The Scottish Dialect

[THOaken]

I've just been researching a little about different Scottish dialects. I've always had trouble with my own. It's very strange. I often lapse into two different ways of speaking... I either speak with properly formed words or I use a more working class typical Scottish dialect, but I think it's even more extreme than most peoples.

I'd like to know the origins or if there is even a name for this dialect. I'm wondering if any Scots could help.

I lived on the East Coast in East Lothian all my life, but I find it very strange that I don't have a strong Scottish accent. However, I speak in a dialect a bit like this:

Ah dinnae ken what yer on about - I don't know what you're talking about
amno kiddin -I'm not kidding
ah didnae - I didn't
Am goin t' the shops - t' being shortened to 'to'
couldne - couldn't
wouldnae -wouldn't
Am fi Scotland -I'm from Scotland

There are more examples, but I can't think of them all right now.

I seem to lapse in and out of this. I've noticed that over the years I just say "I don't know" and sometimes "ah dinnae ken", whereas most people are just one or the other. In my home town, we mostly spoke the latter, but it was very working class. Is it some sort of East Coast thing? One thing I know for certain is that I've never written or typed like I speak... That'd just be horrid.

Curious, indeed. I'm hoping to hear from you Scots.

Thanks.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Ive family in Port Seton and find their accent quite soft and easy to understand. The only thing that ever stumped me was 'syboes'. ~What an odd name for a spring onion

 

[Clouston98]

I'm not a scot, but I use north east dialect like na for no, or Aye for yes and many other things. I find I use it 90% of the time, but if I'm doing a speech or something I automatically stop, sounds a bit like you?

Hope this helps .

 

[THOaken]

I'm not a scot, but I use north east dialect like na for no, or Aye for yes and many other things. I find I use it 90% of the time, but if I'm doing a speech or something I automatically stop, sounds a bit like you?

Hope this helps .

I wonder why that is... Strange thing that an Englander uses "aye", but I think "na" is just universal now. Americans use "nah". I don't suppose you've said anything else on my list?

 

[Clouston98]

I'd use "dinnar" which is close to "dinnae" and lots of other terms for things, and from living not a long way from Newcastle "wye aye" gets used along with other things that I can't put my finger on .

 

[Macaroon]

What you describe - the switching in and out of dialects and accents - is a linguistic phenomena known as "register", and almost everyone does it much more than you'd think; therefore we don't notice it when we hear it in ourselves or others. But you certainly notice it when it's not used or used incorrectly, i.e. you don't speak to a younger sibling in the same way as to your boss; or your mum as you would your girlfriend.

It's a very interesting topic, but I'm far from expert and would lead you astray if I wrote any more, but it's certainly worth a little research; it can be a real eye-opener!

 

[Toddy]

I find I slip into Scots, even on the internet

Mostly it's my vocabulary that's different, but the grammar structure often is too.

Oi! syboes aren't spring onions, they're syboes
A lot of our cooking terms are more continental than English; many of the words are French derivatives. Syboes is a case in point. Navets are another.

I am apparantly 'polite Lanarkshire' in my speech and it's not slang, it's Scots. Sometimes it gets called Lallans or Doric (north east and south west those ones though) but it's just a different language with roots not only from English.

Received pronunciation has mostly gone the way of the dodo, but clear English is still the simplest way to communicate with anyone in the English speaking world.....from Canada to Australia, from India to London.
That's not the English that most of the English speak right enough; they all have their own accents and regional dialects too.

One wee island archipeligo yet the native languages are English, Scots, Welsh, Ullans, Gaelic, both Scottish and Irish, Cornish and Manx. Add in all the dialects and it's a wonder that we manage to communicate at all

Most of us have fluency in a couple of dialects if not languages; it's normal

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Monikieman]

Since moving out of the 'town' and into the 'country' I find myself speaking more Scots!

The lanuage is so rich and changes so quickly from town to town.

Some folk south of Dundee dinnae ken what a cundee is or even tattie dreels!

(Care should be exercised when looking up 'Cundeez' on You Tube.)

 

[Toddy]

Ye mean a siever or a stank ?

M

 

[Monikieman]

Well what would the cundee sooker be called?

From the French 'conduit' apparently. (You'll know that of course)

 

[Toddy]

THOaken....have a wee read here

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/scotlit/asls/Scots_Practical_Approaches.html

cheers,
M

 

[Shewie]

I've got quite a broad Yorkshire accent, although hearing myself on video I sound more like Liam Gallagher, definitely more Manc than Leeds anyway. I was born in Worcester but moved to Yorkshire when I was 5 or 6, I guess I've got a bit of a mix in me. The wife will sometimes pick up on some words I say when I'm talking to my relatives, most of which have stayed south.

My mum has a posh telephone voice, most of the time she's quite neutral.

I love the Scottish accent, I've learned to listen to a lot of it over recent years, it's the Glaswegians after a few bevvies that I struggle the most with. I've noticed the accent becomes stronger the further west folk come from, especially across the central belt, get up higher into the NW corner and I detect a bit of Irish in there too sometimes.

This lump of rock we live on has a staggering amount of accents when you consider how small it is.

 

[woodstock]

I was born in Lanark and lived in Auchengrey the Scottish we used or remember hearing as a child before the outsiders appeared.

Dicht= to wipe

Nicht = night

Licht = light

Quine = child

Gant =gone

Didicoy = mixed blood not Roma.

this may not be local Scottish as my family are Roma and may have used these words within the family but i did hear them spoken at the fairs as a child.

 

[21st century pict]

Some great Doric words there,probably some Cant words inair te
One of my favorite my granny used to say to me wiz,
Stik it unner yer oxter = put it under your arm.

 

[woodstock]

Ye mean a siever or a stank ?

M

Is that a drain cover that we played marbles on, remember Kirby another street game.

 

[BlueTrain]

I think languages and accents are fascinating. The fact that they persist is probably even more amazing and of course, because languages are living things, they change. They influence one another when there is contact.

I was in the U.K. two years ago and sometimes had trouble understanding people, at least in England. The problem seemed to have vanished by the time we made it to The North. But as I sometimes point out, I'm not a native English speaker. I'm an American. My normal accent is called either Southern Highland or Southern Applachian, though I've moved away from the area and lost my hillbilly twang, mostly. But my wife tells me I pick it up again when I speak to someone on the telephone. After all, we don't wish to sound superior to anyone. I think one's speech (more so than the accent) varies with the audience and the occasion, even if everyone in the room speaks exactly the same as one's self. But I suppose that's more of a reflection of formality and informality in speech more than anything else. Even in American there's a surprising variety of regional accents and speech patterns.

Very little of that comes through in writing, however, unless you are trying to convey a dialect in speech, which I think used to be more common in fiction than it is now. But when you see written words with translations in other languages, the similiarity really show up, at least when they're using Latin letters. Over here, in addition to English, labels usually appear in French. Signs in stores sometimes also appear in Spanish but almost never in French. Some labels have English, French and Spanish and a few imported products, if you happen to consume German, Swiss or German products, naturally have German text as well (and sometimes English, too). But something that mystifies me is why German pop and folk music would have an English title, And why is a Slovenian accordian player recording American pop tunes from the 1950s?

Mox nix.

 

[Toddy]

Is that a drain cover that we played marbles on, remember Kirby another street game.

Aye and you're het

Not Roma or didicoy, but I know that word with the same meaning....and, "Gie y're face a wee dicht with thon damp cloot!", makes perfect sense to any manky wean.

The children were playing kirby in the street just the other week and got flyted at for stottin' the ba' too close to the cars.

I like accents, the Welsh ones are beautiful and Ullans leaves me feeling totally glaikit, I just cannot make it out at all even though it's roots are apparantly here.
My cousin lives in Hampshire and it's so weird to hear that voice coming from someone who looks so like my brothers
Norfolks and Devon, Newcastle and Birmingham.....it's quite fascinating all the different voices

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Paul_B]

I wonder why that is... Strange thing that an Englander uses "aye", but I think "na" is just universal now. Americans use "nah". I don't suppose you've said anything else on my list?

IIRC aye is also a northern England phrase stretching from Lancashire through Yorkshire and up to the border. Never heard the phrase "aye up lad!" Other uses too. Northern English dialects are often as interesting as Scots dialects. Some of it comes from early Brythonic languages. Got a mate whos one generation away from "yan, tan, tethera..." counting systems thats still used by older generation hill farmers in parts of western Cumbria and versions across to Northumbria i believe. Off topic.

 

[Harvestman]

Ive family in Port Seton and find their accent quite soft and easy to understand. The only thing that ever stumped me was 'syboes'. ~What an odd name for a spring onion

In South Wales spring onions are called gibbons, and pronounced either as gibbons (like the ape) or as jibbons. I presume it is a derivative of the equivalent word in Welsh, but it always sounded weird to me, and I'm a native.

 

[Harvestman]

"Aye" is used in South Wales too.