Rewrite this text in 500 words: "There’s much that divides us in Northern Ireland though one thing is guaranteed to bring us together: local phrases. Call it slang, call it colloquialisms, we all know only too well how important words are to where we’re from . . . and when it comes to the phrases that make us ‘us,’ we’ve got a lot to say.
While you don’t need advance knowledge of the words to fit in, well, it helps. How else will you know where ‘foundered’ sits on the scale of warm to freezing? Or deciding whether that new car purchase is more ‘clinker’ than ‘beezer’? Or appreciating that ‘grand’ can mean exactly that or anything but?
If the best way to get to know a nation is to understand their language, then surely tourists must be at times confused about what comes out of our mouths. Throughout the island of Ireland, we have utterly brilliant ways to verbally express ourselves.
“I think it’s really important,” says Dr Frank Ferguson, research director for English Language and Literature at Ulster University, about the vitality of slang as part of language.
“I think sometimes we’re not sure even the meaning of slang and the meaning of the vernacular and the colloquial. Especially for Northern Ireland, where language is often so divisive, we forget how a rich and varied it is. And sometimes we find other places in the world that really value the mix of their language.
“Often the things that we associate with slang are actually part of the sort of the languages that make up what we think of as English because we have this wonderful mixture of English, Scots language, and Irish, all bubbling up together and then you have the additions on that, of slang,” he continues.
“Slang as a sort of term that’s used by certain groups to denote certain things through phrases.
“We have an incredible mix and you think how small in many ways Northern Ireland is, that there are marked differences in the language that Belfast uses and the language that’s used up in Derry. There are gradation and the usage of words and phrases that we often take for granted but they’re really quite amazing things.”
“It’s a potentially massive term,” says Gail McConnell, a writer from Belfast on slang which she says transcends distinctions of high and low culture.
“One of the reasons why so many of us love [TV show] Derry Girls so much is because it was a language, phrasing and words and speech, that was so familiar, and took such a delight and pleasure in not just Northern Irish slang but Derry-specific slang, which was a joyous thing to see on a Channel 4 programme.
“But then you’ve got someone like Pulitzer Prize-winning Paul Muldoon, the current Ireland Chair of Poetry, whose poems are peppered with slang terms, through all the decades of his writing; he’s been doing that since the 1970s and 1980s to now.
“It’s a really interesting legacy of this place and the words that make us unique.”
Language has the power to unite: it brings familiarity, a sense of community and a feeling that we’re all in this together. It is our primary tool to communicate and finding those lines of unity is vital to create bonds and friendships.
“It’s one of those things that if we go on holiday and you’re walking down the street, whether it be Spain or wherever, and you hear something from home. It can be something like ‘yer ma’, or ‘yer man’ and that will convey a whole host of knowledge and sense of place that somethings don’t and can’t,” says Dr Ferguson.
“There’s something very unmistakeably ours about words and phrases that we use and there’s nothing more honest at times and nothing more radical.
“Sometimes we might get anxious that we’re using cliches, but we’re actually using things that are very unguarded in our speech.”
Think too of Line of Duty’s Ted Hastings, who may be not living in Northern Ireland but ensures his team appreciate he didn’t come up the Lagan in a bubble.
In popular culture, like Gail, Dr Ferguson also references Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls that unashamedly used phrases and terminology from this place.
“That really said something of the exceptionalism of who we are and what we say.
“Sometimes we’ve been too quick almost to laugh at ourselves for those words, because I think a lot of it is the way society tries to engineer us with an idea of what is proper language, whereas what we say communicates extremely effectively and works better than sometimes the phraseology of standard English.”
But our local phrases are not immune from what goes on here.
“I think it’s unfortunate that it’s been politicised by a face-off between the Irish language and Ulster Scots,” says Gail.
“It’s so frustrating but I think there’s definitely more that we have in common. I think people are often not that sure of the history of slang terms, what the root of it is and where it started.
“And it’s such a source of comedy; I think some of the best of Irish writing, such as James Joyce, used slang. It’s one dimension of what slang can do.”
Dr Ferguson agrees, citing the number of creative writers that Northern Ireland produces who understand the power and ability of language in putting across a moment, or series of moments.
“In many ways, we have a number of registers coming through to us all the time.
“We have that historic mix of English, Scots and Irish, which means then that we can often have two or three words for the same thing.
“We are like the cliche of the Eskimos having so many words for snow; there are, it seems, lots and lots of words out there for ‘potatoes’ that we have.
“Certain areas will have a certain word for certain things and that’s a real strength. I think there’s a variety there and there’s a wonderful history to where those words came from. And even at times, I don’t think we’ve even grasped yet the opportunities that that has for who we are and what we can do and where we can go with that.”
Again, Ulster Scots is mentioned: a language so many of us use without even knowing. Anyone ever had a ‘boak’ after a foodstuff not agreeing with them or done ‘the messages’? My favourite slang word ‘hoke’ has an Ulster Scots origin. It’s fair to say that a discussion on Northern Irish slang cannot be done without looking at Ulster Scots and its continued impact.
“Often there’s not a lot of prestige placed on something like Ulster Scots because there is a perception that it’s bad language, or it doesn’t have a sense of value behind it,” says Dr Ferguson.
“But on one hand, you can trace Ulster Scots back into the courtly language of Scotland and you can also get the sense of the authentic place.
“There are bad Ulster Scots writers, just as there are bad Irish writers or bad English writers, or bad French or bad Spanish writers. But when it’s authentic and done well, it transports you to a real sense of realisation that this is really important and fantastic literature and you’re in the room.
“Whenever anybody questions me about the validity of Ulster Scots, I say go to Seamus Heaney and he talks about reading [poet] Rabbie Burns’ To a Mouse and ‘wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie’ appears in the first line.
“This really electrifies him because the word ‘wee’ appears. It’s the word that he hears at home in his kitchen language as he calls it and it’s also the word that miraculously appears in the world of art and literature and anthologies.
“I think this is when we realised that the very simple words we think we’ve grown up with, we’re maybe a little anxious to use them. When you see the possibilities for those words, there’s something that really brings us home to just how marvellous our language actually is. And actually how it connects us with lots of people in the country at times when there are things that don’t connect us.”
Slang has a special place in painting a vivid image of what it is we’re trying to say. It also gives us an insight into a specific culture and attitude. In Northern Ireland’s case, that we have multiple uses for the word ‘wee.’
“We all know how good a wee cup of tea is, a wee rest or a wee drink or a wee day off. These all have their meanings. It can be cold or be freezing but when it’s Baltic, we know exactly what that means and we know we’re foundered,” says Dr Ferguson.
“One of our great words, and I think there’s a difference between the town and city where it’s ‘scunnered’ or ‘scundered’. You can be annoyed and you can be frustrated, but nothing hits home [than] the sense of ‘I am totally scunnered’ or ‘I am totally scundered’ about something. These are things that we should protect.”
Language too is continuously developing. There are times too when a slang word enters the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and becomes almost standardised, says Gail.
“Yesterday’s slang term is today or the future’s commonly understood term for something,” she explains.
“I guess that’s how language changes and evolves, through its users. You’re getting a people’s history of language use when you think about slang terms. All language passes through users.
“Every year I’m always interested to see what makes it into the OED — it tells you a lot about the way we speak now and how the dictionary has to keep up with the language that people are using.
“In 2022, ‘a chara’ entered the OED. So did ‘fluthered’, first used by James Joyce in 1927, ‘gaslighter’ and ‘vaxxed’. It’s great to see Irish English there and words that reflect what we’re living through.”
Similarly, Dr Ferguson says the ‘beauty’ of slang is that it’s often at the cutting edge of where words enter into common parlance.
“It often comes from young people so that there is a sense that if somebody like me is using the word, it has long lost its kind of cachet,” he laughs.
“But there’s a there’s a real sense that this is how words get born and taken into language. They’re used in some circles and in some groups.
“We all talk about going to uni now and in a sense, this is Australian dialect that we’ve picked up when Neighbours came along in the 1980s. Suddenly, ‘uni’ seems one of the obvious words to use because it’s been floating through media, but it’s loaded into everyday speech.
“Language is always a kind of magpie; it always throws up things for us to use that we’re not expected to use. Even terms that maybe in the past would have had specific meanings for specific groups, suddenly, this becomes widespread.”
The phrases we barely think about, so bound are they to our identity, are not just ours, however, they’re widely available for visitors to enjoy — on a sock or enamel mug, among other things.
Linzi Rooney is the owner of Born and Bred, a shop celebrating homeware and apparel with a decidedly local twist.
“I think it’s actually gotten more popular,” she says of the slang-adorned items.
“There’s more of a pride and a confidence that has built up from locals because of who we are and where we come from.
“I think that confidence has grown given the number of tourists who are coming into the city. They talk about how friendly we are, they talk about our hospitality and are genuinely interested in the history of the north of Ireland. I think then that our confidence has grown which makes us take a bit more pride in our kind of phrases.”
She launched the business in 2014 and her ethos remains changing the often negative attitudes about Northern Ireland, creating a culture where we’re proud of the places we call home.
From ‘up to high doh’ coasters to ‘a wee bag’ tote, Born and Bred is proudly Northern Irish and equally proud of our famous sayings.
“I knew locals would love it and if you see the amount of actual tourists we have coming into the store in Belfast — 27% of our tourism comes from Scotland and England,” explains Linzi.
“With the Americans coming over and they ask, ‘What’s “awk hiya love?”’ – which we have on our socks and mugs – once you explain it to them, they then love it and they buy it. So they’re running around America with a pair of ‘awk hiya love’ socks on with people asking, ‘What’s awk?’
“It creates engagement in the shop and it’s probably why the shop is doing so well as it’s creating that kind of dialogue with tourists in the shop as opposed to going in, buying something and leaving.
“It opens conversations which is brilliant.”
Top of the festive socks for 2022 was a pair with ‘alright big lad’ and customers still love ‘Ulster says yeooo!’ and ‘ats us nai’.
“Having tourists back last year and also cruise ships was definitely a real confidence boost for the shop,” continues Linzi.
“For the last two years before that, in and around lockdowns, you were relying on local trade which was amazing.
There’s no greater feeling than somebody coming from Spain, China, Italy, America, Canada, and really loving something with a local sign on it.”
How a brand markets items with such a local angle is important, she says.
“I was always very conscious that it’s how you incorporate this kind of slang with your brand, and create a brand that people want to invest in and it’s a lifestyle brand. When you do that and add a bit of Northern Irish tongue in cheek, it’s quite popular.
“It may not want to be a mug you’d have in your house but when you add the pink and enamel and people will take pictures of it up the Mournes or are wearing their ‘alright’ sock in a style that’s trendy and you can see yourself wearing it. If you’re able to tie those two together then you’ve got a good product. It’s not just your fridge magnet with a leprechaun on it.”
Many households live with multiple words of various things, giving a flavour of the melting point of cultures and nationalities for whom Northern Ireland is home.
“I’m married to an American so occasionally with our young son, Beth and I are in disagreement about the things we say,” says Gail. “Simple things like I’ll say ‘plaster’ and she’ll say ‘Band-aid,’ I’ll say ‘chips’ and she’ll say ‘fries’. He knows that he’s betwixt and between terms.
“Even things like ‘wee’ and ‘what’s the craic?’ There are phrases I would say that, in the mouth of someone who’s not from here, they sound ridiculous. You can hear people, and English speakers in particular, trying to accommodate themselves, ‘Well, hello, what’s the craic?’ Or even words like ‘scundered’ or ‘jammy,’ or ‘dead on,’ all these things that I say quite often.”"