Voices of Scotland .....

[Guest]

My family would never say I had any accent.My in-laws do.It was years before I could understand them or they me.In Scotland they say I speak Canadian(Though that is kind of generic.)here on the mainland people know my husband is a Newf but will ask where I'm from so that isn't it.Mum never had a problem being understood by the neighbors as she was from Millport but Dad was born and raised in Nitshill and they were always looking for one of us to translate as if he spoke another language.I guess it's what your raised with as my siblings don't have Newfoundland accents either though we lived there since 1967.

Thanks Catriona,I'm not lost in a drift yet but after 3 Alberta Clippers in one week and one more to go... This one started on Friday and the kids were sent home from school.They are still out ,though some businesses are open today and Halifax is back where it was before the storm. Even the Base has reopened.the East coast of Canada is again safe.
HK

[DavidWW]

Thanks, JustJean for that link.
The E-cards on the Borders' site took me back to childhood: holidays in Eyemouth, where the "fun" more than once was watching the rescue boats set out to sea.; the crossing of the water and the casting of the colours at the Common Riding in Selkirk; Sunday afternoons watching the salmon leap; climbing the Eildon hills.
Not my accent though. I was brought up trying to please west of Scotland parents who lamented my "awful" Border accent and school friends who unkindly accused me of "talkin' lik' an english wumman". Sometimes you can't win!

By the way what was the name of that Radio program in the dark ages before tv.? Seem to remeber it was called "The McFlannels" or was that the name of the Kelvinside lady who talked awfy highfallutin'?

Glad to know you're not lost in a snowdrift, Heather.

Catriona

The McFlannels it was .............

The life and times of a fictitious Glasgow family and their neighbours and friends who all had surnames of materials. Sarah, Willie, Sadie and Uncle Matha. Sadie was engaged to the Rv. David McCrepe who was played by Rikki Fulton.

First broadcast on 18 March 1939, The McFlannels was a radio serial based on a working-class Glasgow family. Molly Weir played 'Poison' Ivy McTweed and our audio features actuality from the show, followed by an interview with Weir, discussing her time in the The McFlannels.

Written by Helen W Pryde, The McFlannels was produced by Archie P Lee, a legend in BBC Scotland. Apart from producing countless BBC Scotland programmes, he also found time to meet Albert Einstein and provide the inspiration for the song, "The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/aboutus/w ... type=audio


Along the way I came across Parliamo Glasgow .....

At the age of 14, Stanley Baxter was talent-spotted for a BBC Scotland radio programme. He played a variety of parts in hundreds of radio programmes until he was conscripted at the age of 17. He didn't return to BBC Scotland until It's All Yours with Jimmy Logan in the 1940s.

He presented his own radio show Stanley Baxter Takes the Mike in 1956, and The Stanley Baxter show came to our TV screens in 1967.

http://cgi.bbc.co.uk/scotland/aboutus/w ... decade=50s

Davie

[CatrionaL]

Thanks, Davie,

Nice tae have a young fellae wi' a guid memory aroond.

Amitiés


Catriona

[DavidWW]

Thanks, Davie,

Nice tae have a young fellae wi' a guid memory aroond.

Amitiés


Catriona

Memory's got nothing to do with it! It's just skillful Googling, but even then I wasn't able to find a decent list of all the characters.

Meant to say that is you go to http://cgi.bbc.co.uk/scotland/aboutus/w ... decade=50s and click on the relevant link you get 60 secs worth of Stanley.

Davie

[AnneM]

I'm not sure if it is still possible to tell where people come from anymore because so many people move around these days and their accents get the edges rubbed off.

For example, I was born and brought up in Dunoon, in a family where any vestige of the local patois was severely discouraged. Saying 'I seen' or 'I done' or exhibiting a glottle stop would have resulted in a skelpit lug. I can still remember, as a very young child, being made by my formidable Aunt May to practise saying 'milk' so that there was no chance it would come out as 'mulk'.

As soon as practicable I scarpered to Edinburgh, where I was at University and did my legal training. In 1970s legal Edinburgh there was no point whatsoever in adding to the pre-existing disabilities of being female and working class by having a broad accent, so even more sandpaper was applied to the accent.

A few years later I was living in Yorshire. A friend of mine there came from Leeds and the aforementioned scary Auntie, who had been in the WAAF in Yorkshire during the War, felt it necesary to tell me that this friend did not come from one of the posh parts of Leeds. I felt it necessary to tell her that I did not come up the Clyde in a banana skin. Said friend once asked me if I could speak proper. That did throw me a bit until I realised she meant could I speak with a posh English accent. the answer to which is most certainly not!

After 18 years in Aberdeen I'm convinced I don't sound even remotely Aberdonian and I certainly can't speak Doric. When I first came here I found I could not understand what local folk were saying. Even now sometimes when I'm listening to people from e.g. Fraserburgh I wish I had a simultaneous translation. Actually I think that most people would find it difficult to work out where in Scotland I originate from.

One thing which does bug me is that none of my children. 3 out of 4 of whom were born in Scotland, can pronounce the 'ch' sound in loch or broch. What's worse is they can't see why this upsets me and that is despite both of their parents being and definitely sounding Scottish.

I do hope that all the accents and regional variations don't die out but I suspect that many of them are doomed.

Anne

[Ina]

I find it difficult to tell where people come from anymore. We are all so transient and tend to pick up little bits and pieces of accents everywhere we live.

I think my accent is a combination of Greenock, New York, California and Ohio, although people here in the desert tell me I have a thick Scottish accent.

Ina

[StewL]

A couple of the last posts reminded me of my late mother. She still retained what would have been called a "broad Scots Accent" Well my brother in law is a "Dinkie Di Aussie" and when he an my mother were talking to each other, if one of us didnt translate, neither new what the other was saying. They would sit talking to each other nodding and saying aye at the hopefully correct place and time. I found this out from both of them confessing to me that they didnt understand each other. Later the niece would translate (when she started to talk of course )

But the funniest part of this story, was when mum and dad went back to Scotland for a holiday, my mums remaining brothers and sisters all said to her "Agnes, you've got a right Australian accent now hen." When they came back from holiday, mum told me the story and was nearly peeing her drawers laughing when she did, she then reminded me of her and my brother in law, who still needed translators up to the time of her death.


Accents, what would we do without them

[DavidWW]

A couple of the last posts reminded me of my late mother. She still retained what would have been called a "broad Scots Accent" Well my brother in law is a "Dinkie Die Aussie" and when he an my mother were talking to each other, if one of us didnt translate, neither new what the other was saying. They would sit talking to each other nodding and saying aye at the hopefully correct place and time. I found this out from both of them confessing to me that they didnt understand each other. Later the niece would translate (when she started to talk of course )

But the funniest part of this story, was when mum and dad went back to Scotland for a holiday, my mums remaining brothers and sisters all said to her "Agnes, you've got a right Australian accent now hen." When they came back from holiday, mum told me the story and was nearly peeing her drawers laughing when she did, she then reminded me of her and my brother in law, who still needed translators up to the time of her death.


Accents, what would we do without them

Aye, whit wid we dae indeed ?? !!

One of my other areas of interest is cross-cultural communications, and one of the biggest gaps of which I have had experience is the cultural gap between Western Europe and Japan............. (let's not even consider the even more difficult situation in S Korea!!.)

It fascinated me to discover many years ago that the Japanese have a fascinating feedback information system built into verbal communications .......

If two Japanese are talking, then the listener says "Hai!" (sp?), meaning something like "With you" or "OK!", at regular intervals, otherwise when the person talking doesn't hear the "Hai!" feedback, they then backtrack and repeat/expand what was said until there is a single or series of "Hai!" responses.

Neat system !!

Orraverybest

Davie

[mesklin]

Hai! Davie san!

It happens that the Scots have a very similar system. As one person talks, the other gives appropriate short responses to indicate understanding or signal for more info.

For example

Blah blah blah..
Grunt
Blah blah blah bluh
Eh?
Blah bluh!
Whit!
Blah BLUH!
That'll be bluidy right!!
Blah blah blah.
S'pose so...

Very similar.

The biggest communication difficulty that I have found between Scots and English is this...

A Scot (from Fife, anyway) is taught to wait till the other person pauses, before beginning to speak. In Suffolk, you are expected to break in with your say, as they will break in with theirs! I found this usually meant waiting for an Englishman's lips to get tired! Know which method I prefer.

Dave

[DavidWW]

Hai! Davie san!

It happens that the Scots have a very similar system. As one person talks, the other gives appropriate short responses to indicate understanding or signal for more info.

For example

Blah blah blah..
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
Very similar.

The biggest communication difficulty that I have found between Scots and English is this...

A Scot (from Fife, anyway) is taught to wait till the other person pauses, before beginning to speak. In Suffolk, you are expected to break in with your say, as they will break in with theirs! I found this usually meant waiting for an Englishman's lips to get tired! Know which method I prefer.

Dave

Dave San

Naw, naw, at a' ...... in terms of the the Japanese "Hai!" in that it is just that response alone at very regular intervals and not such a mixture such as.......

"Grunt "
"Eh?"
"Whit!"
"That'll be bluidy right!!"
"S'pose so... "

.... that is important................


On a similar theme, it is reported that there was several years ago a world conference on languages.

One of the sessions dealt with "double negatives", the situation ranging from English in which a double negative converts to a positive, via various other languages through to Russian in which a double negative is simply an emphasis of the negative.

The world expert lecturing on this theme, at one point made the comment that while he had come across many languages in which a double negative meant a positive, he had never come across a language where a double positive meant a negative............ after a few seconds of respectful silence from the audience, a distinctly Scottish voice was heard to say "Aye!! That'll be right!!" !!!!.................

Davie