Irish English and the Ulster Scots Controversy by Jeffrey Kallen
From: Ulster Folk Life Vol.45, 1999. (Published by Ulster Folk & Transport Museum, Cultra)
Controversy in the study of Ulster Scots
It should come as no surprise that the same controversies which arise in the study of Irish English generally also arise with Ulster Scots. Recent interest in Ulster Scots can be seen in the foundation of the Ulster-Scots Language Society, the Ulster-Scots Academic Press the journal Ullans, and a minor outburst of literary work. 63. Most notable have been the publication of James Fenton's The Hamely Tongue 64 and Philip Robinson's grammar of Ulster Scots (cited earlier) 65. What I propose to do in the remainder of this paper is to select two points in the recent literature which illustrate the problems of Ulster Scots study in relation to the controversies of Irish English. I conclude the section with some observations on the label 'Ulster Scots' as it relates to the category controversy.
Striking among the phonological variables that are familiar to students of general English and which also feature in Ulster Scots is what Wells refers to as the FLEECE merger. 66. Consider first what Robinson has to say; 'A common (and historic) pronunciation of 'meat' in Scotland and Ulster is (mate). Similarly 'eat', 'cheat', 'seat' 'beat' 'clean' and 'cheap' can be pronounced (ate) (chate) (sate) (bate) (clane) and (chape) in many parrts of Ulster and Scotland. 67. Though Fenton's brief discussion of phonology does not directly mention this feature, his lexicon contains a significant number of lexicalised examples of /e/ pronunciations in words of Wells's FLEECE class: Aister 'Easter@ baigle 'beagle' bate 'beat, beaten' dacent 'decent' maisles 'measles' shaif 'sheaf' trait 'treat', etc. 68
In the FLEECE merger, the word class having/E/ in Middle English showed raised vowels which eventually merged with the /i/ sound typical of the so called FLEECE lexical set (eg. Creep Peter, beet) for which the general Middle English vowel had been /e/. A few words such as great and steak did not move into the FLEECE group in any dialect, but various phonetic realisations (monophthongal, diphthongal, etc). For some dialects, however, many words remain in the FACE set and the FLEECE merger is very much incomplete. The non-realisation of the FLEECE merger has been cited as a 'conservative' feature of English throughout Ireland since at least the time of Hume. 69 and is widely discussed as a feature of general Ulster English. 70. It is shared at least in part with Scots in Scotland. 71.
In broad outline, then, failure of the FLEECE merger is by no means unique to Ulster Scots. Yet the variation controversy pushes us to go beyond the broad outline and ask questions which have yet to be addressed. The vitality of non merger for example, appears to be variable. While Henry gives evidence that non merger was to be found throughout Ireland in the 1950s, 72, Bertz reports that the use of /e/ vowels is characteristic in Dublin English only of 'popular' speech and is not found in 'educated' or 'general' varieties. 73. Hickey, too, claims that the feature is 'somewhat artificial ' in contemporary Dublin and maintains that it has been in recession since much earlier in the century. 74. While Harris's account also shows a process of increasing merger over the last two centuries, 75, we have no precise information on whether the vitality of this feature (measured especially by the number of potential FLEECE words remaining in the FACE group and by age related evidence of change in progress) differs in the Ulster Scots zone from its pattern elsewhere.
Taking account of the variation controversy also forces us to go beyond
the use of isolated examples in order to test the lexical distribution of
the non merged /e/ vowels. Robinson's citation of words such as baird 'beard',
clair 'clear' 76, that are found in Wells's NEAR set, in which the vowel
usually precedes /r/ as in beer, fierce and serious, introduces a lexical
group that is rarely mentioned in discussions of this variable in general
Irish English. NEAR words are usually realised with /i/ in RP and General
American English but, according to Wells are typically produced as /i/ in
Irish English. 77. It would be highly significant if the lexical distribution
of /e/ type vowels in Ulster Scots were wider or in other ways significantly
different from the distribution in other Irish speech communities. Such
a difference would suggest that the appearance of a common pattern implied
by reference to the FLEECE merger alone might be an oversimplification and
that Ulster Scots should, after all, be viewed as divergent on this variable.
Only empirical research of a type which has not been published, however,
will resolve this question. |
