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SCOTTISH
ACCENTS
Aye, our accents! So varied and so different from each other. Some of our accents are not easily understood even by ourselves! Aberdeen and Glasgow have acutely wild accents that sometimes are hard to understand by Scots. Then again, so too are some of the western isles and outer isles.
Standard British English has three sub-categories; Standard English English (spoken in England and Wales), Standard Irish English and Standard Scottish English. One difference between Standard English and Scottish English is the use of negations, for example in Scotland they say I
ain't instead of I'm not. Another thing that occurs in many Scottish dialects is that not is replaced by no or nae - ne.
Example. She's no coming I've nae got it I cannae come.
Take for example a Glaswegian: "sorry hen I canee mind!" translation: sorry girl/lady I cannot recall or: "dinna split ya puss" Translation: do not open your mouth. These are two examples of Glaswegian in the braw, many other accents all around Scotland can be just as varied. So how do you deal with this? Simple - don't! Just ask them to say it slowly in English, maybe they will understand YOU!
Now as it happens, many people have asked
Paul where his accent is from, to be honest - Paul is a mongrel (so some of his closest friend call him). He was born near Oban, as was his father and grandfather. However his mum is from Kilkenny in the Irish Republic. he also lived 20 years in Liverpool. So he has a Scottish - Irish - Scouse accent! Somewhere in the Irish Sea. Paul can be Scots or Irish - as he says "I am half Scots and half Irish, but the Irish is the smaller half", said in pure
Scouse. However when he's had a drink or seven he talks more Irish. Understand?
Whereas Liz is English! Make no mistake about that, she is from St Helens.
She will come out with gems such as: you a'right
chuck? meaning are you ok? Liz is a great girl
but sometimes her language does get too
"Lancashire"
Colin on the other hand is a Glaswegian - a Wegie bhoy. After some drinking - maybe a whole night - he is a wee bit difficult to understand. Paul can understand him no matter what state he is in, why? because they are related - not only that, two drunks can understand each other very well!
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