The speech in southern and western
County Donegal, southern
County Tyrone, southern
County Londonderry, northern
County Fermanagh, north
County Armagh, southwestern
County Antrim and most of
County Down form a geographical band across the province from east to west. On the whole, these areas have much more in common with the Derry accent in the west than inner-city Belfast in the east. This accent is often claimed as being the "standard" Northern Irish dialect as it is the most widely used. Parts of the north of
County Monaghan (an area centred on
Monaghan Town and known as
North Monaghan) would roughly fall into this category, but only to a certain extent.
Bundoran, a town at the southern extremity of
County Donegal, also has quite a western Ireland accent, as do parts of the south-west extremity of
County Fermanagh.
Belfast and surroundings The
broad, working-class
Belfast dialect is not limited to the city itself but also takes in neighbouring urban areas in the local vicinity (such as
Lisburn,
Carrickfergus and
Newtownards), as well as towns whose inhabitants originally came from Belfast (such as
Craigavon). It is generally perceived as being associated with economically disadvantaged areas, and with youth culture. This however is not the dialect used in the media (even those outlets which are based in Belfast). Features of the accent include several vowel shifts, including one from to before or after
velars ( for
bag). Nowadays, this shift largely only happens before , so
pack and
peck are homophones as . The Belfast dialect is now becoming more frequently heard in towns and villages whose inhabitants would have traditionally spoken with a distinctively rural accent. Examples of such areas are
Moira,
Ballyclare,
Dromore and
Ballynahinch. It could be said that many young people in these areas prefer to use the more cosmopolitan city accent, as opposed to the local variant that their parents or people in other areas would use. Other phonological features include the following: • Two major realisations of are to be encountered: in open syllables a long monophthong near , but in closed syllables an ingliding diphthong, perhaps most typically , but ranging from to . Thus
days and
daze are not homophonous. • In Belfast, and in Mid- and South Ulster, the opposition between and is better maintained than in other parts of Ulster, though it is restricted to only a few environments, e.g., that of a following voiceless plosive. Thus
stock is distinct from
stalk . However, this is complicated by the fact that certain words belonging to the
Standard Lexical Set THOUGHT have rather than the expected . These typically include
draw,
fall,
walk, and
caught.
Water often has (the TRAP vowel). • The phoneme is pronounced in most of Ulster, but in Belfast it is extremely variable and is a sensitive
social marker. Pronunciations with a relatively front first element, or fronter, are working class. Middle class speakers prefer back or even . The second element is , often with little or no rounding.
How and
now may receive special treatment in working-class Belfast speech, with an open first element and a second element ranging over , a retroflex approximant , and zero, i.e., there may be no second element. Some of the vocabulary used among young people in Ulster, such as the word "
spide", is of Belfast origin.
Derry and surroundings The accent of
Derry City, which is also heard in northeastern
County Donegal (including
Inishowen), and northern and western
County Tyrone (including
Strabane). There is a higher incidence of
palatalisation of the velar plosives and , (e.g. "kyar" for "car"). However, the most noticeable difference is perhaps the intonation, which is unique to the Derry,
Letterkenny and
Strabane area. The accent of the
Finn Valley and especially The Laggan district (centred on the town of
Raphoe), both in East Donegal, together with the accent of neighbouring West Tyrone and the accent of the westernmost parts of
County Londonderry (not including Derry City), are also quite
Scottish sounding. A variety of
Ulster Scots is spoken in these areas. This West Ulster variety of Ulster Scots is considered to be quite similar to the
Scots spoken in
Ayrshire in south-west
Scotland. ==Ulster Scots English==