.
| Consonant phonemes |
Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | Glottal | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Labio- velar |
Dental | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal |
Palatal | Velar | |||||||||||
| Plosive | pˠ pʲ |
bˠ bʲ |
t̪ˠ |
d̪ˠ |
ṯʲ |
ḏʲ |
c |
ɟ |
k |
ɡ |
||||||||
| Fricative/ Approximant |
fˠ fʲ |
vʲ |
w |
sˠ |
ʃ |
ç |
j |
x |
ɣ |
h | ||||||||
| Nasal | mˠ mʲ |
n̪ˠ |
n | ṉʲ |
ɲ |
ŋ |
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| Tap | ɾˠ ɾʲ |
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| Lateral approximant |
l̪ˠ |
l | ḻʲ |
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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 /h/.
In addition, Ulster has the diphthongs /ia, ua, au/.
Some characteristics of the phonology of Ulster Irish that distinguish it from the other dialects are:
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") (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.
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 and Manx Gaelic) 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 [ah]) rather than -ó-, e.g. beannóchaidh mé [bʲan̪ˠahə mʲə] "I will bless" (standard beannóidh mé [bʲanoːj mʲeː]).
Some irregular verbs have different forms in Ulster from those in the standard language. For example:
In Ulster the negative particle cha (before a vowel chan, in past tenses char - Scottish/Manx Gaelic chan, chan 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": /t/ and /d/ 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- :
| 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/Cha bpógann muid | Ní phógaimid | "We do 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" |
The Ulster dialect uses the present tense of the subjunctive mood in certain cases where other dialects prefer to use the future indicative:
The verbal noun can be used in subordinate clauses with a subject different from that of the main clause:
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