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    East Ulster Gaelic, A Forgotten Dialect PDF

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    East Ulster Gaelic was a dialect of Irish that was widely spoken in Eastern Ulster, Ireland until the mid-20th century. It showed influences from both Irish and Scottish Gaelic dialects due to settlers from Scotland. Recordings from the 1920s and 1930s provide evidence of this distinct dialect, including different pronunciations and vocabulary compared to other Irish dialects. The last native speaker of East Ulster Gaelic was Bella McKenna of Rathlin Island, who was recorded on video before her death in the 1980s.

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    East Ulster Gaelic, A Forgotten Dialect PDF

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    Thriw
    402 views5 pages
    East Ulster Gaelic was a dialect of Irish that was widely spoken in Eastern Ulster, Ireland until the mid-20th century. It showed influences from both Irish and Scottish Gaelic dialects due to settlers from Scotland. Recordings from the 1920s and 1930s provide evidence of this distinct dialect, including different pronunciations and vocabulary compared to other Irish dialects. The last native speaker of East Ulster Gaelic was Bella McKenna of Rathlin Island, who was recorded on video before her death in the 1980s.

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    East Ulster Gaelic was a dialect of Irish that was widely spoken in Eastern Ulster, Ireland until the mid-20th century. It showed influences from both Irish and Scottish Gaelic dialects due to settlers from Scotland. Recordings from the 1920s and 1930s provide evidence of this distinct dialect, including different pronunciations and vocabulary compared to other Irish dialects. The last native speaker of East Ulster Gaelic was Bella McKenna of Rathlin Island, who was recorded on video before her death in the 1980s.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    402 views5 pages

    East Ulster Gaelic, A Forgotten Dialect PDF

    Uploaded by

    Thriw
    East Ulster Gaelic was a dialect of Irish that was widely spoken in Eastern Ulster, Ireland until the mid-20th century. It showed influences from both Irish and Scottish Gaelic dialects due to settlers from Scotland. Recordings from the 1920s and 1930s provide evidence of this distinct dialect, including different pronunciations and vocabulary compared to other Irish dialects. The last native speaker of East Ulster Gaelic was Bella McKenna of Rathlin Island, who was recorded on video before her death in the 1980s.

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    of 5

    East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

    12/07/2016 05:13

    Language Volcano
    Ad Infinitum et Ultra

    East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect

    Ulster Irish today is pretty much a synonym for Donegal Irish. But did you
    know that Irish was also widely spoken in Eastern Ulster, despite the high
    number of English and Scottish settlers since the Plantation of Ulster? Indeed,
    East Ulster Irish was seen as an Intermediary dialect between Irish and
    Scottish Gaelic forming part of perhaps part of a dialect continuum. This is
    backed up by the fact that there is still confusion to this day over whether
    Rathlin Island Irish is an East Ulster dialect or dialect of Scots Gaelic!
    First of all, Ulster Irish is one of the three main dialects of the Irish Language
    (The others being Munster and Connaught Irish) and is spoken in the
    northern province of Ireland called Ulster (a province which straddles two
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    East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

    12/07/2016 05:13

    countries, that of the Republic of Ireland and that of Northern Ireland which
    belongs to the UK). Traditionally Irish was spoken across the province but the
    last native speakers were dying out in East Ulster by the mid twentieth
    century. Nowadays, Ulster Irish is mainly spoken in the Donegal Gaeltacht
    and Shaws Road in Belfast [although in East Ulster, Donegal Irish is used].
    Eastern Ulster Irish or Gaedhilge as it was known in the dialect, is very
    interesting linguistically and were it to still exist, it could perhaps be a
    mechanism through which strong ties could be maintained between Irish,
    Scots Gaelic [Gidhlig] and Manx as the same language would be spoken on
    both sides of the Strait of Moyle and it would be the centre of the Gaelic
    speaking world.
    Since the dialect survived into the 20th Century, there is plenty of recorded
    evidence of the language that we still have today such as video or audio
    recordings, placenames and books (in the past, spelling was much more
    phonetic). The recordings which captured my imagination years ago when I
    heard about their existence on the radio are the famous Doegen Recordings [I
    will attach a link at the end of the article]. These recordings were of native
    speakers of various di!erent regional dialects in Ireland (many of which are
    now extinct) made between 1928 and 1931 by the German linguist Dr Doegen
    and to whom we should all be eternally grateful. At a time when Irish was
    more widely spoken, we had pockets of speakers recorded (these pockets have
    since disappeared) in the Sperrin Mountains, the Glens of Antrim, Rathlin
    Island, North-West County Cavan, South-East County Monaghan, South
    Armagh and North County Louth in a place called Omeath. Irish survived in
    the Sperrins until the 1950s, until the 1970s in the Glens of Antrim and 1985
    in Rathlin Island, Bella McKenna of Rathlin Island was the last speaker of
    East Ulster Irish and fortunately she was recorded on video speaking before
    she died.
    These recordings reveal the pecularities of this dialect and what makes it

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    East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

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    di!erent from the rest of Irish. You may have seen earlier in this post the East
    Ulster way of saying Gaelic Gaedhlig. Very similar to the Scots Gaelic
    Gidhlig in contrast to Gaeilge in the south of Ireland. We also have examples
    such as bhfeil in East Ulster (the same in Scots Gaelic) compared to the Irish
    bhfuil. They also pronounced vowels di!erently like ea for example. In
    most Irish dialects fear was pronoucned far but in East Ulster Irish, it was
    pronounced ferr. This sound rule is also applied in Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
    Also the common name Sen is pronounced Shawn in most of Ireland, but in
    East Ulster it was pronounced Shane.
    East Ulster Irish also has some of its own unique vocabulary for vocab that it
    is the same in every other Irish dialect. For example coinfheasgar (trthnna
    evening in Irish. The Manx for good evening is fastyr vie), arsigh (innis
    tell), corruighe (fearg angry), prinn (deifir hurry), go seadh (go fill
    yet), mrt (b cow), toigh (teach house).
    Rathlin Island Gaelic is fascinating and deserves its own post (actually
    someone has made their own blog dedicated to it and I will attach a link to it
    at the bottom). Rathlin Gaelic had its own features such as bh (considered a
    Scottish Gaelic feature) instead of the Irish bh and the -adh endings would
    have been pronounced -ag. Ainm name was pronounced like arm. As I have
    previously stated, scholars have long debated over whether it is Irish or Scots
    Gaelic. It contains features of both languages and could have been a
    transitional dialect between both. What perhaps facilitated this was that the
    inhabitants of Rathlin Island were themselves descended from Scottish
    settlers. Some of these were Highlanders who fled persecution following
    the Battle of Culloden in 1745. This influx of new settlers brought variations
    in the language, which were enduring. The dialects closest to Rathlin Gaelic
    that are still alive today are Islay Gaelic in Scotland and the Irish in Fanad in
    North Donegal.
    Languages are too often seen as mechanical and impersonal. Here, in East

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    East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

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    Ulster Irish we have not just a dialect but a story of a people. We see how
    despite these people lived on the island of Ireland, they were under the
    massive influence of Scotland and they themselves were evidence for how
    close gaelic cultures were to each other. I would very much be in favour of the
    revival of these dialects. Like any language it cannot die, it can only be
    dormant. A dialect that could act as intermediary between language would
    truly be a treasure. Foreign learners of gaelic could choose to learn this dialect
    in order to maximise the amount of people thet could speak to and it would
    also fascilatate the rapid acquisition of another of the gaelic languages. With
    our help, Ulster could again become centre of the Gaelic World.
    Thanks for listening, have a nice day!

    http://rathlingaelic.blogspot.ie/2011/12/irish-language-in-rathlinisland.html
    https://www.doegen.ie/

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    Author: languagevolcano
    I am a guy who has an irrational love of languages, whether they are ancient or not. I
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    East Ulster Gaelic A Forgotten Dialect Language Volcano

    12/07/2016 05:13

    am the proud of owner of a Roman Epigraphy facebook page


    https://www.facebook.com/groups/1520138711619959/. I speak fluent English,
    Spanish and French. Speak Irish and German well and know more than the basics in
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    languagevolcano / July 12, 2016 / Languages / Celtic Languages, Dialect, Extinct, Irish,
    Scottish Gaelic, Ulster

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