Glenoe dialect

The Glenoe dialect is a dialect of Scots spoken in the Glenoe district in East Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Phonology

Vowels of Glenoe Scots, from Gregg (1953)

Monophthong phonemes

	Front	Central		Back
		unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i	ɨ	ʉ
Close-mid	e	ə			o
Open-mid	ɛ			ʌ	ɔ
Open	æ			ɑ

• Vowel length is not phonemic.
• /i, e, ɛ/ are slightly lower than the corresponding cardinal vowels, but the difference is not very big.
• /ɨ/, a phonologically central vowel, is further front and more open than cardinal [ɨ]: [ɨ̟˕]. Before /r/, it is lengthened and slightly lowered to [ɘ̟ː] (transcribed [ɨː] in this article).
• /ʉ/, a phonologically central vowel, is further front than cardinal [ʉ]. The long allophone is almost fully close [ʉ̟ː], but the short allophone is somewhat lower: [ʉ̟˕]. For simplicity, these allophones are written [ʉː, ʉ] in this article.
• In addition to /i, ɨ, ʉ/, there is also a fourth close vowel [ɪ], which is non-phonemic. It appears as an allophone of /e/ in certain fused verb forms (e.g. 'have to' [ˈhɪtə], phonemically /ˈhetə/; cf. 'have' [heː], /he/)) as well as an allophone of /æ/ in unstressed syllables (in e.g. 'Polish' [ˈpɔːlɪʃ], /ˈpɔlæʃ/). Its phonetic quality is similar to that of /ɨ/ but more front. It is close to the KIT vowel (/ɪ/) in RP.
• /ə/ is close-mid [ɘ].
• /o/ is more strongly rounded and closer than the cardinal [o]: [o̹˔]. It is similar in quality to Swedish and Norwegian [u].
• /ʌ, ɔ/ are near-back [ʌ̟, ɔ̟].
• /æ/ is near-open near-front [æ̠], whereas /ɑ/ is open near-back [ɑ̟].
  • /æ/ corresponds to English /ɪ/, which in most English dialects is much closer [ɪ]. However, a similar sound of an [æ̠] quality is used by some speakers of Ulster English.

Bibliography

• Gregg, Robert J. (1953). Smyth, Anne; Montgomery, Michael; Robinson, Philip (eds.). Phonology of an East Antrim Dialect. The Academic Study of Ulster Scots (Thesis). {{cite thesis}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)