Language

[hospitaller]

The same is true when posting-- If you have something to say, say it. But please don't write it like you imagine a Scot might say it. Believe it or nor, although we might have a wee accent when we speak, it doesn't translate to the page (or the screen) when we write

I'd disagree a wee bit, reading Pour1Malt is a treat. He writes in phonetic scots, and it is a learning experience every time I read his posts.

[beloitpiper]

I'd disagree a wee bit, reading Pour1Malt is a treat. He writes in phonetic scots, and it is a learning experience every time I read his posts.

P1M is writing in Scots. While in Ireland I had the pleasure of meeting with the head of the Ulster-Scots Agency, which funds many cultural and language-based programs. The Scots language is not, contrary to popular belief, a dialect of English. It is a language that shares a common ancestor with English. The only problem with Scots is that it is a folk language and does not have formalized spelling like English of Gaelic does. It is very much a spoken language, with a few exceptions (see: Robert Burns).

There are many resources for learning Gaelic online, but I can only lead you to Irish Gaelic. To find Scottish Gaelic sites, you might want to turn to your friend Google.

[Phil]

Have a look here - http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/index.html - it will give you some background to the language and also help you translating any words.
Scots is not spoken as a language these days but most Scottish people intersperse their conversations with the words and also use the grammatical form. "they weans (those children)" sounds wrong in English but is correct in Scots. Similarly "I have went to the dunny (I have gone to the cellar)" where the use of "went" would be incorrect in English it is correct in Scots.

[highlander_Daz]

there is no generic "scots" the way folk speak across the country varies massively, Robertson posts in the general way someone from south west / lowland Scotland would speak, this would vary hugely from how Edinburgh folk speak and as you head North it alters significantly again, there no "one size fits all" most folk associate a Glasgow accent with Scotland, this is vastly different to for example Aberdeen, of fife, this can be frustrating watching televison programmes set, for example in Aberdeen where all the actors have Glasgow accents becasue they sound "Scottish" akin to watching "Dallas" with a cast of new yorkers. most recent bad accent i heard was in "Heroes" where peter ends up in Cork cue a bevy of terrible Oirish accents, second only to Scooby Doo meets the Loch ness monster.

[Mike1]

...watching "Dallas" with a cast of new yorkers.

Daz, that is an excellent analogy.

It's difficult for people in the States to realize that there are nearly as many 'accents' in Scotland as there are over here. And Scotland being geographically small, it's not unusual to walk into a shop in Edinburgh and hear a clerk with a Glaswegian lilt in their speech.

It's a bit like saying people south of the Mason-Dixon Line have a southern accent. But there is no way that someone from Tennessee sounds like someone from North Carolina and they both sound different than someone from Texas.

[Phil]

I take it you were asking about the language rather than the pronunciation. As Highlander Daz says, accent varies from region to region across Scotland. I well remember laughing my head off in a Walt Disney World show at the Magic Kingdom about Presidents where one of them was speaking to John Muir about the Yellowstone Park. The accent they had given Muir was Para Handy meets Brigadoon - totally unlike an East Lothian accent. Scots is a distinct language, however, with its own words and grammar and is spoken from the South West where P1M lives up to the North east around Aberdeen. Inverness, where Highlander Daz is, is fringing on the more Gaelic-speaking area of the North West and Islands and I don't know if Scots is so widely spoken there. For someone brought up among Scots speakers there is something about the language which expresses things much more meaningfully than English can. A "wee shilpit buddy" translates as a "poor undernourished sickly-looking little person", "yon auld boy's a bit dyted" means that old man is a bit confused(lost his marbles), a "snell wind" is a cold, biting wind that seems to cut right through you. This is quite distinct from writing English phonetically which is what, by and large, P1M does to reflect a Scottish accent. I am sure if you search here there are earlier posts about Scots and if you Google Scots or Lallans you will find other resources about the language.

[macneighill]

There are many resources for learning Gaelic online, but I can only lead you to Irish Gaelic. To find Scottish Gaelic sites, you might want to turn to your friend Google.

Here, try these
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/f...ic/index.shtml
http://www.gaelic4parents.com/
http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/ionnsachadh/bac/

[Casey_in_Carolina]

Many thanks for all the informative replies. Looks like I'll be doing a good bit of reading in the near future, and trying to pick up what I can.

Take care all,

Casey