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Scotland Language Variation

- Brief history

1. Lexical Variation

2. Phonological

All dialects of Scots are easily understood by other Scots speakers.

Scottish Standard English is Standard English spoken with a Scottish accent.

A standard written language is only necessary to avoid confusion and misunderstanding


because with the written word, the signals and indicators that are relied upon in verbal face
to face communication are missing.

The transcriptions are broad, capturing only enough aspects of a pronunciation to show how
words differ from one another or where the pronunciation differs significantly between
dialects.

Consonants: Consonants usually have the same phonetic values (pronunciation) in Scots, as
in Standard English. *Most dialects of Scots have a German like Ich/Ach rule governing the
pronunciation of <ch>. Pronounced // (Ger. Ich) initially or following a front vowel, and /x/
(Ger. Bach) following a back vowel.

Glottal Stops
Many speakers substitute a glottal stop // for /t/ and sometimes /k/ and /p/, between two
vowels.
/br/ (berer) = butter

The Scots Vowel-Length Rule


The SVLR is most developed in the central Scots dialects, in peripheral dialects not all vowels
are affected. The following vowels are usually short.

Diphthongs
/a/ usually occurs in long environments.
/i/ usually occurs in short environments.

Word Stress
In Scots the root syllable of native words is usually stressed, this root syllable is usually the
first syllable of a word so there is often a tendency to stress the first syllable of foreign
words, although many romance words retain their original stress.
The main dialect divisions of Scots are:
- Southern Scots
along the Scots side of the border.

- Central Scots, comprising:


South East Central
North East Central
West Central
South West Central Scots
- Ulster Scots
in the north of Ireland

- Northern Scots, comprising:


South Northern Scots
Mid Northern Scots
North Northern Scots
- Insular Scots
in Orkney and Shetland

- Urban Scots refers to the dialects of Scots spoken in and around towns and cities especially
Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Although the Belfast dialect cannot be considered Scots it does include a number of features
of Ulster Scots origin.

- Gidhealtachd, the Gaelic for the Highlands and Islands to the west - were of course until
recently on the whole Gaelic speaking. In areas along the highland line Gaelic influenced
Scots can be heard.
- Nouns
*eme is the maternal uncle.
**loun and quean [kwin] are typical of Northern Scots varieties.

"Whit's fur ye'll no go past ye."

This one basically means 'whatever is meant to happen to you, will happen to you"! It's the
Scottish phrase I heard whenever I'd moan or complain about not getting something (or
someone!).

"You're a wee scunner!"

This was usually said with a touch of impatience, as a fair translation would be "You're a
little whiner/nuisance". If I complained about being bored, or was being whiny and difficult,
this was the response I'd get.
"She's up to high doh"

This means "She's all worked up" or "She's got herself all riled up".

"A pritty face suits the dish-cloot"

If I was fussing over what to wear, this Scottish saying was Nanas' stock answer. Basically it
means "A pretty face suits the dish-cloth".

I think this probably still needs some more translation.... the general idea is 'if you've got a
pretty face, it doesn't matter what you're wearing'. Of course, it usually didn't help with my
immediate problem ;o)

"Awa' an bile yer heid"

This Scottish phrase is another one that needs a double-dose of translating! Simply putting
it into English results in "Away and boil your head!" - which probably won't help you much.

What it means is something along the lines of 'Get lost!' or 'Forget it!' - and it's usually said
to someone who is deemed to be talking rubbish, or wasting your time.

"Don't be a wee clipe!"

I'd hear this if I was telling tales on my sister (or anyone else!). It means "Don't be a little tell-
tale!".

"Yer bum's oot the windae!"

Another colorful Scottish saying, that definitely needs some explaining. Direct English
translation would be "Your bum is out the window", but that's probably not going to make
you any the wiser.

So, the actual meaning of this phrase is something along the lines of 'You're talking rubbish
(trash)', or 'You're not making any sense'. Believe me, I heard this one a few times!

"I'm going to the pictures"

The 'Pictures' is the movie theater, and my Nana loved going to see a movie.

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