In English please?

[highlander_Daz]

I admit was critic of people writing in "scots" as it came across as being disrespectful to the way that we speak and I did criticise Robertson in particular, the reason being that I hate it when people mimic how we speak, however I understand that Robertson Resides in Scotland and is Sincere in his belief that its a language all of its own and its quite commen to see the language written that way in his part of Scotland. my own feelings are that its very Regional how most people post in a kind of South west/Glasgow way of speaking, across the country words and accents vary so much thast not including the island folk, so to call it "Scots" is Nae rerally accurate, how Robertson posts is a fairly accurate phonetic representation of a southern Scots accent, however Its like music it sounds better than it looks written down

[Peter C.]

I admit was critic of people writing in "scots" as it came across as being disrespectful to the way that we speak and I did criticise Robertson in particular, the reason being that I hate it when people mimic how we speak, however I understand that Robertson Resides in Scotland and is Sincere in his belief that its a language all of its own and its quite commen to see the language written that way in his part of Scotland. my own feelings are that its very Regional how most people post in a kind of South west/Glasgow way of speaking, across the country words and accents vary so much thast not including the island folk, so to call it "Scots" is Nae rerally accurate, how Robertson posts is a fairly accurate phonetic representation of a southern Scots accent, however Its like music it sounds better than it looks written down

I wrote that Robertson's posts were a Scottish accent written phonetically, but reading the other posts I began to think I may be misleading people. So thank you for posting that.

One good that could come from P1M's posts, if people read them aloud as they are written, and understand them, they just may have a little less trouble understanding the broad Scottish accents they may come across should they visit Scotland.

Peter

[Mike1]

IOne good that could come from P1M's posts, if people read them aloud as they are written, and understand them, they just may have a little less trouble understanding the broad Scottish accents they may come across should they visit Scotland.

No hope, believe me.

As Daz has pointed out, there are enough differences in dialect that you might be able to adjust to a Glaswegian's speaking, but an Aberdonian will have you scratching your head.

P1M's use of 'ya' can easily turn into 'ye', 'yi' and even 'youse'. And I notice he uses 'frae' in place of 'from', but I've several pals from Glasgow and the surrounding areas that would say 'fae', rather than 'frae'.

I, for one, find the varied dialects one of the treasures of Scotland.

[porrick]

my own feelings are that its very Regional how most people post in a kind of South west/Glasgow way of speaking, across the country words and accents vary so much thast not including the island folk, so to call it "Scots" is Nae rerally accurate, how Robertson posts is a fairly accurate phonetic representation of a southern Scots accent, however Its like music it sounds better than it looks written down

This is not just an issue within this forum; many countries and languages have this diversity. Norway is a country of many regional dialects and variations (we even have to official varities of Norwegian we are all expected to be able to speak and write), and many of the local papers print readers' letters and commentary/debate written-as-spoken.
This causes little disturbance in communication once one gets used to it. I honestly can't see that the written variety of English discussed here is such an issue/problem.
For many, such discussions are about the willingness to adapt and/or accept change.

I guess that for many it is a matter of principle. If you only knew how often I need to adapt my use of language to avoid misunderstandings: 1) typically when conversing with Swedes in Norwegian, Norwegians ae the ones to substitute "strange" Norwegian words with the (for the Swedes) understandable Swedish words, 2) typically I have to make sure American friends/colleagues understand by having to adapt (no, we don't have moose in Europe, but if we use the correct term elk, Americans automatically think of " their" elk; why should I as an English teacher use first floor for ground floor - just to make an Englishspeaking colleague understand?)

One gets tired after awhile with "do you speak English? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Snakker du norsk? Why can't we pay with American dollars?"

Communication consists of two parties - why is it always the one who has something to say that has to adapt to everybody else?

One who is Irish-English-Norwegian-Swedish-having-studied-and-worked-in-the-US is just wondering...


PS
Just a question: how do people who have problems accepting a quasi phonemical approach to writing deal with short-form messaging such as synchronous on-line chatting, sms-ing etc. (A serious question, as this is part of my job)

[wsk]

Communication consists of two parties - why is it always the one who has something to say that has to adapt to everybody else?

That's because listeners are lazy. If as a listener we have to struggle to figure out what the speaker is saying, we won't hear - unless it's life or death. And maybe not even then.

PS
Just a question: how do people who have problems accepting a quasi phonemical approach to writing deal with short-form messaging such as synchronous on-line chatting, sms-ing etc. (A serious question, as this is part of my job)

The tl;dr shorthand is the same sort of thing (tl;dr = too long; didn't read). I've seen that used two ways: as a reply to a long message, and at the end of a long message preceding a summary or synopsis.

[Phil]

Here is a chance for you all to hear a bit of Scots and if you understand it a laugh as well. I think it will be on the internet - http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1384312007

[Archangel]

Here is a chance for you all to hear a bit of Scots and if you understand it a laugh as well. I think it will be on the internet - http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1384312007

You can hear it on this page. It's under Songs and click on play all. There actually not songs but radio clips.
It's pretty irreverent but that's Scottish humour. Oor Father is an interesting discussion between Father and Son about creation. The Cruel Sea has a great Scottish style of flight safety guidelines.

Preview it before playing it for your pre-teens but, then, a lot of adults won't be able to follow it either.