2 Sir J'ohn Byers on 



address of their eighty-ninth Session, " The Dialect of Ulster" — 

 a subject of the greatest interest, because of the light it threw 

 upon the origin, habits, folklore, and manners of the people of 

 the North of Ireland. He pointed out that the main char- 

 acteristics of a dialect were peculiarities of vocabulary, of 

 pronunciation, and of idiom ; and the Ulster dialect he con- 

 sidered first analytically in the light of these three canons. In 

 reference to the words, their Celtic, English, Scotch, French, 

 and Scandinavian origin was very fully discussed, and it was 

 shown that it was from a mixture of all these elements that 

 what is termed the Ulster dialect arose. It was a form of 

 language spoken by the people themselves, and especially by 

 those residing in the country districts. This dialect had been 

 handed down from father to child since about the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth century as a spoken rather than as 

 a written language, and, although subject to change, it had 

 remained wonderfully consistent, being preserved by tradition 

 and by the ear and voice of the people. It was really an 

 admixture of all the various languages introduced from time to 

 time into the North of Ireland, as well as of the original native 

 Celtic, an amalgam being produced by their interaction on each 

 other. In certain districts— especially in those parts of Antrim, 

 Down, and Londonderry which adjoin the sea coast — the dialect 

 was largely, as might be expected, Scottish ; but even there 

 words of Scotch origin not found in any English dictionary 

 abounded. The original Scotch words in many instances have 

 been considerably altered, and the type of words found in some 

 of these places as well as the pronunciation given them 

 showed that they were of an earlier origin than those found 

 in other Scotch settlements in the North of Ireland. In 

 other localities, the vocabulary was more clearly English ; 

 while again in many parts the words in use were more 

 distinctly Celtic, yet in almost every district of the North 

 of Ireland there was a certain admixture of words, idioms, and 



