Scottish Accents/ Dialects

[yoda]

Just about every person from the Highlands gets asked if they're Irish by the people of Glasgow-shire.  I've (fortunately) not got a proper "rightenuff" Invernessian accent, but (unfortunately) was recently told I sounded like I was from Caithness.

[Fratelli]

45 minutes ago, yoda said:

Just about every person from the Highlands gets asked if they're Irish by the people of Glasgow-shire.  I've (fortunately) not got a proper "rightenuff" Invernessian accent, but (unfortunately) was recently told I sounded like I was from Caithness.

Worked with a lad from around the John o' Groats area and he had a proper Irish twang which puzzled him despite being abundantly clear to everyone else. 

[Hedgecutter]

Having worked in Scottish tourism before and having to deal with Weegies first-hand, it's safe to say that they're generally strangers in their own land.  You can't help but develop a form of disdain when dealing with it daily.

As I once overheard a new colleague say:  "I don't think [Hedgecutter] likes the Glaswegians very much, and I'm starting to see why..."

[invergowrie arab]

 

2 hours ago, Aim Here said:

I suspect that the hints you're looking at aren't a straight import from Dutch and the Hanseatic League, but something that came to Shetland via Norse/Norn, and where there's a common Germanic language ancestor between the Dutch, Norse and Shetland languages/dialects (and where the feature died in most English/Scots dialects).

One case like that is the distinction between formal and informal you (i.e. du/dee/dy versus you/you/your). It's something you get in Norwegian and Scandinavian Languages and Dutch and even in French (tu versus vous) but somehow it failed to leak into modern English, so that it's now only ever used to give the impression of archaic speech (with 'thou').

The Scots that was brought in the 15th century from Lothian and Fife so would be much closer to other Germanic languages than modern Scots so as you say it's probably not as simple as one or two reasons but all of these reasons.

I was amused to see the biometric scammers at Schipol say Kiek Hier. 

Gaelic speakers would tell you the huge Norse influence on Lewis Gaelic which shares lots of features with Shetlandic Scots such as pre aspiration which you still get in modern Norwegian.

Formal/informal first person pronouns haven't survived into modern standard English but thou thee would be common in northern English dialects until pretty recently

Edited January 28, 2020 by invergowrie arab

[TheScarf]

Yep it's just something you get used to being from Inverness and getting asked what part of Ireland you're from. 

I can't hear it myself. 

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

6 hours ago, The Holiday Song said:

I'm from Shetland and now live in the Netherlands and yeah, there's definitely some hints of Dutch in Shetland dialect.

You'll know Marjolein Robertson then?

[Dunfermline Don]

Just saw this on FB, it fits in with the ‘ken’ discussion. It just happened to mention Hibs but could be any east coast team!

[Hillonearth]

One thing that's weird is when you unconsciously code-switch. I think most people do it to some extent...if you're at a job interview you'll use a different lexicon and accent than you would in the pub with your mates and so on.

I do it anytime I spend any length of time in Edinburgh - I develop an Edinburgh accent...not a full-on Trainspotting job, but different enough from my normal one to be noticeable. Back in the day I spent a lot of time the other end of the M8 between playing in a band from there, eventually ending up going out for several years with a girl from there and between the two I probably spent two weekends out of every three there for a long time.

I genuinely had no idea I did it until I was at a works night out over there and a mate of mine asked me why I was talking different.

[Hedgecutter]

1 hour ago, Hillonearth said:

if you're at a job interview you'll use a different lexicon and accent than you would in the pub with your mates and so on.

I would imagine you're right there.  For example:

Interviewer:  "What would you say is your greatest professional achievement to date?"

Candidate:  "f*ck me, let me think a minute..."

 

Edited January 28, 2020 by Hedgecutter

[Monkey Tennis]

23 hours ago, Angusfifer said:

The Stranraer accent is a cracker. I'm sure they pronounce every "l" as an "r", and every "r" as an "l"

Can't say I noticed that during the five years I lived there.   That sounds more like a vaguely racist depiction of a Chinese accent.

Stranraer people do actually do strange things with the letter 'l' though.  They roll it out for a while, with the tongue much further back in the roof of the mouth than seems normal.  It's the defining characteristic of the accent.

[Hedgecutter]

35 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Stranraer people do actually do strange things with the letter 'l' though.  They roll it out for a while, with the tongue much further back in the roof of the mouth than seems normal.  It's the defining characteristic of the accent.

57 second mark on the video below.  "Develluped"

Angusfifer does indeed appear to be havering sh*te on this one.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Hedgecutter

[invergowrie arab]

A type of Gaelic heavily influeneced by Norse would have been spoken in Galloway (Gall-Ghàidhealaibh place of the foreign (ie Vikings) Gaels) up until about late 1700s/ early 1800s which would have at one time been very close to Hebridean (Na h-Innse Gall- Islands of the foreign Gaels) Gaelic.

Would also have been close to Manx too.

You can still hear the influence in the broad l and slender r sounds and Galloway Scots has lots of common features with Lewis and Shetland English/Scots.

Its sometimes referred to as Galloway Irish which is incorrectly attributed to some Irish influence on Galloway due to proximity but is just the old Scots thing of calling any kind of Gaelic Irish or Erse. 

 

[Rugster]

16 hours ago, The Moonster said:

I've always said "Jai" too. Works better in the alphabet song as it rhymes with "i". A "jay" is something you smoke.

Do you also say Zee instead of Zed because it rhymes better?

Even though it rhymes, it's still wrong. 

[The Moonster]

1 hour ago, Rugster said:

Do you also say Zee instead of Zed because it rhymes better?

Even though it rhymes, it's still wrong. 

Nah I say Zed because Zee is American nonsense. I guess folk in my area just used Jai more often, so when I hear Jay it doesn't sound right.

[Mark Connolly]

4 hours ago, Rugster said:

Do you also say Zee instead of Zed because it rhymes better?

Even though it rhymes, it's still wrong. 

I love that wee run of letters - Aye, Jai, Kai.

[sick boy]

Being from Stirling I often get asked, when in Glasgow or at Celtic matches if im from Edinburgh, while not out and out Begbie fae Trainspotting likes our accent is certainly more East than West coast with a sprinkling of 'likes' and 'ken' in sentences  something I'm prone to doing on occasion. 
Living in Alloa as I have done for coming up five years now, just six miles along the road from Stirling I have noticed people here have more than a hint of the Fife drawl about their accent, starting sentences quite high and slowly dropping in tone before ending them sounding like they are asking a question, something my brother does a lot having lived in the Rosyth/Dunfermline area for about 25 years now.

stirling accent is sort of diet-falkirk

[HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows]

On 28/01/2020 at 18:09, TheScarf said:

Yep it's just something you get used to being from Inverness and getting asked what part of Ireland you're from. 

I can't hear it myself. 

Ders more to Oinverniss dan dis.

[bennett]

On 27/01/2020 at 16:33, effeffsee_the2nd said:

 

Does anywhere in Scotland pronounce them seven? Its either sivin or seeven

 

I tend to use both of them,  saying seven would just be weird.

 

Sivin is probably me being polite tbf.

 

[Clough85]

Buckie 

went to college with a few lads from Buckie and it took them about a year to tone down the accent so anybody could decipher it.    Elgin/Inverness areas are a lot easier to understand as is the eberdeen but Buckie is on a level of its own. 
 

and of course 7 is seevin. 

[Theroadlesstravelled]

Regional accents are a form of class warfare in the UK. Speak in a Scottish accent in places in England and they'll immediately think you're a thick Jock bumpkin looking for a hand out at the job centre. 
 

The tiering is as follows-

Tier 1 is English public school
Tier 2 is southeast England / Greater London
Tier 3 is east anglia
Tier 4 is south west England
Tier 5 is east midlands
Tier 6 is generic English accent.

Tier 1000 is Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland