What is ULLANS?

Ullans is the magazine of The Ulster-Scots Language Society, which has been formed to promote the Ulster-Scots Language in Literature and Native Speech.

There are about 100,000 native speakers of the Ulster-Scots (Ullans) language in Ulster today. Unfortunately only a small number can also read and write Ulster-Scots as there has been no formal schooling in the subject for 400 years. It is a Germanic (Teutonic) tongue, closely related to Scots and to some English dialects. The historical roots of the language are in Old Norse, but after 1000 years of contact with English, Gaelic, Latin and Norman-French, each of these other languages have left their mark. Ulster-Scots has evolved during the last 400 years in a very close relationship with the Scots language (Lallans) in Scotland, and continues to be gradually eroded by English.

LALLANS is a Scots word meaning ‘(the Scottish) lowlands’. Robert Burns first used it in print in 1796 with the meaning ‘the lowland Scotch tongue’, and such was the explanation he gave in the glossary to the Belfast edition of his poems published in 1797. Since then the Scots language has been (and still is) sometimes known as Lallans. (The magazine of the Scots Language Society is also called Lallans.)

ULLANS, or ‘the lands of the Ulaid’ (Ulster) is a word used by some modern Ulster-Scots writers and is taken to mean ‘the Ulster-Scots tongue’. However, native speakers of what we refer to as ‘Ullans’ or Ulster-Scots would rarely use any other term than “Scotch” when referring to their own tongue.

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The Ulster-Scots Academy has been an integral part of the Ulster-Scots Language Society since 1993. The name "Ulster-Scots Academy" is registered to the USLS with the Intellectual Property Office.

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LATEST

A new edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English recounts the lasting impact that at least 150,000 settlers from Ulster in the 18th century made on the development of the English language of the United States. This new edition published by the Ulster-Scots Language Society documents over 500 ‘shared’ vocabulary items which are authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. A searchable online version of this dictionary is now also available here.

FORTHCOMING

The Ulster-Scots Academy is currently working on the digitisation of Dr Philip Robinson's seminal Ulster-Scots Grammar and the English/Ulster-Scots part (with circa 10,000 entries) of a two-way historical dictionary of Ulster-Scots. These projects are planned to be completed and available on the site in 2016.

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This site is being developed on a purely voluntary basis by the Ulster-Scots Language Society at no cost to the taxpayer. USLS volunteers have been involved in preserving and promoting Ulster-Scots for more than 20 years. All donations, however small, will be most gratefully received and contribute towards the expansion of the project. Thank you!

This site is being developed by the Ulster-Scots Language Society (Charity No. XN89678) without external financial assistance. USLS volunteers have been involved in preserving and promoting Ulster-Scots for more than 20 years. All donations, however small, will be most gratefully received and contribute towards the expansion of the project. Thank you!

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