[ANN] The Scottish Dialect

[Richmond]

On 03/13/2013 08:20 PM, Curt Ford wrote:
> For several months I've had the pleasure of working with Paul Meier, a leading dialect coach and Professor of Theatre at the University of Kansas, to bring his materials from print & CD onto desktop computers; we've been using LiveCode, naturally.
>
> We've just released The Scottish Dialect, the 7th in a series of 24 books on various dialects and accents, and it's available on his website at www.paulmeier.com. There are also previews of the ePub versions are in the Apple iBookstore.
>
> If you're headed to Edinburgh in May, this may be the time to brush up on your accent & see if you can pass for a local..
>
> Also: a big thanks to Jacque for her help with the registration scheme!

I hae allus jaloused at Lallans as a dialeck o Sudron, an it isnae aa 
mensefu ettlin but gowks fae sooth o
the innis an a byous bit of politickan:

http://www.lallans.co.uk/

---------------------------------

Oh, wait a minute, you seem to think that 'the Scottish Dialect' is 
English spoken with some sort of
strained accent; that is 'English as she is spoken in Scotland' and NOT 
Scots; and to "pass for a local"
you must just speak English with a funny accent, but you would not, 
anymore than you would pass
for an Indian if you spoke English with a "Baboo" accent - like Peter 
Sellars with boot-polish on his fizzog.

What you, and Paul Meier are doing is confusing Scottish English with 
Lalland/Scots:

"The Scots Leid Associe wis foondit in 1972 an aye ettles tae pit forrit 
a feckfu case for the Scots language in formal, informal and ilka day 
uiss. Scots wis aince the state language o Scotland an is aye a grace 
til oor national leiterature. It lies at the hert o Scotland's heirskep 
as ane o wir three indigenous leids alang wi Gaelic an Scottish Inglis."

---------------------------------

I am aware (having spent 3 years there) that the dominant spoken 
language in the United States
of America is a dialect of English; this is clear as American English 
and English English are about
95% mutually comprehensible ( a bit like what RunRev says about 
cross-platform parity); but neither an Englishman nor a north American 
(unless, just possibly, he is Canadian) can understand Scots.

Of course the English colonists have been banging on for about 3 
centuries that Scots is some sort
of 'degenerate dialect' of Scots; not helped by people introducing 
apostrophes into Scots words where they would like to imply Scots have 
been careless and dropped the consonants of their better cousins in 
England. This is just part of what, in the USA, has been called 
'Manifest Destiny'; however the line between Scotland and England is 
stronger and deeper than the Mason-Dixon line being not just
political but religious and cultural in a way that the English (and most 
of the people in the USA) are
quite unable to understand. Unfortunately our attempt at succession was 
no more successful than
that of the CSA; and we have been living with the consequences for nigh 
on 270 years.

I am sorry to 'glitter oon a fair puckle' anent this topic, but far too 
many people are only aware of what the English want them to see.

Richmond.