Belfast Dialect
Although the Belfast dialect can not
be considered Scots it does include a number of features
of Ulster Scots origin. Belfast lies between Ulster
Scots speaking areas to the north and south. Consequently
the speech of Belfast contains numerous vocabulary, grammar
and syntactical features of Scots origin brought to the
city by 19th and 20th century incomers
from Down and Antrim. 
Vocabulary items include such words as
thon, scallion, weans, mebbe
(maybe), jouk, keek, skelf, polis,
crack, farl (fardel), oxter, neb,
scunner, stour, redd and clart.
Ay and ye for 'yes' and 'you' are almost
universal.
Grammatical and syntactical features include:
The use of for til
and for to (and
the use of on after
waiting):
| I'm waiting on ye for til wash
the car. |
| I'm waiting for you to wash the car. |
| He's come over for to see the film. |
| He's come over in order to watch the
film. |
Typically Scots use of the auxiliaries
will, would,
should, could,
might and can
avoiding, 'shall', 'ought' and 'may'.
Scots use of is
and was and the verb
inflexion -s :
| Yer man and me is... |
Him an me has... |
| Your husband and I are... |
Him and I have... |
| Him and me eats everything |
Him an me was... |
| Him and I eat everything. |
Him and I were... |
Others are:
| See thon tree, our Jim planted it. |
| See that dress, my sister's for buying
it... |
| |
| She's away for the shopping. |
| He's very fond of the swimming. |
| |
| What for would I go there? |
| How come I wasn't picked for the team? |
Most of the Scots grammatical features
and idioms carried over into SSE
also occur in Mid Ulster English.
Some Belfast phonology also shows Scots influence -
even preserving the system of vowel length more clearly
than some Ulster Scots dialects themselves.
The retention of the pronunciation /ʍ/
for <wh> may well be due to Scots influence.
The pronunciations /ɑ/
in words like bad, hand, man, Maud
and fraud etc. /æ/
in words like bit, pick and fish
etc. and the diphthong /əi/
or /aɪ/ in
words like bide, Friday, rise, wife
and white etc.
Literature:
Henry, Alison (1995) Belfast English
and Standard English - Dialect Variation and Parameter
Setting, University of Ulster.
Harris, J. (1985) Phonological Variation and Change
Studies in Hiberno-English, Cambridge University Press.
Milroy, James (1981) Regional Accents of English: Belfast,
Belfast: Blackstaff.
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