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Scottish Accents/ Dialects


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Just now, DiegoDiego said:

It's largely my own thesis, having grown up in Scotland, learnt Danish and taught Oxford English. So potential bollocks is being spoken.

A wee tinker with the excellent Google ngram viewer shows than in British English, the -t ending was often more common but during the 20th century the -ed forms became dominant. Although the opposite is true with lit/lighted.

I definitely favour the -t endings, even in formal writing where I know it's technically incorrect, such as my stubborn use of "earnt".

What about in adjectives? Crabbit, glaikit etc 

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1 minute ago, Arabdownunder said:
28 minutes ago, hk blues said:
My folks used the expression "ben the hoose" and it meant in another room in the house i.e. if we were in the kitchen my mother would say "Your father's ben the hoose" meaning in the living room.

The Broons holiday house, the but'n'ben, was a two room cottage. The but was the front room, the ben was the back room

But and ben - Wikipedia

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9 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

It's largely my own thesis, having grown up in Scotland, learnt Danish and taught Oxford English. So potential bollocks is being spoken.

A wee tinker with the excellent Google ngram viewer shows than in British English, the -t ending was often more common but during the 20th century the -ed forms became dominant. Although the opposite is true with lit/lighted.

I definitely favour the -t endings, even in formal writing where I know it's technically incorrect, such as my stubborn use of "earnt".

I would mostly use the "t" ending myself, but that just doesn't look right.

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What about in adjectives? Crabbit, glaikit etc 
Excellent question! I'll need to give that some thought/research. In Danish regular adjectives have three endings dependent on gender and number, one of which is -t. Probably need a Scots etymological dictionary to get to the bottom of it though.
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Living and working in the southwest of the UK, i find most difficulty with words that southerners use but not necessarily in the same way.

Due to being fairly itinerant as a child i have regionally non-specific East coast Scots, so i wouldn't use the most localised idiosyncratic words anyway. 

For example, casually discussing living arrangements. i wouldn't say "bide" to a guffy. I have caused confusion with "so you stay with your parents?" to which the incorrect resonses received are "erm, no, i live with them" or "sometimes, if i'm visiting". 

I'll keep trying to educate these thick c***s, don't worry. 

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4 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:
13 minutes ago, invergowrie arab said:
What about in adjectives? Crabbit, glaikit etc 

Excellent question! I'll need to give that some thought/research. In Danish regular adjectives have three endings dependent on gender and number, one of which is -t. Probably need a Scots etymological dictionary to get to the bottom of it though.

My own hot take is that the direct effect of Norse/Danish on Scots is overstated,  but its the effect of the Danelaw and assimilated English Danes on Northumbrian English - which eventually provides the basis for Scots which is important.

You will also have common proto-Germanic roots for all form of Anglic and Scandinavian languages.

Evidence of Norse/Dane syntax and grammar influence, as opposed to loan words, appears to be pretty rare as they tended to assimilate quite quickly wherever they went but I think you are onto something 

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2 minutes ago, coprolite said:

Living and working in the southwest of the UK, i find most difficulty with words that southerners use but not necessarily in the same way.

Due to being fairly itinerant as a child i have regionally non-specific East coast Scots, so i wouldn't use the most localised idiosyncratic words anyway. 

For example, casually discussing living arrangements. i wouldn't say "bide" to a guffy. I have caused confusion with "so you stay with your parents?" to which the incorrect resonses received are "erm, no, i live with them" or "sometimes, if i'm visiting". 

I'll keep trying to educate these thick c***s, don't worry. 

I would say that's a Celtic thing. In Gaelic live and stay are the same word = fuirich.

You would use fuirich to describe where you live but you would also use it as a command to a dog 

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2 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said:

Norwegian Question words start "Hv..." so it  may be  from Norse

Similarly the  norwegian "Barn" exists as "Bairn" on the North Sea side of Scotland and down to Tyneside but loses out to "Wean" as you  move closer to Belfast

 

 The Norwegian word for vacuum cleaner is stovsuger and is pronounced stoor sooker!

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I think it's fair to say my accent is regionally non-specific Scottish. There are definitely influences from Fife, Aberdeen and Glasgow having grown up at different points in those parts, but none dominate and being #HopelesslyMiddleClass by Scottish standards moderates it somewhat. I'm also very conscious of being a shameless code switcher.

Being in London makes me far more self-conscious about it.

Edited by Ad Lib
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30 minutes ago, ICTJohnboy said:

 

 The Norwegian word for vacuum cleaner is stovsuger and is pronounced stoor sooker!

 

16 minutes ago, paranoid android said:

I've heard this before, but there's never a bad time to re-hear it.

Beautiful. 

Norwegian for hospital is Sykehus.

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Evidence of Norse/Dane syntax and grammar influence, as opposed to loan words, appears to be pretty rare

And thank f**k for that. The Danish always try to find the most convoluted way to phrase something. On Danish language Facebook instead of "like" it says "think good about this".
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Guest TheJTS98
1 hour ago, invergowrie arab said:

Have you got anywhere I could read about that? Not disagreeing but would be interested to find out more.

What kind of thing are you interested in? There's loads of good linguistics stuff out there.

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1 hour ago, coprolite said:

For example, casually discussing living arrangements. i wouldn't say "bide" to a guffy. I have caused confusion with "so you stay with your parents?" to which the incorrect resonses received are "erm, no, i live with them" or "sometimes, if i'm visiting". 

Yeah that is one I often say that gets a bemused look back. Some seem to take real offence to it for some reason. The other a few in the office always comment on is "what age is he/she?" opposed to saying "how old are they?" 

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