Scottish English

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This article is about Scottish English, the variety of English spoken in Scotland. For the other Anglic language of Scotland, see Scots language. For for the Goidelic language of Scotland, see Scottish Gaelic.

Scottish English is the spoken English variety of Scotland, also called Scottish Standard English.[1][2] It is also the register normally used in formal, non-fiction writing. Scottish English should not be confused with Scots.

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[edit] Background

Scottish English is the result of language contact between Scots and English after the 17th century (dialect contact may be more accurate in that the indigenous language Lowland Scots was a related variety). The resulting shift to English by Scots-speakers resulted in many phonological compromises and lexical transfers, often mistaken for mergers by linguists unfamiliar with the history of Scottish English (Macafee, 2004). Furthermore, the process was also influenced by interdialectal forms, hypercorrections and spelling pronunciations. (See Phonology below.)

The standard spelling, grammar, and punctuation of Scottish English tend to follow the style of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). However, there are some unique characteristics, mainly in the phonological and phonetic systems, many of which originate in the country's two autochthonous languages, the Scottish Gaelic language and Scots. The speech of the middle classes in Scotland often conforms to the grammatical norms of the written standard, particularly in situations that are regarded as formal. Highland English is slightly different from the variety spoken in the lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically, and lexically influenced by a Gaelic substratum.

[edit] Lexis

An example of "outwith" on a sign in Scotland
An example of "outwith" on a sign in Scotland

Scottish English has a number of lexical items which are rare in Southern British English (and possibly other forms of standard English). General items are outwith, meaning "outside of"; wee, the Scots word for small (which also occurs in Hiberno-English, Geordie English and New Zealand English); pinkie for little finger and janitor for caretaker (both of which also occur in North American English). Examples of culturally specific items are caber, haggis, and landward for rural.

There is a wide range of (often anglicised) legal and administrative vocabulary inherited from Scots, e.g., depute /ˈdɛpjut/ for deputy, proven /ˈproːvən/ for proved, interdict for injunction and sheriff substitute for acting sheriff.

Often, lexical differences between Scottish English and Southern Standard English are simply differences in the distribution of shared lexis, such as stay for "live" (as in: where do you stay?); doubt for "think the worst" (I doubt it will rain meaning "I fear that it will rain" instead of the standard English meaning "I think it unlikely that it will rain"). Correct is often preferred to right (meaning "morally right" or "just") when the speaker means "factually accurate".

[edit] Phonology

 Sample:

Speech example

An example of a Scottish male with a middle-class Renfrewshire accent
Problems listening to the file? See media help.

While pronunciation features vary among speakers (depending on region and social status), there are a number of phonological aspects characteristic of Scottish English:

  • Scottish English is a rhotic accent, meaning /r/ is pronounced in the syllable coda. As with Standard English (RP), /r/ may be an alveolar approximant ([ɹ], although it is also common that a speaker will use an alveolar tap [ɾ]. Less common is use of the alveolar trill [r] (hereafter, <r> will be used to denote any rhotic consonant).
    • While other dialects have merged /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ʌ/ before /r/, Scottish English makes a distinction between the vowels in herd, bird, and curd.
    • Many varieties contrast /o/ and /ɔ/ before /r/ so that hoarse and horse are pronounced differently.
    • /or/ and /ur/ are contrasted so that shore and sure are pronounced differently, as are pour and poor.
  • There is a distinction between /w/ and /ʍ/ (also analyzed as /hw/) in word pairs such as witch and which.
  • The phoneme /x/ is common in names and in SSE's many Gaelic and Scots borrowings, so much so that it is often taught to incomers, particularly for "ch" in loch. Some Scottish speakers use it in words of Greek origin as well, such as technical, patriarch, etc. (Wells 1982, 408).
  • /l/ is usually velarized (see dark l). In areas where Scottish Gaelic was spoken until recently (such as Dumfries and Galloway), velarization may be absent.
  • Vowel length is generally regarded as non-phonemic, although a distinctive part of Scottish English is the Scots vowel length rule (Scobbie et al. 1999). Certain vowels (such as /i/, /u/, and /æ/ are generally long but are shortened before nasals and voiced plosives. However, this does not occur across morpheme boundaries so that crude contrasts with crewed, need with kneed and side with sighed.
  • Scottish English has no /ʊ/, instead transferring Scots /u/. Phonetically, this vowel may be more front, being pronounced as [ʉ] or even [y]. Thus pull and pool are homophones.
  • Cot and caught are not differentiated as in some other dialects.
  • In most varieties, there is no /æ/:/ɑː/ distinction; therefore, bath, trap, and palm have the same vowel; cat and cart are distinguished only by means of the r; and marry rhymes with starry.
  • /θs/ is often used in plural nouns where southern English has /ðz/ (baths, youths, etc). with is pronounced with θ. (See Pronunciation of English th.)
  • In colloquial speech (especially among young males), the glottal stop may be an allophone of /t/ after a vowel, as in [ˈbʌʔər]. These same speakers may "drop the g" in the suffix -ing and debuccalize /θ/ to [h] in certain contexts.
Correspondence between the IPA help key and Scottish English vowels (many individual words do not correspond)
Pure vowels
Help key Scottish Examples
/ɪ/ /ɪ/ bid, pit
/iː/ /i/ bead, peat
/ɛ/ /ɛ/ bed, pet
/eɪ/ /e/ bay, hey, fate
/æ/ /a/ bad, pat
/ɑː/ balm, father, pa
/ɒ/ /ɔ/ bod, pot, cot
/ɔː/ bawd, paw, caught
/oʊ/ /o/ beau, hoe, poke
/ʊ/ /ʉ/ good, foot, put
/uː/ booed, food
/ʌ/ /ʌ/ bud, putt
Diphthongs
/аɪ/ /ae/ ~ /əi/ buy, ride, write
/aʊ/ /ʌu/ how, pout
/ɔɪ/ /oi/ boy, hoy
/juː/ /jʉ/ hue, pew, new
R-colored vowels (these do not exist in Scots)
/ɪr/ /ɪr/ mirror (also in fir)
/ɪər/ /ir/ beer, mere
/ɛr/ /ɛr/ berry, merry (also in her)
/ɛər/ /er/ bear, mare, Mary
/ær/ /ar/ barrow, marry
/ɑr/ bar, mar
/ɒr/ /ɔr/ moral, forage
/ɔr/ born, for
/ɔər/ /or/ boar, four, more
/ʊər/ /ur/ boor, moor
/ʌr/ /ʌr/ hurry, Murray (also in fur)
/ɜr/ (ɝ) /ɪr/, /ɛr/, /ʌr/ bird, herd, furry
Reduced vowels
/ɨ/ roses, business
/ə/ /ə/ Rosa’s, cuppa
/ər/ (ɚ) runner, mercer

[edit] Grammar and syntax

Syntactical differences are few though the progressive verb forms are used rather more frequently than in other varieties of standard English, for example with some stative verbs (I'm wanting a drink). The future progressive frequently implies an assumption (You'll be coming from Glasgow). Prepositions are often used differently. The compound preposition off of is often used parallel to English into (Take that off of the table).

[edit] Idiom

In colloquial speech shall and ought are wanting, must is marginal for obligation and may is rare. Many syntactical features of SSE are found in other forms of English, e.g. English English and North American English:

  • It's your shot for "It's your turn".
  • My hair is needing washed or My hair needs washed for "My hair needs washing" or "My hair needs to be washed".
  • Amn't I invited? for "Am I not invited?"
  • How not? for "Why not?"
  • What age are you? for "How old are you?"
  • Yous, being the plural of you. This is likely a borrowing from Hiberno English, found particularly in Dublin.

The use of "How?" meaning "Why?" is distinctive of Scottish , Northern English and Northern Irish English.

Note that in Scottish English, the first person declarative I amn't invited and interrogative "Amn't I invited?" are both possible. Contrast English English, which has "Aren't I?" but no contracted declarative form. (All varieties have "I'm not invited".)

[edit] Scots and Scottish English

As many Scots use both Scots and Scottish English depending on the situation, there is a strong influence of Scots, and sometimes it is difficult to say whether a Scots form also belongs to Scottish English or whether its occasional appearance in Scottish English is simply code-switching. Borderline examples might be aye for "yes", ken for "know" (Ken what I mean?), or no for "not" (Am I no invited?). The touchstone is whether the speaker would feel comfortable using these in a very formal situation.

[edit] References

 This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations.
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  1. ^ "The SCOTS Corpus contains documents in Scottish Standard English, documents in different varieties of Scots, and documents which may be described as lying somewhere between Scots and Scottish Standard English.", Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech
  2. ^ "... Scottish Standard English, the standard form of the English language spoken in Scotland", Ordnance Survey
  • Abercrombie, D. (1979). "The accents of Standard English in Scotland.", in In A. J. Aitken & T. McArthur (eds.),: Languages of Scotland. Edinburgh: Chambers, 65–84. 
  • Aitken, A. J. (1979) "Scottish speech: a historical view with special reference to the Standard English of Scotland" in A. J. Aitken and Tom McArthur eds. Languages of Scotland, Edinburgh: Chambers, 85-118. Updated in next.
  • Corbett, John, J. Derrick McClure, and Jane Stuart-Smith (eds.) (2003). Edinburgh Student Companion to Scots. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1596-2. 
  • Foulkes, Paul; & Docherty, Gerard. J. (Eds.) (1999). Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-70608-2. 
  • Macafee, C. (2004). "Scots and Scottish English.", in In Hikey R.(ed.),: Legacies of Colonial English: Studies in Transported Dialects. Cambridge: CUP. 
  • Hughes, A., Trudgill, P. & Watt, D. (Eds.) (2005). English Accents and Dialects (4th Ed.). London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-88718-4. 
  • Scobbie, James M., Nigel Hewlett, and Alice Turk (1999). "Standard English in Edinburgh and Glasgow: The Scottish Vowel Length Rule revealed.", in In Paul Foulkes & Gerard J. Docherty (eds.),: Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles. London: Arnold, 230–245. 
  • Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22919-7 (vol. 1), ISBN 0-521-24224-X (vol. 2), ISBN 0-521-24225-8 (vol. 3). 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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