Ulster Scots: Realities and Myths
by John M Kirk
The argument that as a historically-descended dialect of the Scots language Ulster Scots is ipso facto also a language is a red herring, for there is no present-day Scots language - only those dialects now inexorably part of the overall English system, no more or less so than in Ulster. It follows that, in the present day, English can be the only 'superordinate' language to which the Ulster Scots dialect can be related. Whereas Montgomery and Gregg (1997: 570) use the criteria of stylistic differentiation, functional domain, and rule-based grammatical system to imply language status for Ulster Scots, the legitimacy of these criteria arises only through marked contrast and inferred value within the overall English system.
Neither on internal grounds of linguistic autonomy nor on external grounds of political status arising from self-nationhood, is Scots in Ulster an autonomous linguistic system, a language. Whereas the claim of descent from the Scots language is true, that historical origin does not qualify Ulster Scots to be a language in present-day, synchronic, terms. The Ulster Scots dialect has emerged because the geographical barriers of the Sea of Moyle and the North Channel have separated its speakers from their nearest neighbours and because the number of speakers in Ulster has been considerable. The Scots in Ulster do not make up the total community in Ulster, and the predominant community language is English. Ulster Scots has no official, formal, legislative or parliamentary status, for this is not a role for dialects. In today's world, and viewed from that synchronic perspective, Ulster Scots, no matter how distinctive, is to be categorised - responsibly as well as respectably - as a dialect of English. Ulster Scots confirms standard textbook definitions of dialect, such as: "dialects are sets of linguistic features identified and defined in terms of regional or social groups of users", or "a dialect region seems ... well defined by a confluence of lexical, grammatical and phonological evidence."
Scots in Ulster is at its fullest or 'densest' when only Scots choices within the overall English system are made at each of the structural levels and is most likely to occur, if at all, in spontaneous, naturally-occurring private speech; in reality, Scots choices co-occur with the other choices within the overall English system, so that it is a question of degree, Scots choices standing out as a marked code or style of speaking; between those who reciprocate, it has a bonding effect.
Are there other characteristics of the Scots dialect in Ulster? It is also
a sociolect indicative of social class and educational level - the more
conservative the dialect, the more marked those social values. Some speakers,
of course, display considerable native wit and a sense of natural vitality;
others display a wording heavily influenced by religious rhetoric and ideology.
It seems that, from the research upon which the appended maps are based,
use and knowledge of Ulster Scots features have kept up well across current
generations, and occur as readily among women as men. Further impressions
of the sociolectal value of Ulster Scots can be gleamed from the passages
of present-day fictional prose which have appeared in Ullans magazine. For
the earlier so-called 'Rhyming Weaver' poets, sociolectal connotations of
class, level of education, and ruralness were cast aside in favour of a
poetic rhetoric which heightened the dialect. For writers such as James
Orr, The Bard of Ballycarry (1770-1816), it was the poetic register not
the dialect that gave the poetry its appealing aggrandisement; besides,
his (and others) writing was never as fully Scots as it might have been
- not all choices are made in favour of Scots forms. Whereas Ulster Scots
has long been associated with a set of conservative core areas, its features
have spread into most other accents throughout the province (those derived
from different parts of England and those influenced by Irish Gaelic) and
thrived on pastures new (see the maps in the Appendix). While there is growing
evidence from research of Scots features occurring in a less marked or even
unmarked way through all varieties of present-day English in Ulster, at
all levels, the extent of accent influence (specifically the issue of the
quality, length, distribution and realisation of vowels) is perhaps the
most significant. |
