Mid-Ulster English and Ulster Scots

Abstract

Abstract The northern Irish province of Ulster is home to two distinctive dialects not spoken elsewhere in Ireland: Mid-Ulster English (MUE) and Ulster Scots (USc). This chapter examines their historical origins, their linguistic features, and the relationship between them. Both MUE and USc have their origins in the Plantation of Ulster and associated settlements in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This period saw immigration of many English and Scottish settlers, which dramatically altered the province’s demographic and linguistic landscape giving rise to intense contact between Irish and dialects of English and Scots in a relatively small geographical area. This chapter explains how MUE and USc emerged through processes of language shift and new dialect formation which resulted from this contact. It furthermore discusses the common features shared by the two sets of varieties and outlines avenues for future research.