the - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
the def art Used in many contexts in which English in general has no article or has a possessive pronoun. (Note: in Ulster, as elsewhere in Ireland, the article is used even more widely than in any variety of American English, as before placenames (the County Armagh) or actions and pastimes (the dancing).
1 in a general indefinite sense.
Ulst.:
c1910 Byers Glossary = used before certain words such as church, school, grace, bed, etc.: ‘I found him in the school’, ‘lying in the bed’, etc.
U.S.:
1969 GSMNP-27:7 We was all in the bed asleep and he come up. He knocked and knocked on the door and nobody answered him.
2 for possessive pronouns (as the da, the dochter, the wife, the han, the heid, the health, the bed) In the U.S. this usage is common only to referring to relatives (thus, the old lady, the old woman, the wife, the woman = one’s wife). [oed the 2 used instead of the possessive pronoun, with the names of relatives, 1816→]
Ulst.:
1931 Bratton Turf Fire 29 Don’t listen to what the wife says to ye.
1983 Marshall Drumlister 32 The deil a man in this townlan’ / Wos claner raired nor me, / But I’m livin’ in Drumlister / In clabber to the knee.
1983 Pepper Ulster Knowledge 72 He will refer to her as ‘the wife’ or ‘the missus’, rarely ‘my wife’.
U.S.:
1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 257 ‘The woman’, as every wife is called, has her kingdom within the house.
c1951 Chapman Speech Confusing A mountain wife, though still in her teens, is called ‘the old woman’ by her youthful husband.
1979 Carpenter Walton War 68 We’ve et, but the wife’ll get you some supper.
3 in the phr the both = both. [snd the 8(1)]
Ulst.:
1920 Ervine Mrs Martin’s Man 84 Will I make you a drop of tay, the both of you?
1950 Mulcaghey Harbison’s Wake 69 The both ov them shed tears galore sittin’ there by the bedside with the mortial remains of John Harbison.
2002 Sammon Greenspeak 38 = the definite article is always used in Irish, and has transferred to Irish English.
U.S.:
1940 Haun Hawk’s Done 21 I can nigh see them now—the both of them setting there, either one thinking of tothern.
4 in the phr the most/maist = most. [oed the 8(1), 1745→]
Ulst.:
1840 Bleakley Poems 101 I dealt in groceries and tea, / And could hae pleased the maist o’ nature.
1881 Hart Mere Irish The most of what they said was heerd by Shan Whoriskey himself!
1886 Lyttle Ballycuddy 9 The maist o’ my singin’ is till wee Paddy here.
1936 White Mrs Murphy 143 The most of the people lets things go to the divil because they won’t take a hoult of them and do something.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 249 the maist o yins.
U.S.:
1939 Hall Coll I always made the feathers fly, but the trouble was the meat went with it the most of the time.
1989 Landry Smoky Mt Interviews 194 Old man Sparks, he spent the most of his life on that mountain.
5 in the phr the best = very well.
Ulst.:
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 249 = a very common reply to such enquiries as: ‘Whut wie ir ye keepin?’; ‘Hoo did ye get on?’
U.S.:
1939 Hall Coll I always thought they got along the best … I’ve enjoyed [my job] the best so far.
6 with the names of diseases or ailments. [oed the demonstrative adj/def art 8a; dost the def art 10 c1420→; snd the 4]
Ulst.:
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 249 the jendies, the maisles, etc.
U.S.:
1937 Hall Coll A sight of people died of the fever [= typhoid] on this branch twenty-five or thirty year ago. Ibid. To cure the flux, drink a tea of sweet gum bark or take some mutton taller melted.
1996 Cavender Bold Hives 18 It is common in parts of the American South, including Appalachia, to attach the definite article the to the descriptor. This grammatical form often appears today in illness discourse (e.g. My baby has the colic’, ‘He’s got the cancer’, ‘She’s just now getting over the measles’.)
