ABSTRACT
(London)Derry English (LDE), as a variety of Northern Ireland English (NIE), is a result of the mixing of Ulster-Scots and other varieties of English brought to the region during the seventeenth-century Plantation of Ulster and subsequent Irish Gaelic influence, as the Irish-speaking population shifted to English. This chapter is based on material gathered by participant observation during a total of seven months of fieldwork conducted in 1994 and 1995. The chapter reports from the first sociolinguistic survey in Northern Ireland to permit discussion of both social class and Protestant/Catholic ethnicity, and interactions between the two. The three variables studied in the chapter permits us to examine the spread of four linguistic changes that might be expected to correlate with class and ethnicity in different ways. Results for these three linguistic variables provide qualified support for Harriss assertion that sociolinguistic perspectives on NIE must consider the possible consequences of speakers sociopolitical orientations.
