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Scottish Accents/ Dialects


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I've always been intrigued by the diversity of the spoken language in this country. Despite their close proximity, Dundee, Angus and Fife accents bear no resemblance to each other, and the first time I went to Aberdeen I honestly did not have a clue what was being said.

I struggle to differentiate between Lanarkshire, Glasgow  Renfrewshire and Ayrshire however. Is there a big difference in their respective accents and dialects?

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30 minutes ago, Angusfifer said:

I've always been intrigued by the diversity of the spoken language in this country. Despite their close proximity, Dundee, Angus and Fife accents bear no resemblance to each other, and the first time I went to Aberdeen I honestly did not have a clue what was being said.

I struggle to differentiate between Lanarkshire, Glasgow  Renfrewshire and Ayrshire however. Is there a big difference in their respective accents and dialects?

I find that folk from Ayrshire have a super exaggerated inflection at the end of every sentence, far worse than any other of the other Weegie variations. 

You know what I mean?

Def. In. Et. Lay. 

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3 hours ago, Angusfifer said:

I've always been intrigued by the diversity of the spoken language in this country. Despite their close proximity, Dundee, Angus and Fife accents bear no resemblance to each other, and the first time I went to Aberdeen I honestly did not have a clue what was being said.

I struggle to differentiate between Lanarkshire, Glasgow  Renfrewshire and Ayrshire however. Is there a big difference in their respective accents and dialects?

Lanarkshire, Glasgow and Renfrewshire I can understand struggling to figure out a difference as there probably isn't much of one, but Ayrshire? Mad b*****ds. It's like they intentionally try and change the pronunciation of every word just to be awkward. "Feeneshed" for fucks sake.

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Despite there being loads of Scottish presenters, I think Storm Huntley might have the only Weegie accent heard outside of Scotland these days, and even then it's limited to a tiny part of Channel 5 daytime TV. 

Otherwise, only East of Scotland type accents are tolerated outside of Pacific Quay. Speaks volumes. 

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People from the east of Scotland speak like children, often at a pitch discernible only to dogs. And that frightful inflection.

Still makes me wince every time I'm at Tynecastle and hear someone describe a pass or tackle etc as 'shokahn'. Speak properly, please.

People from west central Scotland do not have accents. We just pronounce words properly.

 

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7 minutes ago, JTS98 said:

People from west central Scotland do not have accents. We just pronounce words properly.

 

Everyone has an accent, and the West Central is one of the most easily identifiable. 

They'd also almost certainly reply to you by saying "definitely" despite their strange inability to pronounce this simple word. 

Therefore, I call shenanigans. 

Edited by Hedgecutter
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1 minute ago, Hedgecutter said:

They'd almost certainly reply to you by saying "definitely" despite their strange inability to pronounce this simple word. 

Therefore, I call shenanigans. 

Is that not more of an Irish hangover? Sure I read that somewhere once. Scottish people of Irish heritage pronounce certain words differently. Stands to reason when one thinks of what an accent is.

I pronounce definitely properly, with the stress on the first syllable.

I ask you, would you rather speak like Hugh Mcllvanney or The Proclaimers?

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1 minute ago, JTS98 said:

Is that not more of an Irish hangover? Sure I read that somewhere once. Scottish people of Irish heritage pronounce certain words differently. Stands to reason when one thinks of what an accent is.

I pronounce definitely properly, with the stress on the first syllable.

I ask you, would you rather speak like Hugh Mcllvanney or The Proclaimers?

A large chunk of my family are Weegies based in Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.  All have either NE Scotland or Gloucester heritage yet all now pronounce it as if it is spelled 'definetly'.  Grinds my gears. 

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3 hours ago, Angusfifer said:

I've always been intrigued by the diversity of the spoken language in this country. Despite their close proximity, Dundee, Angus and Fife accents bear no resemblance to each other, and the first time I went to Aberdeen I honestly did not have a clue what was being said.

I struggle to differentiate between Lanarkshire, Glasgow  Renfrewshire and Ayrshire however. Is there a big difference in their respective accents and dialects?

I suspect there isn't an objectively measurable 'big difference' between such accents, so much as your ears aren't tuned to west coast accents, the way they are to those from the east.

It's probably just a function of how much exposure you get to folk from those areas, or perhaps how much exposure you had when your brain was forming it's language capacity. An American or someone from Kent might well have trouble distinguishing between someone from Ireland and Scotland (and I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between an Australian and a New Zealander), whereas someone from Shetland can hear the difference between someone brought up on various islands. To prove it, here's a Shetlander singing about how indecipherable he finds the Whalsay accent.

 

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In WW1 the Germans got British PoWs to record themselves speaking to try and capture different accents which you can find here https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Berliner-Lautarchiv-British-and-Commonwealth-recordings/021M-C1315X0001XX-0440V0 and search by county

Ayrshire and Glagow are pretty fascinating in that they could be from Angus or Fife. Seems to be much less variation between all central belt accents then than there is now.

Presumably Irish influence on Glasgow and surrounds and Dundee accounting for the much more distinct accents now.

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