Mid Ulster English: Encyclopedia II - Mid Ulster English - Phonology

Mid Ulster English - Phonology

Phonetics are in IPA.

Mid Ulster English - Vowels

• Vowels have phonemic vowel length with one set of lexically long and one of lexically short phonemes. This may be variously inluenced by the Scots system.
• /a/ in after /w/ e.g. want, what, quality.
• /ɑ/ and /ɔː/ distinction in cot, body and caught, bawdy. Some varieties neutralise the distinction in long environments, e.g. don = dawn and pod = pawed.
• like, light, meat and beard also with /e/ [lek], [let], [met], [berd]
• /i/ may occur before palatalized consonants, e.g. king, fish , condition, brick and sick.
• /e/ may occur in such words as beat, decent, leave, Jesus etc.
• Laggan Valley /ɛ/ before /k/ in take and make etc.
• /ɛ/ before velars in sack, bag, and bang etc.
• Merger of /a/ - /aː/ in all monosyllables e.g. Sam and psalm [sɑːm].
• /ɑ/ may occur before /p/ and /t/ in tap and top etc.
• /ʉ/ before /r/ in floor, whore, door, board etc.
• Vowel oppositions before /r/, e.g. /ɛrn/ earn, /fɔr/ for and /for/ four.

Mid Ulster English - Consonants

• Rhoticity, that is, retention of /r/ in all positions.
• Palatalisation of /k, g, ŋ/ in the environment of front vowels.
• Clear /l/ in all positions.
• Aspiration in words begining with dr and tr for example drum and tractor
• /b/ for /p/ in words like pepper
• /d/ for /t/ in words like butter
• /g/ for /k/ in words like packet
• /ʍ/ - /w/ contrast in which - witch.
• Dental realisations of /t, d, n, l/ may occur through Irish influence before /r/, e.g. ladder, matter dinner and pillar etc.
• Lenition of /d/ in hand [hɑːn], candle /'kanl/ and old [əʉl] etc.
• Lenition of /b, g/ in lamb [lam] and sing [sɪŋ], thimble, finger etc.
• /θ/ and /ð/ for th.
• /x/ for gh is retained in proper names and a few dialect words or pronunciations, e.g. lough, trough and sheugh.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Phonology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki