Languages of Ulster

[neloon]

Some of you who feel yourselves connected to Ulster Scots may be interested in this series "Languages of Ulster" which you can get on BBC iPlayer. It must be good - my wife's in it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...es-1-episode-1
I believe that it is possible to get iPlayer on Sky if you're outside UK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/h...ed/sky_install
Alternatively you should be able to get something from here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09g3gnf
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/languagesofulster


Alan

[O'Callaghan]

It has to be complicated, due to the presence of Ulster Scots (generally referred to in the US as Scotch Irish).

Scotland has essentially three languages, English, Doric and Scots Gaelic (which they just call Gaelic). There was a fourth, Nore, but the last speaker died a long time ago. English and Doric are related and tend to slide gradually from one to the other. Most of the uninformed hear this mixture and assume the words they can't recognise are Gaelic, but they aren't.

Silly example of Doric: "Och aye, it's a braw brecht moonlicht nicht tonicht" (Oh yes, it's a brave bright moonlit night tonight). NB: This contains NO Gaelic.

In the Republic of Ireland there are only two languages, English and Irish (which is really Irish Gaelic).

I would imagine that Northern Ireland would have all the above, and I don't think the nomenclature for identifying them is all that straightforward. Ironically, the best area to learn Irish Gaelic is said to be Donegal, which is in Ulster but NOT in Northern Ireland (these two things are not the same).

[neloon]

Scotland has essentially three languages, English, Doric and Scots Gaelic (which they just call Gaelic). There was a fourth, Nore, but the last speaker died a long time ago. English and Doric are related and tend to slide gradually from one to the other. Most of the uninformed hear this mixture and assume the words they can't recognise are Gaelic, but they aren't.

Silly example of Doric: "Och aye, it's a braw brecht moonlicht nicht tonicht" (Oh yes, it's a brave bright moonlit night tonight).

Don't imply that Scots and Doric are the same. Here is the first line of a Doric poem ("Bennygoak" - from Gaelic = Hill of the cuckoo) which would be quite unintelligble to 95% of Scots.
"Twis jist a skelp o the muckle firth,
A sklyter o roch grun
Fan Granfadder's fadder brak it in
Fae the hedder and the funn".

The old language of the Northern Isles was Norn, not Nore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norn_language

The "braw bricht..." nonsense was just a music hall parody of around 1900 - a bit like imitating US-speak by putting "y'all" in every second sentence!

Alan