The following extracts from "Ulster-Scots: A Grammar of the Traditional Written and Spoken Language" by Philip Robinson (Published for The Ulster-Scots Language Society by The Ullans Press, 1997), are provided by permission of Philip Robinson and The Ulster-Scots Language Society. Copyright: Philip Robinson, 1997. All rights reserved. No part of these extracts may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Ulster-Scots Language Society.

1.4 Problem vowel sounds in Ulster-Scots

Since the vernacular revival of Scots and Ulster-Scots literature in the early 1700s, 'English' vowel sounds (both as individual letters and in combinations) have been used to convey an approximate Scots pronunciation. However, several distinctive vowel sounds have proved to be difficult to represent, and such problems have given rise to a host of spelling variations for these words in Ulster-Scots. During the present century, some innovative devices have been borrowed from languages other than English in an attempt to resolve these questions.

The short 'i' represented by ä

For English words spelt with 'i' such as 'pig', 'hit', 'big' and 'pin', a vowel sound is used in Ulster-Scots speech for which there is no appropriate vowel letter. Such words are sometimes written as pag, hat, bag, etc, or even pug, hut and bug, although Ulster-Scots u is used for English 'i' more frequently when following 'w-' or 'wh-', such as for whun, 'whin' or wun 'win'. (The long -defunct Presbyterian paper 'The Witness' was often derisively referred to as the 'Wutness'). However, the potential for confusion with English words is obvious when spellings such as hit, hat and hut are used for the same pronunciation. One revised spelling system developed in the early 1960s by Professor Robert Gregg and Brendan Adams used an umlaut accent over the letter 'a', (ie ä), giving päg, bäg, hät. While the only earlier use of the umlaut in Ulster-Scots literature is with owër ('over'), this device has proved useful to modern Ulster-Scots writers.

The long 'a' represented by á

The use of 'accents' above vowels to indicate change or stress or sound was first successfully employed in Scots literature by William Lorimer for his New Testament in Scots. Although accents have not been adopted widely by other Scots writers. Lorimer's acknowledged masterpiece of Greek-to-Scots translation continues to exert an outstanding influence on all Scots and Ulster-Scots writing.

In Ulster-Scots (and in Scots), the letter 'a' is generally pronounced [ah] (rhyming with 'ma' and not with 'may'). However, a standard 'a' sound in words such as ava (pronounced [a-va]), can contrast with a longer or more stretched 'a' sound in other words such as awa (pronounced [awah] or [awaa]). A limited use of an accent to indicate the lengthened sound of this vowel may be justified:

awá	-	away
twá	-	two

However, in many situations, perfectly suitable conventions already exist:

caa, caw	-	call
aa, aw	-	all
aaboadie	-	everyone
anaw, anaa	-	as well ('and all')

Stressed vowels represented by í, ý , á, etc

Another situation where an accented vowel was used by Lorimer was when he wished to indicate which particular vowel is stressed in speech. For example the word 'minister' has been often written *meenister in Ulster-Scots, following a Scots convention. In Ulster-Scots speech the pronunciation is closer to [manny-ssther] or [mineestther] with some stress along with a change in pronunciation on the second vowel. It would be acceptable to render this minístèr, and similarly with words such as advertísement where the Ulster-Scots stress is on a different vowel from the British English: advertisement'. In the same way, accídent, barrístèr and covénantèr are pronounced [akseedent] etc.

Ulster-Scots vowel pronunciation is complex and varied, to the point where single vowels can be glided so that they sound as double vowels. 'Belfast', for example, has sometimes been written Baelfawst, and is pronounced [Bay-aal-fawst] or [Billfaw-ast].  Sometimes, in east Antrim, an exaggerated form of [Bay-aal-faw-ast] is pronounced as a 'put on'. Words such as 'face' and 'page' are pronounecd [fee-ass] and [pee-adge], but in this book spellings such as faice* and paige* are used, rather than *fyace or *fiáce. Similarly, words such as 'post' and 'pot' can be pronounced [po-ast] and [pawit], and are then spelt poast* and poat* or pawt*.

Words with an 'oa' in English spelling such as 'road', 'boat', 'goat', 'coat' etc, are pronounced locally [row-ad], [bow-at], [go-at], [co-at] in Ulster-Scots. In these situations, the use of an accent appears to be the only satisfactory way of indicating a vowel which is pronounced distinctly and separately from an adjacent vowel.

roád*

boát*

goát*

coát*

Loss of initial vowel before 'l'

Several words such as 'elastic' and 'electric' (which begin with a vowel, followed by 'l' or 'll', and then another vowel), can lose the initial vowel sound to become lastic and lectric. Although this does not happen with all words with a 'vowel-l-vowel' beginning, the following list represents those where this feature occurs most commonly in Ulster-Scots:

lastic	-	elastic
lectric	-	electric, electricity
lapse	-	elapse (eg a lang time's lapsed fae ye wur hame)
leven, leiven	-	eleven
legiance	-	allegiance
lotment	-	allotment
luminate	-	illuminate
Lympics	-	Olympics
ledge	-	allege, declare

In the opening line of James Orr's poem 'To the Potatoe' (written in Ballycarry 200 years ago), we find ledge used: I ledge we'd fen gif fairly quat o ('I declare we'd survive if completely rid of').