Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Resources for learning Scots

  Tags: History | Links | Dialect | English
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages Post Reply
41 messages over 6 pages: 1 24 5 6  Next >>
William Camden
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6032 days ago

1936 posts - 2333 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French

 
 Message 17 of 41
07 January 2010 at 2:11pm | IP Logged 
Glaswegian is probably the most Irish-influenced form of Scots. It is believed that it is more influenced by the speech of 19th century Irish immigrants than any other form of Scots.
The Scottish education system, which I went through, instructs in standard English, with a few Scottish traits.
The speech of Scots goes through a kind of spectrum - everything from Standard Scottish English, which only differs from other forms of English through the accent and a few Scotticisms like outwith for "outside", to forms of speech that include rather a lot of Scottish words but are still comprehensible to English speakers, to those that a Londoner would comprehend with difficulty or not at all. It wasn't entirely seriously intended, but some English colleagues once asked if I could translate what a Glaswegian in the office was saying, as they said they could not understand his speech.
1 person has voted this message useful



elvisrules
Tetraglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5229 days ago

286 posts - 390 votes 
Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish
Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German

 
 Message 18 of 41
07 January 2010 at 4:44pm | IP Logged 
I was once in a bus in Scotland when the driver yelled down the bus at a couple of tourists "Yous wan'in tae get aff 'ere?". The couple looked at each other in confusion and then shook their heads. After a few minutes they suddenly realized they had missed their stop (I could understand their French). I was trying not to laugh but on the other hand felt really bad for them. :(

I friend of my father once mistook Scots for Gaelic if you can believe it, despite sitting at a table where it was spoken for a good 3 minutes... I've also heard of this happening to others.
1 person has voted this message useful



William Camden
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6032 days ago

1936 posts - 2333 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French

 
 Message 19 of 41
08 January 2010 at 6:37pm | IP Logged 
elvisrules wrote:
I was once in a bus in Scotland when the driver yelled down the bus at a couple of tourists "Yous wan'in tae get aff 'ere?". The couple looked at each other in confusion and then shook their heads. After a few minutes they suddenly realized they had missed their stop (I could understand their French). I was trying not to laugh but on the other hand felt really bad for them. :(

I friend of my father once mistook Scots for Gaelic if you can believe it, despite sitting at a table where it was spoken for a good 3 minutes... I've also heard of this happening to others.


Lenin had a rather similar experience when he first left Russia. He thought he knew German, until he actually went to Germany (I can't recall if it was Munich or Berlin). He couldn't understand what a tram conductor was saying, presumably in dialect or very colloquial language.
1 person has voted this message useful



William Camden
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 6032 days ago

1936 posts - 2333 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French

 
 Message 20 of 41
12 January 2010 at 3:08pm | IP Logged 
elvisrules wrote:
Good explaination OldAccountBroke.
Let me add a few things.

Here is a chart of how the Scots of 300 years ago would be classified linguistically.

However, what is nowdays called Scots, refers mostly to a mixed language formed by heavy English influence on the early modern Scots of 300+ years ago (though more Gaelic has crept in over the years as well).
Consequently, here is no longer a clear line between Scots and English. The adjective 'broad' is generally used to refer to how much Scots one uses in their speech. Personally I don't like this use of the adjective because it insituates that Scots isn't even a dialect, but an accent!

Here are two short sentences repeated to show the type of variety you can encounter in Scots:
-Strong Scots (unlikely to encounter): I widnae o thocht tha it wis the hairst nou. Dae ye ken those bairns?
-Average Scots (likely to encounter): I widnae o thought tha it wis autumn nou. Dae ye ken those children?
-Weak Scots (very likely to encounter): I wouldnae of thought tha it was autumn now. Doo ye know those children?
-Scottish English (very liekly to encounter): I wouldn't have thought that it was autumn now. Do you know those children?

Bear in mind that this is completely made up by me, but is what I've observed during my time in Scotland. The Western Highlands were Gaelic speaking until quite recently and you are not likely to encounter any Scots there.

Strong Scots (for nowadays) is still alive as the main working language in Glesca, Aiberdeen and Shetland.
Shetland actually has an interesting dialect which was formed as a mix of the Scots spoken by Lowland Scottish immigrants and the Norse language Norn that was previously spoken there (now extinct).


I have heard older people in the Edinburgh area speaking like the "Average Scots" example, but with one "strong" addition - bairns for "children".
1 person has voted this message useful



elvisrules
Tetraglot
Senior Member
BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5229 days ago

286 posts - 390 votes 
Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish
Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German

 
 Message 21 of 41
22 January 2010 at 11:17pm | IP Logged 
I found an interesting Scots recording on a website dedicated to Dutch dialects, of all places! Anyway, it's very interesting to listen to as it seems much "broader" than anything I've heard myself in Scotland, and more at the level of the Scottish literature and poetry

I wonder if anyone knows of more such records?
2 persons have voted this message useful



Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 5771 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 22 of 41
23 January 2010 at 12:33am | IP Logged 
They hae ane or twa on this wabsteid: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk

Ye micht want tae tak a louke oer ae few pages o Tocher an a.

There's the odd thing in the US Library of Congress American Memory page.
2 persons have voted this message useful



davidwelsh
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5289 days ago

141 posts - 307 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, Norwegian, Esperanto, Swedish, Danish, French
Studies: Polish, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Mandarin

 
 Message 23 of 41
27 February 2010 at 10:49pm | IP Logged 
"Lowland Scots" is now available to be added to our profiles btw:)

Edited by davidwelsh on 27 February 2010 at 10:50pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Virginian683
Diglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 6537 days ago

43 posts - 50 votes
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Russian

 
 Message 24 of 41
06 March 2010 at 4:55am | IP Logged 
I haven't found anything written in Scots that I haven't been able to read. The only difference with English is orthography. This is supposed to be a separate language?

Let me put it this way, if Scots is a language, then I also speak in addition to Standard American English:

1) Carolinian (I ain't found 'im yet; he won't thair.)

2) New Yorkese (Youse get outta heeah)

3) Ebonics (Who you is?)

4) Canadian (eh?)

5) California Surfer (like...dude)

My personal opinion: Scots is termed a "language" by those too lazy to learn Scottish Gaelic which is the real Scottish language. At most it is a dialect of English, just as the aforementioned examples.


2 persons have voted this message useful



This discussion contains 41 messages over 6 pages: << Prev 1 24 5 6  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.4690 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.