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Why do I not have a Scottish accent?


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Some people perhaps adopt local accents and dialects very quickly to “fit it” with their new surroundings.

I spent decades in all parts of England. Never lost my accent or altered it to fit in.

A colleague I worked with down south emigrated to Oz. I met him after he had been working over there 3 months and in he was speaking like Paul Hogan when we met him. Rather odd behaviour. 

Another of my friends has been in Oz since 1999 and speaks as a long term resident in Sydney despite being able to return very easily to his native dialect when he returns to Northern Ireland. Dual accent to go alongside dual passport? 

 

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Even Scottish accents undergo change-for example older Weegees to the attuned ear may sound slightly different to their younger counterparts 

Despite having lived in Edinburgh for 40 plus years (and being born there) my own accent has been shaped by living in Arbroath between the ages of 1 and 7. 

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1 hour ago, Theroadlesstravelled said:

English accents were also probably very unpopular around 1776. People dropped them quickly imagine.

Why do Australians sounds like that tho?

I've always thought there is a Norfolk accent influence on the Aussie accent.

9 minutes ago, Molotov said:

Some people perhaps adopt local accents and dialects very quickly to “fit it” with their new surroundings.

I spent decades in all parts of England. Never lost my accent or altered it to fit in.

A colleague I worked with down south emigrated to Oz. I met him after he had been working over there 3 months and in he was speaking like Paul Hogan when we met him. Rather odd behaviour. 

Another of my friends has been in Oz since 1999 and speaks as a long term resident in Sydney despite being able to return very easily to his native dialect when he returns to Northern Ireland. Dual accent to go alongside dual passport? 

 

Saltcoats own Colin Hay of Men at Work fame was guilty of this, although he has reverted back to his Ayrshire twang these days, he said it was to fit in.

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Although I was born in Scotland, we moved to Cumbria when I was 2.

Dad was from Falkirk, Mum was a Weegie. (Double whammy) Without being conscious of it, my sisters and I spoke with a Scots accent at home, and a north of England one everywhere else. I've now lived in the USA for longer than I lived in Britain, but still receive regular compliments about my accent. I've been asked if I'm Scottish, English, Irish, Australian, New Zealand and South African (and on one bizarre occasion, Russian). In contrast, most of the British people I meet just think I'm American.

My sisters, 2 nephews and 3 nieces are now scattered around the British Isles and no two of us sound alike. 

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I’ve lived in Australia for over 40 years and still have a Scottish accent although nowhere near as broad as it used to be. Still causes problems if I have to spell something to someone face to face or on the phone, especially with some vowels, especially A. My daughters spoke with Dundee accents until they started school.

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10 minutes ago, Eednud said:

I’ve lived in Australia for over 40 years and still have a Scottish accent although nowhere near as broad as it used to be. Still causes problems if I have to spell something to someone face to face or on the phone, especially with some vowels, especially A. My daughters spoke with Dundee accents until they started school.

 

Can you relate to any of this?

 

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Yeah,  I think there's an element of having to fit in which means those of school age change to the local accent. It also depends where you move to - I've got pals that have moved to London who've toned down their accent just to be understood whereas other friends who've moved to the North of England haven't changed a bit.

Edited by Archie McSquackle
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Apparently my accent changes depending on who I talk to. I've no control over it, and only know it's happening when other people point it out. I can only assume it's a subconscious attempt to be better understood.

I went to school in England, but all of my family are/were from Ayrshire & Perthshire. First time I remember this coming up was when some kids from school were over at the weekend, and my mum phoned. When I'd finished talking to her, they were all slack-jawed wondering what was going on with the accent I'd been "putting on"  :lol:

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5 hours ago, Richey Edwards said:

Exposure to other accents.

The way we talk is influenced by the people around us. That's why people who live abroad for years sometimes end up losing their accent.

I didn't have a Scottish accent until I was about 14. I used to have an English accent because I lived in England and didn't live in Scotland until I was 12.

This is it. I have a few words that sound English, but even though I don’t hear an accent myself, everyone in Texas recognizes an accent from New England or such. Entering school at 11 in Louisiana dulled most of my accent, but has never exterminated it. My sister started school at 8 and isn’t very often pegged with an accent…my mother still has a clear Scottish accent despite nearly 50 years in ‘Merica.

Also, a visit to the UK strongly returns a decent portion of my accent for a few months.

Edited by TxRover
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Scottish accents/ dialects are brilliantly diverse. 

Biding in Dundee, having been brung up in Leven, I love the way you can travel ten miles north, east, south and west and end up almost listening to a different language. 

Spoken Fife in itself is something to behold. 

In 1927 when East Fife reached the Scottish Cup final for the first time, the Glasgow Herald featured a cartoon lampooning the visitors' accents. A guy on top of a ladder shouting "Could you go a pie?". 

 

 

 

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1 minute ago, Cosmic Joe said:

Scottish accents/ dialects are brilliantly diverse. 

Biding in Dundee, having been brung up in Leven, I love the way you can travel ten miles north, east, south and west and end up almost listening to a different language. 

Spoken Fife in itself is something to behold. 

In 1927 when East Fife reached the Scottish Cup final for the first time, the Glasgow Herald featured a cartoon lampooning the visitors' accents. A guy on top of a ladder shouting "Could you go a pie?". 

 

 

 

Was this phrase not used by Stanley Baxter, a la 'couldyegoa'

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Our 'family' emigrated to New Zealand in the late '70s, I was 'the Pommie kid' at school but when I came back to Ing Er Lund I was an exotic forriner. Fourteen years up in the West Midlands where they all thought I was from the West Island (a bloody Ocker?), then I moved to Cornwall where they think I'm a Brummie. I've picked up the edge of a Cornish slur on some words over the past twenty years, can't help it as there's bits of everything in there.

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