I thought this worthwhile as an addition to this wonderful thread. Additional information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Scots Denis Nomenclature While once referred to as Scotch-Irish by several researchers, that has now been superseded by the term Ulster Scots[12]. Native Speakers usually refer to their vernacular as 'Scotch'[13] or the 'hamely tongue'[14]. Since the 1980s it has also been called 'Ullans', a portmanteau neologism popularized by the physician, amateur historian and politician Dr Ian Adamson[15], merging Ulster and Lallans - the Scots for Lowlands[16]- but also an acronym for "Ulster-Scots language in literature and native speech".[17] Occasionally the term Hiberno-Scots is used[18], although it is usually used for the Ethnic group[19] rather than the vernacular History Main article: History of the Scots language The original settlers of Dalriada in County Antrim are believed to have been called the Scotti, a term signifying coastal raiding or plundering, by the Romans. The story of St. Patrick's capture by raiders who brought him to the coast of County Antrim highlight this. The Scots of Dalriada would settle on the west coast of Caledonia from at least the 6th century, but probably earlier, and would merge with other peoples, particularly the Picts. In time they would give their name - Scots - to the land in which they settled - Scotland. Scots, mainly Gaelic-speaking, had been settling in Ulster since the 15th century, but large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, arrived during the 17th century following the 1610 Plantation, with the peak reached during the 1690s.[20] In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one.[21] Literature from shortly before the end of the unselfconscious tradition at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is almost identical with contemporary writing from Scotland.[22] W G Lyttle, writing in Paddy McQuillan's Trip Tae Glesco, uses the typically Scots forms kent and begood, now replaced in Ulster by the more mainstream Anglic forms knew, knowed or knawed and begun. Many of the modest contemporary differences between Scots as spoken in Scotland and Ulster may be due to dialect levelling and influence from Mid Ulster English brought about through relatively recent demographic change rather than direct contact with Irish, retention of older features or separate development. Scots in Ulster has been influenced by contact with Mid Ulster English, Hiberno-English and Irish; the relationship has been two- way, with for example craic being a late 20th century gaelicisation. Mid Ulster English, the dialect of most people in Ulster, including those in the two main cities of Belfast and Derry, represents a cross- over area between Ulster Scots and Hiberno-English; it is currently encroaching on the Ulster Scots area, especially in the Belfast commuter belt, and may eventually consume it.