the different scottish accents

the ones i can identify are glasgow, east of scotland posh and teuchter but only if they are particularly pronounced because given a random scottish person mostly i couldn't tell where they are from (or is that just a generic scottish lowlands accent?)

maybe some scottish people could post some youtubes or whatever

and this is where pfunkboy tells us how paisley and ayr and renfrew are all completely different.....

do u think there's a wider diversity of accents in smaller geographic region in uk compared to us?

Has going 'through' from Glasgow to Edinburgh ever been discussed on here? I'd like to bring that up, just now.

i know 2 ppl from scotland. one is a medical student friend i met in thailand, the other is a professor of mine this year. their accents seem similar to me. hope this helps

do they sound like sean connery?

i'm not sure, the only scottish person i can compare them to is andy murray and i think murray's accent is a little milder than theirs

do u think there's a wider diversity of accents in smaller geographic region in uk compared to us?

― Mordy , Saturday, October 5, 2013 3:02 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

p certain this is the case yeah - never read up on it and I have no social anthropology chops to speak of but I assume it stems from people/communities being more localised historically, not having to travel as far as one would in the US, and developing their own accents/other peculiarities within that

plus as the US moved westward there's not so much time for long-established isolated communities - continuous waves of multi-accented immigration is less likely to create settled regionalities? what there are seem to have coalesced around the bigger cities but feel looser than in the UK

andy murray is a good example of a generic scottish accent, although his age and class and amount of time spent abroad would attenuate any pronounced regional aspects

i would like it if someone says he has a pure dunblane accent though

stripped to its purest form i think andy murray's accent could be classified as upper-middle class central scotland.

aberdonian accent is quite distinct, both in posh and not-posh forms. dundee not-posh accent is notable for being particularly incomprehensible. paisley and ayr and renfrew are all completely different.

I'd say there are 4 distinct Fife accents (Dunfermline and west, Coastal Route, East of Leven and Mid- Fife). If you follow the East coast round and up, through Dundee and Aberdeen, continuing all the way round the flat to Inverness then the accent audibly changes about every 10 miles (for example, somebody from Elgin sounds completely different to someone from Huntly.

If you're into small geographical areas having distinct accents, Stranraer has a gorgeous one. It's the very soft, lilting quality you find in Uist or somewhere, completely different from anything I've heard outside the Highlands. First time I went there I couldn't understand why I kept meeting folk from the Hebrides.

The term teuchter is defined so variously that it's not possible to even guess what "teuchter accent" might be.

But the Inverness accent is particularly horrible. Nicest accent in Scotland is Westernn Isles (though residents of WI will doubtless split hairs over e.g. N Uist v S Uist).

there is a fractal perspective with accents so that whatever the level of familiarity there are always three or four, scottish/theatrical upper class english/theatrical estuarine for those outside the british isles, eventually north elgin/east elgin/etc

Edinburgh is my default answer to the 'favourite accent' question, thanks largely to memories of my sixth form history teacher

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLxLmFhROqY

Ok re fractal perspective but what do you mean by teuchter, nilmar?

I can barely understand a word of that video.

dont go to Aberdeen then. No bugger can understand what they say up there.

I in fact know someone from Aberdeen and I can understand her just fine!

Having mastered basic comprehension of the standard "Scots" (Edinburgh-ian?) plus a good bit of Borderer (Hawick) and like I said, Aberdeen, I thought I would have scored slightly better but apparently they've all been making it easy for me.

That broad Glaswegian accent where people seem to say 'ehhhhhhh' between a lot of the words, where in Glasgow does that come from?

Old boss was from the coast between Aberdeen and Inverness, but she had a butter-soft accent (she was a bit posher than she let on, maybe).

Why do edinburgh AND ayrshire people say 'like' at the end of every sentence? I noticed that (and was guilty of it) in my 8 years there. (People always remarked on my different accent too)

Funny, I never said like or ken at the end of a sentence, neither did anybody else in our little nook of N Ayrshire.

My folks are all from Paisley and even though the town gets knocked the older generation had a coupel of pretty bizarre and interesting vocal tics, my Grandpa used to use 'sais I' at the end of a sentence so you would hear things like 'Aye I sais, sais I'

I've never noticed it in Ayrshire either. I've heard Edinburgh types say the -eez at the end of houses, cases, etc is really pronounced in a Glasgow accent

teuchter = north of the central belt

there is a lot of diversity within that but it's not clearly discernable to someone from southern england

oh everyone said ken. they still do, In between living near hamilton as a kid and pre-ayrshire we moved back to east kilbride for a year (i had spent the 1st 5 years of my life in EK) everyone said 'Gallus' which I had never heard outside of francie & josie. It seemed ld fashioned then and i dont think anyone says it now.

Gallus and Gemme were used a lot in the playground

yeah you north ayrshires were just fae paisley ;)

Lot of "ehh" in Dundee. If you listen out for it a lot of schemie Dundonians finish sentences with "is it", meaning "isn't it?", though not really asking a question.

I don't think the Perth accent is very strong, I certainly don't think mines is, but I'm aware my accent changes a bit depending on circumstances.

Perth folk are WEIRD though

Is using How instead of Why a countrywide thing?

Maresnest: kind of. Would say it's more west coast than east coast but i'm not really basing that on much.

AG: dinghies.

XP - Kerr, the difference between the way my relatives spoke and what I was hearing at school was pretty significant y'know, odd when you think that Paisley and Dalry are less than 20 miles apart

North of central belt def of teuchter is one I have heard, but never from a Scot. The usual defs are "from anywhere you'd have to pay a boundary charge for in a Glasgow taxi" or "from the rural north (often just north west) of Scotland"

I'd say a teuchter was from the wrong end of the A9 (Inverness, Dingwall and beyond), though I've been called one too so that pretty seriously widens the definition.

Is using How instead of Why a countrywide thing?

What about saying 'bucket' instead of 'bin'?

ending sentences with 'but' is one I'm fond of

I have a friend who is from California but her husband is Yorkshire, so her accent has kind of mangled yet sounds vaguely "Scottish". I had a hard time working out where she was from when I first met her (having lived both in Cali and Oop North)

Never used bucket for bin, ginger instead of pop however.

I think 'pop' is only used up north anyway (unless you say 'ginger music'?)

favorite words i learned in scotland

scripto
clarty
the close
the snib

i miss glasgow :(

oh and "the bench" to mean the kitchen counter

my mums uncle who has lived down south for 60 years or so always said pop but no scots person living here does. Its always been ginger.

best scots word will always be Cludgie

snib is great, I didn't know it was a Glasgow word though?

lots of words are countrywide and some are like used only in one village. Larkhall people say Ken, richt and nicht (or did 30 years ago dunno bout now) you wont get that anywhere else in lanarkshire.

occasionally i hear someone say pure dead brilliant unironically and i chuckle.

i didn't know snib was anything but universal english, i suppose i don't use it enough to confuse people.

haven't heard either ginger or pop very much, i assume by those you mean what we used the very general term JUICE for?

aye , ya bawheid

:'(

i suspect ginger meant irn bru only initially everywhere and was extended to mean all soft drinks.

a poke can also be an ice cream cone.

to all the scots who moved down south have you had to slow down when talking for them to understand you?

This category contains Scots pejoratives

deej deej deej deej deej deej

that's the one. surprised to see that no one listed 'fearty' (or the slightly infantilized version 'feartypants' though.

+)

was tumshie in there?

can't you do your own wiktionary pages for them replete with IPA symbols etc

to all the scots who moved down south have you had to slow down when talking for them to understand you?

I don't do it deliberately, but friends say they notice a difference when I've been talking to family or gone back home for a bit. And actually, I think I have a bit of a weird glottal stop that I didn't used to have- I get a bit paranoid about losing my accent. I remember coming back from a year in the states terrified I sounded like Sheena Easton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmnEWNzngCI

high quality material

I don't know if it's just a Radio Scotland thing, but "Glasgow" pronounced as "class-co" is one I often notice.

Whereas the correct pronunciation would be "gless-ca".

just remembered there is or used to be a bbc news correspondent with a very ditinctive highlands accent

The Computer's First Dialect Poems

I THE FURZE KIDDERS BATING (Northamptonshire)

Blea on the baulk the furze kidder rocked
with a bottle of flags and a budget of bent.
Sawning and soodling in a drabbled scrip
he hirpled and jolled hirkling and croodling.
Morts of mizzled mouldiwarps
gaddered the ball at beavering hour
and progged the fotherer's frumitory.
His cag of stingo by the stools
was teemed by puddock, pink, and pismire.
Glabbering sturnels swooped on sprotes.
Rawky popples whewed and quawked.
Hariff and foulroyce clouted the meer.
Bristling at clink and bandy chock
his sawny doll pelted pranking.
Bating the lown with hugh icles
She pilled him on the pudgy platt
and pessed his yaum at pluft as a pooty.

A bumbarrel scrowed Joe Millar's book.

II THE BIRKIE AND THE HOWDIE (Lowland Scots)

A dorty, vogie, chanler-chaftit birkie
brattled the aizles o the clachan chimlie,
glunched at his jaupin quaich o usquebae,
scunnered red-wud at the clarty lyart howdie
snirtlin by the ingle-neuk sae laithron and tozie,
and gied the thowless quine a blaud wi his gully
till she skrieghed like a cut-luggit houlet and dang her tessie
aff-loof at his unco doup, the glaikit tawpie.
The skellum callan goaved at her fell drumlie:
'Ye tockerless wanchancie staumrel hizzie,
ye groazlin, driddlin grumphie, ye awnie ferlie,
deil gie your kyte curmurrings o scroggy cowdie,
and bogles graizle ilka ramfeezl't hurdie
till aa your snash is steekit, ya duddie hoodie!'

-'Ach, I hae warlock-briefs, stegh the collieshangie!
Aa your ier-oes sall gang sae muckle agley
they'se turn to blitters and bauckie-birds, and in a brulzie
they'se mak their joes o taeds, aa thrang and sonsie,
snowkin in aidle whaur asks and clegs are grushie:
yon is an ourie pliskie!'
Wha wan the tulzie?

Edwin Morgan

The last line is meant to be inset to the end of the preceding line. Just for accuracy's sake.

Another one to add to the list of Scottish accents are the grotesquely extenuated and fucked up vowel sounds of (some) Scots who've lived in England for a long time - the best example I can think of is Kevin Gallacher (the former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle winger) trying to pronounce the word "now". But see also Denis Law (who in many ways pioneered this strange accent), Tommy Docherty, Fraser Nelson et al.

just remembered there is or used to be a bbc news correspondent with a very ditinctive highlands accent

BBC Scotland's full of them, it's the fuckin' Gaelic mafia there, I'm tellin' ye

I'd like to know more about Scottish accents popping up sometimes in Canadian speech. Cliff Thorburn sounds very odd to me, I don't think that's just a regular Canadian accent he has.

I've trying to figure out whether comedian and panel show whore Tony Law was Scottish or Irish for a while now. Turns out he's Canadian.

That's the one who channels Andy Weatherall w/Kitchener hipster-beard nonsense?

Sounds like the one. Very wacky, not particularly funny.

I'd like to know more about Scottish accents popping up sometimes in Canadian speech. Cliff Thorburn sounds very odd to me, I don't think that's just a regular Canadian accent he has.

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, November 14, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Maritime_English

I'd never be able to distinguish those I'm afraid. With Cliff I noticed he makes a very pronounced 'oo' sound that sounds quite olde-worlde and rustic to me. If I were trying to replicate it I'd be trumpeting my lips and pushing them forward as far as they can go.

Canadian Raising

This was fun

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03ngvgl/Dream_Me_Up_Scotty/

(Extra fun because of mother sktsh spitting blood at Brian Sewell's rp trolling)

An ex was from Dingwall and used "ged" to mean a man or person

Never noticed this. I've never heard this, it'd have been a gadgie or a gadgiecoff 10 miles down the road in Inverness.

xp yeah I enjoyed it, Brian Sewell was either a good sport to put himself in the role of mean old Englishman or (preferably) the troll himself has been trolled.

https://i.imgur.com/iJLdqxQ.jpg

The thread title says “Scottish”, Tom

There are some Scottish people in Edinburgh though, they tend to keep them in council estates on the outskirts, as far away from the tourists as possible.

Think gyac is pointing out that the scotch dont like the word scottish tbf

what

The thread title says “Scottish”, Tom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnNQvy8FovY

R.D. Laing strikes me as having a classic Glasgow accent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9COKxBVx9w

... and I don't just mean "drunk".

Have you heard of this guy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_John_Ellis
And his book?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Early_English_Pronunciation%2C_Part_V#Survey

Maybe I should’ve posted on my own thread.

Have been reading Nicholas Nickleby, much of which, as every starving schoolboy knows, takes place in Yorkshire, and was trying to figure out how closely related Yorkshire dialect is to Scots. I guess in the fourteenth century the general Northumbrian dialect was close to what was spoken in Aberdeen but there’s been a wee bit of divergence since then.

There'll be a lot of similar words used but they don't sound anything alike.

Northumbria stretched up to Edinburgh at one point. Aberdeen was firmly in Pictland.

prior to mass broadcast media the differences between regional accents and dialects was much bigger than it is today

BSC Joan Baez (darraghmac) wrote this on thread The Irish on board I Love Everything on 09-Mar-2020

said it manys the time, theres seven accents on the island and traceable if i may be allowed to imagine without any evidence other than my own fancy back to the seven different maisteairi of the different parishes back when everyones grandparents were learning proper enguleesh

Tom, do you notice any real differences between a Paisley accent and Glasgow?

My folks are all from Paisley but I was raised in N. Ayrshire. My Gran and Grandad especially had a lot of little quirks that I (possibly mistakenly) attribute to Paisley, things like putting a near-silent H in front of words like "it"

Not any more. There used to be differences, my dad would call a "pencil" a "peencil" for instance. My mum used to say people from Glasgow called the floor, "the flerr",while people from Paisley called it "the flair". I managed to get an entire Boaby G skit out of it when I had him bump into Momus one time.

trying to get my head around the temporal implications of being asked "will you have been wanting a drop of tea just now"

was it a drop of tea you were after?

Hello, is it tea you're looking for ...

And to bring it on topic, I've met two Scots in my job, one had what I considered a "classic Scottish" accent, the other I couldn't place at all, just "British empire." He later told me he was from the Shetland Islands.