Is Ulster Scots a Language?

[RobRoy]

Although all your comments seem to be directed only at Ulster Scots,why do you have them eating haggis but drinking Irish whiskey

Sharp Rab.  

[tinker70]

As said in Carnlough Jaysus that's a Goodjen

[Dommo]

I've been getting a bit of stick on youtube for this story of mine. It's in Ulster Scots and some people are posting up that it's not a proper language. What's your opinion? Is it a language? Or just an accent?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuohghCQ2SA

Neither, a dialect.

[IrishDigger]

I like this definition,

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ulster%20scots

 

[Bigali]

I like this definition,

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ulster%20scots

 

That just about sums it up , I’m from North Antrim and as far as I’m concerned it’s a dialect not a language, although I will admit that to a non native it can sometimes sound like Swahili . If you had suggested to my parents or anyone of their generation that they were speaking a language that wasn’t strictly English they would have told you that “there’s a want in ye “

[White dee]

I like this definition,

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ulster%20scots

 

   Oh but you've put the Cat in with the Pigeons now Irish 
I was watching a documentary awhile back and this Scotsman ( can't remember His
Name right now), He was big in the " Britain First " and decided He loved Ulster so
much ( He always can over for the Orange Marching Season, He moved to Ulster
Permanently, He say and I quote " I wanted to come back to where His Heritage started,,,
I nearly choked on my Tay 

[Billy Fish]

That just about sums it up , I’m from North Antrim and as far as I’m concerned it’s a dialect not a language, although I will admit that to a non native it can sometimes sound like Swahili . If you had suggested to my parents or anyone of their generation that they were speaking a language that wasn’t strictly English they would have told you that “there’s a want in ye “

 

[Bigali]

Billy I’ve said this before on the forum , it’s a dialect which runs from the north coast of Donegal , it bypasses the Maiden City which has a dialect all of its own , the coasts of Londonderry and Antrim and right on down to the Ards Peninsula and it has a Scottish lilt to it not only because of the Planters but because of the trade between the two regions since time immemorial.

[White dee]

"
What was the best thing to do about this, pondered Unionist politicians, until one had the astonishingly grandiose idea of actually inventing their own language. Of course, synthetic languages like Loglan and Esperanto are difficult to learn and it’s even harder to persuade people to actually learn the damn things, so in order to facilitate rapid growth the new language of Ulster Scots would be simply the dialect of English spoken in North Antrim with a kind of dyslexic phonetic spelling system and a few inscrutable phrases pilfered from Lowland Scots dialect of English. If Ulster Scots is a language then so are the dialects used in Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’ or James Kelman’s ‘How Late it Was, How Late.’ When BBC Radio Ulster announced, sadly incorrectly, that the Ulster Scots term for mentally disabled children was “wee daftie weans” I almost fell over, so hard was I laughing at the antics of these clowns "   

Expensive Clowns I might add,

com/2017/08/24/ulster-scots-seek-e151-million-buckfast-fund/

[White dee]

This is probably as close to the truth about "Ulster Scotts " as your going to get,
only this Man Tim McGarry does it with a certain amount of good humour ,

https://youtu.be/gf-e1bWf0gU

There's more than one episodes,

[Billy Fish]

Billy I’ve said this before on the forum , it’s a dialect which runs from the north coast of Donegal , it bypasses the Maiden City which has a dialect all of its own , the coasts of Londonderry and Antrim and right on down to the Ards Peninsula and it has a Scottish lilt to it not only because of the Planters but because of the trade between the two regions since time immemorial.

Yes, agreed. Particularly strong in certain areas of the Ards Peninsula, Portavogie and Portaferry spring to mind. 

[syriana]

Here in Donaghadee the Ulster-Scots heritage is taken for granted.  I attended the 2017 Ulster-Scots Festival in Donaghadee.  D'Dee was the gateway to Ulster for lowland Scots when Scotsmen James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery received land in Down and Antrim as a reward for rescuing the chieftain Con O'Neill.  This was 400 years ago and at a time before before the Plantation of Ulster and the Flight of the Earls.  Over 10,000 Scots eventually settled in the agreed areas - they brought their customs and beliefs to Ulster.  Over the years - I think that they made a positive contribution to the industrial growth of Ulster.  I vaguely remember reading somewhere that either Hamilton or Montgomery was a founder of Trinity College - can't remember which one.

Anyway - in my opinion Ulster-Scots is a dialect not a language.
 

[James James]

Whatever it is, it sounds fantastic, and that's the most important aspect of it.

As he says,... "It's oor tongue".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4pNOcvVkQE