Scottish Dialects and Accents:
I have looked at some differences between Scottish Dialects and Accents and compared them to English English. I have also written about the history of Scottish English and Scots. Then I have taken a closer look at the dialects and accents spoken in Edinburgh and Glasgow. And what about the future? What will happen to dialects and accents?
History:
Scottish and Scots used was originally used for the dwellers of Ireland. Scots was also used for the Gaelic language of the original Scots. This language was later known as Ersche.
In the eighth century Scottish and Scots included the inhabitants of Northern Britain, who were of Irish descent and lived along the west coast of Alban, beyond the Firth of Clyde (south-west of Glasgow).
In the Anglo-Saxon period five different languages were spoken in Scotland. Three Celtic languages, Norse and the same language that was spoken in Northern England, as far south as the Humber. Linguistically, a large part of the Scottish Lowlands belonged to Northumbria. The borders between Scotland and England were continually shifting and the Scottish population was a mix of Scots, Picts (inhabitants of the east side as far south as the Firth of Forth, just north of Edinburgh), Strathclyde Britons, Norsemen (Norwegians) and Anglo-Saxons. At this time Scotland, as we know it today, was divided into five parts. There was one part that belonged to England (with English speakers), a Norwegian colony (Norse speaking) and three Celtic kingdoms (each with their own language).
In the middle of the ninth century a Scottish ruler managed to succeed to the Pictish throne, however, he managed to keep the title 'King of Scots'. After some time the term 'Scots' included all inhabitants north of Forth.
From the tenth century the Scottish monarchs extended their power to the territory south of Forth. This was because the Anglo-Saxons 'invited' them in, since they had problems to keep the people i Northumberland under control.
In 1122 King David reunit the kingdom north of the Forth with the kingdom south of the Firth of Forth. When he died in 1153 Scotland had acchieved the stature of a nation. During the 12th century, however, Scotland remained on and off the vassal of England, and fought for independece. Because of this the linguistic situation became more complex in the following two centuries . The part south of the Firth of Forth was considered to be part of England and therefore the language spoken there was the same as in Northern England, called Lingua Anglica or Inglis.
Not until the 16th century were distinctions made between the English spoken south of the Firth of Forth and north of Cheviot Hills, from the Inglis spoken in England. The former was from this time on, called Scottish.
EARLY SCOTS: 14th up to 15th century. During this period it was the literary dialect of Scotland and of England, north of the river Humber.
MIDDLE SCOTS: 15th to late 16th century, limited to Scotland.
MODERN SCOTS:17th century till present day. No longer in general literature, only in the spoken language and in popular poetry.
Scottish English
Standard British English has three sub-categories; Standard English English (spoken in England and Wales), Standard Irish English and Standard Scottish English. The variations between these dialects are , in fact, rather small.
NEGATIONS: One difference between Standard English and Scottish English is the use of negations, for example in Scotland they say I amn't instead of I'm not. Another thing that occurs in many Scottish dialects is that not is replaced by no or nae /ne/.
Ex. She's no coming
I've nae got it
I cannae come
-S ENDINGS: Many Scottish dialects, but also dialects in Northern Ireland, use the ending -s in the first and second persons and in the third person plural to describe a past event in present tense.
Ex. I goes along the river and I sees this squirrel hiding behind a tree.
DIFFERENCES IN DEMONSTRATIVES: Those in Standard English may be replaced by they in Scottish English.
Ex. Look at they shoes
The word yon refers to objects more distant than words refered to by that
/æ/ INSTEAD OF /a:/ : Standard English speakers pronounce words like can't, glass and dance with a long a-sound /a:/, while Scottish English speakers (as in Irish English) pronounce them with /æ/ instead. The same goes for words like banana, gala and tomato ( /a:/ may be used in some Scottish dialects ,though).
/e/ INSTEAD OF /i/ : Another feature is that in words like city, money and hazy the ending is pronunced as in words like gate and face.
Ex. [cite] and [h'eze]
POST-VOCALIC /r/ : Most English accents have a r-deletion, which means that the /r/ is not pronunced at the end of words like bar, car and letter. In Scottish and Irish accents they are pronunced, as they are in most North American accents.
KEEPING THE /h/ : Most urban regional accents in England and Wales have an h-deletion. This makes them pronunce words like hair and air, and harm and arm the same. This feature does not occur in Scottish accents, nor in Irish ones.
NON-DIPHTHONGAL PRONUNCIATION: In most English accents words like gate, face and boat are pronunced with diphthongs; /æi/ in gate, /æu/ in boat and /ei/ in face. In Scottish accents they are pronunced with a long vowel instead; [ge:t], [fe:s] and [bo:t]. These pronunciations are older than the ones using diphthongs.
There are
many differences beetween Scottish dialects and accents if we compare them to
English ones. I have just showed you some of them. It is interesting to see that
we still have varieties in our languages and I do hope that it will stay that way.
There are so many different aspects to consider here. Sometimes there seems to
be all about faith or someones misstakes. What would have happened to the
English language if Mary Stuart had not married Boswell and been accused of her
husbands death, and later imprisoned by her cousin Elizabeth and executed. Or if
Elizabeth had married her loved one, Robert of Leicester ( then she could have
been executed herself, since no one to this day really knows how his wife died.
Maybe he killed her so that he could marry again, this time with the
Queeen.)Elizabeth could also had married someone else, her sister's ( Mary
Tudor's) husband, the king of Spain or the French Prince of Navarra. Or if Mary
Stuart's son James IV of Scotland and James I of England (1603) had not chosen
England and London as the situated area for his court. By all of this England
emerged as the dominant partner in the United Kingdom. The English language
could be totally different, it takes so little to change that much. Maybe we will not have so many different accents and dialects in the future,
since our societies are getting more closely linked together by new technology.
"There are two competing pressures currently influencing the development of
English: one acts to maintain international intelligibility, promoting a uniform
World Standard English; the other acts to preserve national identity, promoting
a diverse set of Regional Standard Englishes. The pressure for international
intelligibility is very strong, and may be now be unstoppable. International
travel, satellite broadcasting, world press and television, world stock markets,
multinational corporations, intergovernmental agencies, and many other
institutions have guaranteed a situation of daily contact for hundreds of
millions of English speakers who together represent every major variety. The
pressure to foster national identity is also very strong, and the signs are that
divergence is increasing. Each English-speaking country
will accordingly find itself with thousands of words to express its local
character. The changes of recent decades suggest what forces are at work in the
language today and the likely shape of
things in the next few decades, but the history of the language in the coming
century will depend on the history of the community itself." (http://210.32.13~^ybpark/sstc720.htm)
SCOTTISH DIALECT FEATURES IN GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH:
Janet Menzies has investigated what school children in Scotland think about attitudes towards Scots and Glasgow dialects. The investigation was carried out at Lochend Secondary School in Glasgow. Menzies wanted to know the status of Glasgow dialect and Scottish dialects, and the children's feelings of national identity.Most of the children considered themselves to be Scottish (68%), while 32% considered themselves British. It was mostly the older children who considered themselves as Scottish, since they apparently had a greater sense of nationality.The children listened to tape recordings on which people talked with different English dialects, some with more English English and some with more Scottish English. The children thought that the person who spoke with a more English English dialect sounded snobby, however, they thought that if they spoke like that they would more easily be able to get a job in the future. This is quite interesting since almost half of them disliked English English or even found it to be unpleasant. When they were asked why they talked the way they do, most said that it was due to peer pressure (from friends) and that their parents and teachers have no influence or power over the way they speak. Menzies also asked whether they wanted to live in a city, town, suburb or in the country and 80% said they preferred to live an urban life. The ones that wanted to live in a rural area were almost entirely males, it seems that girls want to live in a city instead. Finally when the children were asked whether a word was English, Scottish, Gaelic or slang many of them thought that the Scottish words were slang words, this may indicate the status of the Scottish dialects today. I guess that the English spelling system is more difficult to learn and use if you are Scottish, since their pronunciation is even further away from the spelling. If English children have problems with it so must the scots.If you want to read Menzies's investigation just klick on her name at the beginning of this paragraph.
Another interesting page is Hazel Rae's page about the dialect spoken in Ayrshire with lots of their own vocabulary.
In Glasgow they have some dialectal features that do not appear in SSE. Aye is used in Glasgow for the SSE variant yes. Some of the words are also different like boggin instead of dirty. Another thing is that some vowels are pronounced differently in Glasgow if compared to Standard Scottish English. In Glasgow do and to are pronounced with /e/ instead of as in SSE with /u/. Another pair of words are round and about, which are pronounced with /u/ instead of the diphthong /au/ as in SSE. The urban accents that are spoken outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow are also different, if compared to the speech in the cities. There are also considerable differences between the way people speak in Edinburgh and the way they speak in other Scottish cities.One feature that is specific for Edinburgh speech is the pronunciation of the thr-sound that appear in threee and through. Here it is pronunced with a kind of sh-sound, so that through is pronounced almost the same way that shrew is pronounced. Edinburgh is also the city where all Scottish dialects are represented. It is also very likely that educated professionals in these two Scottish cities pronounce words with the same vowel sound as in England. The only difference is that here they still pronounce the r-sound (post vocalic r) at the end of words, as I mentioned before.
There are of course a lot of differences between Scottish dialects and accents if we compare them to English ones and also if we compare them to SSE. There are also many differences in the speech habits in a major city. This is connected with social class, education, age and so on. A university (Edinburgh University)(Glasgow University) in the city can also be something that influences the speech in the city, since students come to the university from all over the world really. Scottish English has also been looked down upon by other English speakers and it has been considered as a lower class speech. This is probably a result of Scotland's history, since they have been and still are a part of Britain, even though they have some self government today. There is of course, still a battle going on for a free and independent Scotland. What would have happened if the history of the United Kingdom was different? One person's small misstakes can change the global picture entirely. All it takes is one misstake and you might have made an huge impact on your country's further development, that is if you are someone important and powerful. If Mary Queen of Scots had taken the throne from Elizabeth I all English speakers would have a different pronunciation than they do today. All languages continue to develop and change their specific features. We create new words, change the pronunciation of words and loan words are still taken from other languages. It is impossible for me to go in to them all. I have just tried to give you a basic idea of the differences in Scottish dialects and accents. If, in the future there will be a World Standard English I guess that at least one man would smile in his grave, that is William Caxton; since he wanted all English speakers to have a Standard Printing System. He created it in 1476, unfortunentely there was the Great Vowel Shift around 1500, however, the same printing system is used today. He wanted every English speaker to at least spell the same and in a couple of years maybe his dream will come true, that everybody even speaks the same kind of English, a World Standard English.
by Fredrik Sundberg
References:
Hughes, Artur and Trudgill, Peter English Accents and Dialects
Kami´nska, Ewa Tatiana Linguistiche Arbeiten: Problems in Scottish Phonology