To Help you understand the Scots so you wear the kilt with Pride

[Robin]

Nice! I love to read stuff like this!

I noticed many scottish...and even gaelic...words, and the way Scots pronounce english words come close to my language...Dutch.

When I talk to a friend from Liverpool I often don't have a clue what she's saying (sorry Nicole! ), but I never had any problems understanding Scottish people.

Welcome to the funny farm!

Robin

[McMurdo]

Thanks for the post, as someone whose parents were both born in Scotland, I appreciate the subject, and I find myself using a few of the more common word everyday, wee, aye, och, etc. I suppose we are really in the final analysis products of our upbringing. My folks tried to instill some pride in us for Scotland and our family history, however it gets watered down when you spend our life in a different country.

[MacWage]

Thanks for the bit of linguistics education.

A number of years ago I was reading 16th and 17th century Scots writing and MOST folks in the class had NO IDEA what was being said and switched to modern transliterations/translations.
However, I read the original (adapted to printed letter forms) and was FACINATED by the sheer similarities between the Scots phrasology and that of Southern. I understood the VAST majority perfectly (though it was TERRIBLE for my spelling for about 2 weeks), only looking up a few words.
We both have similar linguistic characteristics, even if the accent itself has diverged.

(Linguistics is a side interest, though I am AWFUL at actually LEARNING the languages themselves.)

[Barclay]

Interesting. I used this very same article, by Sandy Stevenson, as a source for a paper that I wrote on the evolution of the Scots languages. Although the article appears in almost complete form here, the original, and some other great information can be found here: Sandy Stevenson's site.

[auld argonian]

As a native Chicagoan I've recognized a lot of dialects and linguistic variations. The increasing frequency with which my daughter and I are tossing the odd Scots word or phrase around here is contagious to some and annoying to others (notably Mrs. Argon...heh, heh, heh!). I notice that daughter's high school friends (of all ethnic origins) are apt to pick up these Scot-isms and incorporate them in their daily speech. I recall that we all reaad "Clockwork Orange" in high school and that the droog-speak crept into our speech pretty quickly. You'll find me using "gonna" and "youse" and "whaddaya" in both speech and writing...and believe me, I've been corrected on that usage frequently but I figger (there I go again!) it's my native dialect and I'm entitled to it. Some folks seem to feel that indulging in these little linguistic side trips is an affectation but I see it as having fun with living languages and it does make it much more interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHCwfsVsIv0

...enjoy!

Best

AA

[highlander_Daz]

your right Matt however in the highlands we see our language as Gaelic, not English, Im sure that English was introduced into Wales many years ago but the Welsh prefer to honour the Welsh language. English is wide spread all over the world, indeed Matt many native american languages have died out over the years, Im not suggesting we forget how to speak English, however as a sense of national identity the Highland Scot honours Gaelic over English.
in saying that when Gaelic was introduced in Highland schools there was uproar from parents and the classes were cancelled. so who knows

[pdcorlis]

What a great read - thanks to BigJock and the rest of the usual suspects for another entertaining and educational thread! Now I'm off to my lessons...

[TimC]

Thanks BigJock for posting. Some of the phrases remind me of talking to my grandmother....almost like being a child agian. Thanks.

-Tim

[Mr. MacDougall]

One of my favorite books is The Story of English, which talks, among other things, about dialectical varriants on "common" English, including pidgeons, creoles, and dialects. Both Scots and Irish are addressed. If you're interested in language, where it came from, how it got to be what it is, and where it might go from here, it's well worth a read.

[beloitpiper]

You guys realize there's a Wikipedia in Scots, right?

http://sco.wikipedia.org/