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Phonology

Vowels

Other, less overarching features of some Ulster varieties include:


 * Vowels have phonemic vowel length, with one set of lexically long and one of lexically short phonemes. This may be variously influenced by the Scots system. It is considerably less phonemic than Received Pronunciation, and in vernacular Belfast speech vowel length may vary depending on stress.
 * /ɑ/ and /ɔː/ distinction in cot and body versus caught and bawdy is mostly preserved, except in Ulster Scots (which here follows Scottish speech) and traditional varieties.
 * /e/ may occur in such words as beat, decent, leave, Jesus, etc., though this feature is recessive.
 * Lagan Valley /ɛ/ before /k/ in take and make, etc.
 * /ɛ/ before velars, as in sack, bag, and bang, etc.
 * Merger of /a/–/aː/ in all monosyllables, e.g. Sam and psalm [saːm ~ sɑːm] (the phonetic quality varies).
 * /ʉ/ is possible before /r/ in floor, whore, door, board, etc.

Notes of Improvement: This section already has a lot of accurate and useful information. There are a couple more "less overarching features" that can be added. I looked at John Wells' book called Accents of English. The second volume includes Ulster English and there were some vowel features that I felt were useful to add to this page.

Draft for: Other, less overarching features of some Ulster varieties include:


 * Vowels have phonemic vowel length, with one set of lexically long and one of lexically short phonemes. This may be variously influenced by the Scots system. It is considerably less phonemic than Received Pronunciation, and in vernacular Belfast speech vowel length may vary depending on stress.
 * /ɑ/ and /ɔː/ distinction in cot and body versus caught and bawdy is mostly preserved, except in Ulster Scots (which here follows Scottish speech) and traditional varieties.
 * /e/ may occur in such words as beat, decent, leave, Jesus, etc., though this feature is recessive.
 * Lagan Valley /ɛ/ before /k/ in take and make, etc.
 * /ɛ/ before velars, as in sack, bag, and bang, etc.
 * Merger of /a/–/aː/ in all monosyllables, e.g. Sam and psalm [saːm ~ sɑːm] (the phonetic quality varies).
 * /ʉ/ is possible before /r/ in floor, whore, door, board, etc.
 * Vowels are short before /p, t, tf, k/
 * Ulster Lengthening, which refers to the use of long allophones of /e, ɛ, a, ɔ/ in any single syllable word that is closed by a constant other than /p, t, tf, k/

South Ulster English [icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2017)

South Armagh, south Monaghan, south Fermanagh, south Donegal, north Leitrim, and north Cavan[61][62] natives speak their own distinct variety of English.[63] Areas such as southern and western County Armagh, central and southern County Monaghan (known locally as South Monaghan), northern County Cavan and the southern 'strip' of County Fermanagh are the hinterland of the larger Mid-Ulster dialect. The accent gradually shifts from village to village, forming part of the dialect continuum between areas to the North and Midlands (as it once did in Gaelic). This accent is also used in north County Louth (located in Leinster) and in part of the northern 'strip' of County Leitrim (in Connacht).

South Ulster English's phonology is markedly different from Ulster Scots and majority Ulster English in several aspects, including preservation of dichotomous pattern of phonemic vowel length seen in Middle English.[64]

Notes of Improvement: This section needs a lot of work. The problem is that there is not much research out there about South Ulster English. Raymond Hickey does mention is a few time in his research, so a lot of the edits come from reading his work. A few edits are made to improve grammar and readability.

Draft of South Ulster English: South Ulster English [icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2017) South Armagh, south Monaghan, south Fermanagh, south Donegal, north Leitrim, and north Cavan[61][62] natives speak their own distinct variety of English.[63] The accent gradually shifts from village to village, forming part of the dialect continuum between areas to the North and Midlands (as it once did in Gaelic). This accent is also used in north County Louth (located in Leinster) and in part of the northern 'strip' of County Leitrim (in Connacht). There are areas that show a mixture of accents with North Irish English and South Irish English. These areas fall along the east coastline.

South Ulster English's phonology is markedly different from Ulster Scots and majority Ulster English in several aspects, including preservation of dichotomous pattern of phonemic vowel length seen in Middle English.[64] Another feature of South Irish English is the drop in pitch on stressed syllables. A prominent phonetic feature of South Ulster is the realisation of /t/ as a fricative with identical characteristics of the stop, i.e. an apico-alveolar fricative in weak positions.