In English please?

[Nick]

Oh man, Nick just had to bring up the Yooper accent.

Aye uhh, I'm eh Sconnie, born en bred, an' deh accend ain't so stron whin I'm arand uders, bhet whin I'm wid my frien's, dats whin flatlanders need teh duck fer cover!

NOTE: Wisconsinites DON'T talk like people from the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan). There are differences...that I'm pretty sure only people from those two areas can pick out. Nick, am I right?

We surely don't talk the same! Wisconsin has less of a Finnish influence, for one. People from outside the area seem to think that Minnesotans, Wisconsinites, Yoopers, and Canadians all talk the same. But it's probably the same thing as someone from the Midwest not being able to distinguish various Southern accents.

I read an article once a linguist had written about the Yooper accent/dialect. His conclusion was that there is no Yooper accent, it's just that people from Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. think there is and so they hear it. To that, I quote one of my favorite T.V. colonels, buffalo bagels! He must not have spent any actual time here.

Oh, and I think my accent tends to thicken when I'm really excited about something or, as you say, around people I know.

Cheers,
Nick

[Ruanaidh]

So that explains it.

[slohairt]

Shorely ye cawnt be havin' a problem wit daysint paypul postin as tay spake!

Oim a good poster, so Oi am!

[Archangel]

Firstfoot.com has a good Scots dictionary. It can be irreverent, but you should have figured on that.

[Peter C.]

OK, OK, enough of the subtle jokes. This is a very real and very serious issue in Scotland's school system and we've no place mocking the situation.

Ardchoille, here is your solution -

User CP > Control Panel > Miscellaneous > Buddy / Ignore Lists > Ignore List > Add New User to List > Save List

If you find a member's posts upsetting you, you can easily ignore that member with the above steps.

We're ranging between 350 - 500 posts each day, so ignoring a handful really won't make much difference in the overall scheme of things.

This is certainly not a serious issue in Scotlands school system. Scotlands schools are as good as any and they teach very good English, they certainly don't teach people to write phonetically.
Though people all over Britain are now encouraged to keep their local accent.

The school system may have an issue about teaching ancient Scottish languages, but that is not what P1M uses.

It makes no difference to me as I am British and have not yet met a Scotsman that I couldn't understand.

Maybe we should look at our xmark friends in Russia, Germany, France, Norway etc. for whom English is not their first language but they take the trouble to post in English. They have my respect.

I was surprised to hear that P1M is American. I quite enjoy his posts, even now that I know he is puting on that accent.

Peter

[Mike1]

This is certainly not a serious issue in Scotlands school system.

Send your children to a school in Scotland and encourage them to use Lallans or Broad Scots when communicating with their teachers. Then you will understand to what I was referring.

[Kid Cossack]

snip!

I was surprised to hear that P1M is American. I quite enjoy his posts, even now that I know he is puting on that accent.

Peter

I'm not so sure he's putting on the accent. Well, obviously, he's typing it! But I've noticed that I assimilate to the accent of the place I'm in. When I was back in deep East Texas, my Texas accent got more noticeable, when I was studying Russian, I had some bastardized hybrid Texican-St. Petersburg accent, because my teachers were mostly from St. Petersburg/Leningrad/Petrograd. Then my Russian tongue got twisted more when I lived in Central Asia.

(And yes, you really DO use different muscles in your mouth when you speak Russian---when I was getting used to it, my mouth would go to bed tired!)

[Peter C.]

Send your children to a school in Scotland and encourage them to use Lallans or Broad Scots when communicating with their teachers. Then you will understand to what I was referring.

My brother went to school in Scotland.

If I sent kids to any school, I would insist that the main language they are taught is the one that will enable them to:-

1) Understand all the other subjects they will learn.

2) Be understood by all the teachers.

3) To have a good and prosporous life.

Any foreign or ancient languages would be of secondary importance to subjects which would empower them in their future lives.

In other words I would want what is best for the kids not what is best for the language of my ancesters. If they were taught Lallans (which I believe means lowland Scots) at school all well and good, if not, and if I wanted them to learn it. I would teach them at home.

Peter

[macwilkin]

My brother went to school in Scotland.

If I sent kids to any school, I would insist that the main language they are taught is the one that will enable them to:-

1) Understand all the other subjects they will learn.

2) Be understood by all the teachers.

3) To have a good and prosporous life.

Any foreign or ancient languages would be of secondary importance to subjects which would empower them in their future lives.

In other words I would want what is best for the kids not what is best for the language of my ancesters. If they were taught Lallans (which I believe means lowland Scots) at school all well and good, if not, and if I wanted them to learn it. I would teach them at home.

Peter

Peter,

I respectfully disagree. While it is good that students are proficient in a language that will benefit them in their studies as well as their future life, there is also value to studying traditional or "ancient" language to appreciate their heritage and culture. After all, to know where you are going, you must know where you have been.

As a devotee of the works of Burns, it saddens me that many young people in Scotland today are not more familiar with his timeless works, save a few oft-used quotes and New Year's Eve. An understanding of Burns's poetry and song will not only preserve traditional Scottish culture, but also spread his timeless message of understanding and brotherhood.

That is certainly empowering as well.

Regards,

Todd

[mbhandy]

This post is full of haver

Go figure

And I read it all.

MrBill