The second worst accent in Scotland?

[MONKMAN]

Yeah man those 10 miles between Carlisle and the Scottish bother certainly have more of an effect than the 90 miles between Carlisle and Berwick, that Anglo- Scots border is doing a brilliant job stopping the mingling of Anglo Scots language. Who would have known all it takes is an arbitary land border to dilute hundreds of years living in close proximity.

Carlisle and Gretna are 10 miles apart, yet sound nothing like each other. One sounds Scottish, the other distinctly Cumbrian and very English.

[renton]

2 minutes ago, virginton said:

Except that Cumbria was also part of the same Celtic/Brittonic linguistic culture so your thesis about a long-standing Celtic/'Anglican (sic)' linguistic divide on the border doesn't make any sense. 

That's really not a working definition of how accents work - not least because it does nothing to explain the huge and continued variety of accents within long-standing, integrated political units. When people in such an established centre of inward migration such as the Central Belt use distinctly different words and pronunciation within 25 miles of each other - in the 21st Century - then the source of these accents clearly has nothing at all to do with the habits of 'isolated tribal groups' from a long-forgotten past.  

Not disputing the existence of regional accents or indeed the socio-economic impact on accents either.  Clearly though there is a distinction that is drawn between - for example - Scottish and English accents. A global definition that contains the regional accents therein. The point being that accents (and language in general) tend to form out of people talking to people,  and therefore the idea that people from Dumfries should sound English due to proximity to England is a nonsense if historical and cultural trends meant that Dumfries and it's surrounding area belonged to Scotland and was therefore nested within it's traditions.

[Jacksgranda]

19 hours ago, Crroma said:

I'm not criticizing accents from Dumfries or English accents in general, I think the Northumbrian dialect is a joy to hear, from what limited exposure I've had to Doonhammer accents it sounds well spoken and clean in comparison to most Scottish accents.

I'm not a scientist and as you say since I've never really walked round Dumfries and talked to the citizens I'm not making an absolute factual statement but I love the breadth of accents we have in Scotland and the wider UK in general and especially that divide on the border.

Constantly striking, are they?

[vikingTON]

24 minutes ago, renton said:

Not disputing the existence of regional accents or indeed the socio-economic impact on accents either.  Clearly though there is a distinction that is drawn between - for example - Scottish and English accents. A global definition that contains the regional accents therein.

That distinction only applies to those who have both spent a lot of time in the UK and are aware of the existing and historical political boundaries. Genuine outsiders in fact struggle to put various Geordie or Border accents within 200 miles of their source on a map, never mind neatly categorise them and the rest of their kind into Scottish and English brackets. So this 'global definition' claim is in fact utter pish.

Quote

The point being that accents (and language in general) tend to form out of people talking to people,  and therefore the idea that people from Dumfries should sound English due to proximity to England is a nonsense if historical and cultural trends meant that Dumfries and it's surrounding area belonged to Scotland and was therefore nested within it's traditions.

Except that social and linguistic studies of border communities between pretty much any two states in human history - never mind ones as loosely governed as the medieval and early modern kingdoms of the British Isles - have shown that they generally experience far more interaction with the local people living across an imaginary frontier line than they do with the metropole, never mind embracing these claimed 'national' traditions that didn't actually manifest themselves at a local level until well into the nineteenth century. 

The Borders was historically speaking a highly contested region of fluid political loyalties, so the idea that some sort of decisive linguistic apartheid prevailed there for hundreds of years is a straightforward case of reading history backwards. 

Edited March 5, 2019 by vikingTON

[alta-pete]

Having to do a paper on Coatbridge for work today so the first port of call was, as always, Wikipedia where the town’s entry included this gem:

Coatbridge accent
The Coatbridge accent has been categorised as making less use of the Scots tongue and exhibiting a tendency to stress the 'a' vowel differently from general Scots usage. Examples of this are seen the pronunciation of the words stair (sterr), hair (herr), fair (ferr) and chair (cherr). This different enunciation has been attributed to the impact of successive influxes of Ulster Catholic immigrants into Coatbridge.[55][56] However, the distinctiveness of the Coatbridge accent and pronunciation has diminished as the various surrounding populations (especially Glasgow) have mingled with that of Coatbridge.

And, yes, I’m looking at you, Des Clarke! [emoji1]

[Crroma]

Perthshire has a shite accent by the by. Its too large and sparsly populated to have a real identity.

I have heard people say its the sexiest accent in Scotland but then I've never been hit on by a lassie from Airdrie so what do i know

[Torpar]

The Annan accent has to be a contender for second worst in Scotland

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 hour ago, alta-pete said:

Having to do a paper on Coatbridge for work today so the first port of call was, as always, Wikipedia where the town’s entry included this gem:

Coatbridge accent
The Coatbridge accent has been categorised as making less use of the Scots tongue and exhibiting a tendency to stress the 'a' vowel differently from general Scots usage. Examples of this are seen the pronunciation of the words stair (sterr), hair (herr), fair (ferr) and chair (cherr). This different enunciation has been attributed to the impact of successive influxes of Ulster Catholic immigrants into Coatbridge.[55][56] However, the distinctiveness of the Coatbridge accent and pronunciation has diminished as the various surrounding populations (especially Glasgow) have mingled with that of Coatbridge.

And, yes, I’m looking at you, Des Clarke!

Is that where that comes from? By f**k that’s annoying.

[The Moonster]

A German customer told me my accent was beautiful today.

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, The Moonster said:

A German customer told me my accent was beautiful today.

"Vee hef vays ov making you buy."

Edited March 5, 2019 by welshbairn

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Just now, welshbairn said:

"Vee hef vays ov making you buy."

He’s probably that burd at the Lidl checkout with the beard.

you know the one.

[The Moonster]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

"Vee hef vays ov making you buy."

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Berwick is weird

They switch from Duns to Alnwick mid sentence.

[johnnydun]

On 05/03/2019 at 15:12, alta-pete said:

Having to do a paper on Coatbridge for work today so the first port of call was, as always, Wikipedia where the town’s entry included this gem:

Coatbridge accent
The Coatbridge accent has been categorised as making less use of the Scots tongue and exhibiting a tendency to stress the 'a' vowel differently from general Scots usage. Examples of this are seen the pronunciation of the words stair (sterr), hair (herr), fair (ferr) and chair (cherr). This different enunciation has been attributed to the impact of successive influxes of Ulster Catholic immigrants into Coatbridge.[55][56] However, the distinctiveness of the Coatbridge accent and pronunciation has diminished as the various surrounding populations (especially Glasgow) have mingled with that of Coatbridge.

And, yes, I’m looking at you, Des Clarke!

Des Clerrke

[Siosal]

On 04/03/2019 at 18:48, MONKMAN said:

It a ridiculous statement to make, compounded by the fact you’ve never been there.  Berwick’s proximity to Edinburgh means absolute nothing, when you consider it’s further north than East Kilbride. A fact I may add, which is about as relevant as yours. 

So in reality you’ve looked at a map and decided due to its geographical position latitudinally, that the Dumfries accent sounds English. 

2/10 for effort. 

You're spot on. I think he's thinking about the Cumbrian accent. I'm from the Borders to the east of D&G and am in D&G often. I can assure him that both areas have as Scottish an accent as anyone else.

[BillyAnchor]

Nothing beats sipping a Chardonnay in the local after Thistle draw, lose or draw and talking in one's Kelvinside vernacular. 

[Monkey Tennis]

On 05/03/2019 at 14:23, virginton said:

The Borders' bumpkins of Dumfries sound absolutely nothing like people from west central Scotland. 

Well of course not.  We're not animals.

 

We don't sound remotely English either, despite the laughably ignorant claims of that that other walloper.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Why do borders teuchters have that mad pronunciation of  “ow” in words? Like Kevin Gallacher does?

Is it their “bonk” machine?

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Yer da Frank Gilfeather was on Radio Scotland this morning whingeing about Alex Scott not pronunciating words properly.

It's almost as if these crusty old dinosaurs can't handle a successful young black woman getting all the best sports presenting gigs on telly.

[Hedgecutter]

3 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Well of course not.  We're not animals.

We don't sound remotely English either, despite the laughably ignorant claims of that that other walloper.

Don't know why folk would presume they're west when they don't sound remotely WC and are longitudinally the same as West Fife.

For whatever reason, I can detect Dumfriesshire accents in a women's accent, but never the men's.