Scottish English is taken by some to include Scots and by others to exclude it. In this article, however, Scots is excluded and only what is known as Scottish Standard English (SSE) considered. There is a separate article on Scottish Highland English.
SSE is the form of the English language used in Scotland. It is normally used in formal, non-fictional written texts in Scotland. Phonetics are in IPA.
Background
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 Lowland 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.
Lexis
General items are outwith, meaning outside of; pinkie for little finger; doubt meaning to think or suspect; and wee, the Scots word for small. Correct is often preferred to right meaning morally right or just, as opposed to just factually accurate.
Culturally specific items like caber, haggis, and landward for rural.
In some areas there is a substantial lexis apparently acquired from the Romany language and from Eastern European languages; examples include gadge (lad, chap) and peeve (alcoholic drink).
There is a wide range of (often anglicised) legal and administrative vocabulary inherited from Scots. depute /ˈdɛpjuːt/ for deputy. proven /ˈproːvən/ for proved, and sheriff substitute for acting sheriff.
Phonology
Click to hear an example of a Scottish male with a middle-class Renfrewshire accent
Pronunciation features vary among speakers, and there are social and regional differences (Wells 1982):
- It is a rhotic accent, with r still pronounced before consonants or silence. It may be [r] (an alveolar trill), though more commonly a alveolar tap [ɾ] and especially post-alveolar approximant [ɹ], depending on the phonological context.
- The differentiation between "w" in witch and "wh" in which, [w] and [ʍ] respectively survives.
- The phoneme /x/ is also still 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 dark, though in areas where Gaelic was recently spoken—including Dumfries and Galloway—a clear l may be found.
- The following may occur in colloquial speech, usually among the young, especially males. They are not usually regarded as part of SSE, their origin being in Scots:
- The use of glottal stops for [t] between vowels or word final after a vowel, for example butter /ˈbʌʔəɹ/ and cat /ˈkaʔ/.
- The realisation of the nasal velar in the suffix "-ing" as a nasal alveolar "in'" for example talking /ˈtɔːkɪn/.
- Vowel length is usually regarded as non-phonemic, but is a crucial aspect of the accent (Scobbie et al. 1999). It most clearly affects /i/, /u/ and /ae/. Predictable short vowel duration gives many Scottish accents a distinctive "clipped" pronunciation before two classes of consonants, namely nasals, for example spoon [spun] and voiced stops, especially /d/, e.g. brood /brud/. This is generally the same as in the Scots language, but the latter includes minimal pairs for /ae/ e.g. gey, "very" vs. /aːe/ e.g. guy. Vowel length is nearly phonemic in SSE because when open syllable verbs are suffixed they remain long, thus vowel length clearly distinguishes e.g. crude vs. crewed, need vs. kneed, and side vs. sighed.
- SSE usually distinguishes between [ɛ]-[ɪ]-[ʌ] before [r] in herd-bird-curd, in Received Pronunciation these have merged into [ɜː].
- Many varieties contrast /o/ and /ɔ/ before [r] as in hoarse and horse.
- SSE contrasts [oːr] and [uːr], as in shore and pour vs. sure and poor.
- Fool and full have [u] or [ʉ] or [y] in SSE where RP differentiates.
- SSE pronounces both cot and caught [ɔ].
- Cat and cart are differentiated as allophones, but are not phonemes, so that Sam and psalm are homophonous.
Syntax
Syntactical differences are few though 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. British English and North American English:
- Can I come too? for "May I come too?"
- Have you got any? for "Do you have any?"
- I've got one of those already. for "I have one of those already."
- It's your shot. for "It's your turn."
- My hair is needing washed. or My hair needs washed for "My hair needs washing."
- Amn't I invited? for "Am I not invited?"
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".)
Other examples are distinctively Scots:
- She's a bonnie lass. for "She's a pretty girl."
- Dae ye no/nae ken? for "Don't you know?"
- Am I no invited? for "Aren't I invited?"
Other influences from Scots may occur, depending on the speaker.
References
- Abercrombie, D. (1979). “The accents of Standard English in Scotland.” In A. J. Aitken & T. McArthur (eds.), Languages of Scotland, p. 65–84, Edinburgh: Chambers.
- Corbett, John, J. Derrick McClure, and Jane Stuart-Smith (eds.) (2003). Edinburgh Student Companion to Scots, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748615962.
- Foulkes, Paul; & Docherty, Gerard. J. (Eds.) (1999). Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles, London:Arnold. ISBN 0340706082.
- Hughes, A., Trudgill, P. & Watt, D. (Eds.) (2005). English Accents and Dialects (4th Ed.), London:Arnold. ISBN 0340887184.
- Scobbie, James M., Nigel Hewlett, and Alice Turk (1999). “Standard English in Edinburgh and Glasgow: The Scottish Vowel Length Rule revealed.” In Paul Foulkes & Gerard J. Docherty (eds.), Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles, p. 230–245, London: Arnold.
- 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).
See also
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_English under GFDL
