Scottish Accents/ Dialects

[itzdrk]

1 minute ago, MONKMAN said:

 

I’m assuming you’ve never actually been to Stranraer?

 

That's Stinlar to the locals

[Hillonearth]

You can almost pinpoint where the Ken Zone begins in some areas....punters from Shotts have got a definite Lanarkshire accent and will say "know", but in Fauldhouse two or three miles east we're generally into Ken territory.

The distinctness of accents increases the further you get from the city - accents in the likes of EK, Motherwell and Hamilton are more or less indistinguishable from Glaswegian maybe the odd local word excepted, but once you get out to the likes of Lanark itself it sounds a lot different.

Likewise, folk from north Ayrshire towns like Kilwinning and Kilbirnie essentially sound like slightly countrified Glaswegians, but once you get into the East Ayrshire hinterland it becomes a bit more exotic...

"Open yir een ref and book the number seeven...."

[Hammer Jag]

Living in EK, there’s a noticeable difference between Glasgow, EK and other parts of Lanarkshire. 3 miles down the A725 in Blantyre in their weird twang it’s ‘am in the cor’ and ‘Seterday’. 3 miles in the opposite direction in Castlemilk, it’s proper rough as f**k, 100mph weegies spraying out their words like a fucking machine gun.

I spend a lot of time in Ayr and their accent is hilarious. Feeneshed, seeven, whale, luck, Tarbowtin, Mossblawn etc 

[19QOS19]

It definitely is. In fact, the whole of Galloway is awash with weird Galloway Irish hybrid accents. Never known an area of Scotland to have so different dialects. Same can be said for Dumfriesshire. The difference in accents between Dumfries, Annan and Gretna (25 miles) is unreal. It’s more like a distance of 250 miles.

Even Dumfries itself has two different accents. There's the common way of speaking (like myself) and then there's this weird horrible posh one. Annan's is easy to identify as well as Dalbeattie's. Gretna's is basically an English accent.

FWIW I think Galloway Irish is a lovely accent. It has to be the least threatening accent in the world.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Went out with a girl from Coleraine years ago. Quite polite and middle class. When we met I actually thought she was from the North West of Scotland. Her accent was a strange one.

Aye and her pal was a fucking psycho.

Anyway onto accents, the east coast accents are fucking awful, ‘ken’ and ‘like’ anything East of Castlecarry is just inaudible banjo stuff. The Edinburgh accent is amongst the worst. The Ayrshire accent is also horrendous, once heard someone pronounce seven as ‘seevin’ and eyes and ‘eein’. One of the unfortunate things about junior football is travelling to shit holes like New Cumnock and listening to the yokels attempt ‘patter’ before they go back to throwing rocks at the sun and trying to fornicate with close relatives.

[WeeMentalDavie]

My old work had an office in Bathgate and I'd occasionally be sent there for a few days. It was like the United Nations as due to the central location, they had staff from Stirling, Falkirk, north & south Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Edinburgh and obviously West Lothian. Some absolutely shocking accents to be heard.

I know a few folk from Ayrshire and the accent varies wildly even between people from the same town.

[AUcal]

Was surprised back when I started uni in Glasgow that I had to repeat myself regularly to glaswegians. I never had a problem with what they were saying. There were quite a few words that I didn't expect to be just an Ayrshire thing.
Would probably be better understood in some places on the east coast.
In Ayrshire the accent can really vary quite drastically from town to town/person to person.

[mathematics]

I lived in Wales for three and a half years. Part of my job required me to use to letter "J" in speech quite often. After about four weeks one guy asked me what this "jai" was, as he had no idea what I was talking about. There was also some confusion in the local chippy when I went in and asked for a fish supper - I was not expecting the reply of "what's that then?". Regularly got asked where in Ireland I was from and one Westcoast Welshman asked where in Wales I was from. Moron.

Worst thing was that I came back home having picked up phrases like "up by there, mun", "where you to now, butt?" and "I'll be there now in a minute". Mix that in with feenishing ma work at seeven and you've got one hell of a fucked up accent.

[mathematics]

When The Scheme was shown on the tele, one of the secretary's at my then work asked if I knew the area, as I was from Kilmarnock. She was shocked when I told her that I was raised there. "But you don't sound like they do" she said. I had to explain to her that I had to use my posh voice at work. Mrs Mathematics goes mental at me when I'm on the phone to my mum as my accent changes.

[Rugster]

17 hours ago, SlipperyP said:

I've lived in so many places, I struggle to understand my own thoughts. 

 

 

So do we pal.

[AyrTroopMajor]

2 hours ago, AuAl said:

Was surprised back when I started uni in Glasgow that I had to repeat myself regularly to glaswegians. I never had a problem with what they were saying. There were quite a few words that I didn't expect to be just an Ayrshire thing.
Would probably be better understood in some places on the east coast.
In Ayrshire the accent can really vary quite drastically from town to town/person to person.

When I started Uni in Glasgow, I made the heinous error of using the word 'haneck' because I had no idea that it wasn't used outside of Ayr/Ayrshire. Jesus Christ, never again.

[The Mantis]

19 hours ago, ICTChris said:

My favourite thing about the word 'ken' is that it disappears by the time you get to Perth, you never hear it anywhere in the Highlands or North East... until you get to Shetland where it makes an amazing comeback.

The explanation that was given to me is that the Shetland dialect is unique as it developed out of a mixture of Norse and Scots.  Apparently a lot of people moved from the Lowlands to Shetland to croft and fish after the islands were given to Scotland by Norway resulting in the unique accent/dialect in Shetland.

There was a lot of trade between Shetland and the Hanseatic League ports.

Scots is a Germanic language like Dutch and German which both have the verb kennen - to know. But even in English there are examples like 'do ye ken John Peel' and something being 'in one's ken'.

[welshbairn]

Ken is the sound of the Hebrew word for "Yes", which makes you a bit jumpy in Tel Aviv if that's your name.

[The Holiday Song]

18 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

There was a lot of trade between Shetland and the Hanseatic League ports.

Scots is a Germanic language like Dutch and German which both have the verb kennen - to know. But even in English there are examples like 'do ye ken John Peel' and something being 'in one's ken'.

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

[Hedgecutter]

7 hours ago, mathematics said:

After about four weeks one guy asked me what this "jai" was

[Ross.]

3 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Pronouncing J in a way that rhymes with "aye" instead of "Dae". I think.

[Hedgecutter]

4 minutes ago, Ross. said:

Pronouncing J in a way that rhymes with "aye" instead of "Dae". I think.

I know that it's exactly this.

"Jai Jai Bee sports" back in the day.  

[The Moonster]

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

[LondonHMFC]

7 hours ago, mathematics said:

 "where you to now, butt?"

Got pals in Dorset who use "where you to?" all the time. Still maintain it makes no sense whatsoever. 

Eta, I still say Jai, but would never have said Jai Jai B. Strange. 

Edited January 28, 2020 by LondonHMFC

[Aim Here]

4 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.

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').

Edited January 28, 2020 by Aim Here