Ulster English

In general, Ulster English speakers' declarative sentences (with typical grammatical structure, i.e. non-topicalized statements) end with a rise in pitch, which is often heard by speakers of non-Ulster English as a question-like intonation pattern.

"SSIE" here refers to a mainstream, supraregional southern Hiberno-English, used in the chart for the sake of comparison.

Other, less overarching features of some Ulster varieties include: The morphology and syntax of Irish is quite different from that of English, and it has influenced both Northern and Southern Hiberno-English to some degree.

[13] For example: Irish lacks words that directly translate as "yes" or "no", and instead repeats the verb in a question (positively or negatively) to answer.

[14][15] For example: This is not necessarily true in Ulster English where "Aye" for yes and "Naw" for no are used, probably a Scottish influence.

The concept of "have" is expressed in Irish by the construction ag ("at") mé ("me") to create agam ("at me").

The broad, working-class Belfast dialect is not limited to the city itself but also takes in neighbouring urban areas in the local vicinity (such as Lisburn, Carrickfergus and Newtownards), as well as towns whose inhabitants originally came from Belfast (such as Craigavon).

The Belfast dialect is now becoming more frequently heard in towns and villages whose inhabitants would have traditionally spoken with a distinctively rural accent.

Other phonological features include the following: Some of the vocabulary used among young people in Ulster, such as the word "spide", is of Belfast origin.

It has been stated that, in the written form, Gaelic of this area continued to use standardised Irish forms, while the spoken dialect continued to use the Scottish variant, and was in effect not different from the Scots Gaelic of Argyll and Galloway.

In the 1830s, Ordnance Survey memoirs came to the following conclusion about the dialect of the inhabitants of Carnmoney, east Antrim: "Their accent is peculiarly, and among old people disagreeably, strong and broad."

[75] Another feature of South Ulster English is the drop in pitch on stressed syllables.

Approximate boundaries of the traditional Scots- and English-language areas in Ulster: Ulster Scots dialect , (Mid-)Ulster English, South-Ulster English (a transitional border variety), and Hiberno-English . Based on The Scotch-Irish Dialect Boundaries in Ulster (1972) by R. J. Gregg.
Pink represents Ulster counties within Northern Ireland ; green within the Republic of Ireland .
English speaking countries
English speaking countries