Our Scottish Languages - Dialects and Phrases

Background

It varies from the Standard English of England, which is often referred to as ‘RP (Received Pronunciation) English’ or ‘The Queen’s English’, in the way that it’s packed with a range of uniquely Scottish features that distinguish it from English spoken in other parts of the UK and elsewhere in the world.  

Unique features

Scottish Standard English enjoys unique accent, words, grammar, and idioms.  

It’s rhotic, meaning that ‘r’ sounds are pronounced hard, and it has highly distinct vowel sound that are usually short and sharp. One thing that you will surely notice yourself, is the fricative ‘ch’ sound, as heard in words such as ‘loch’ or ‘broch’ as well as place names such as ‘Kinloch Rannoch’. 

Many words used in Scottish English derive from the Scots and Gaelic languages; some, like ‘dram’, ‘ceilidh’, ‘burn’ (in the sense of ‘a stream’) or ‘sporran’, the SSE speakers are often not aware that they are using vocabulary that is specific to Scotland. On the other hand, words such as ‘bonnie’, ‘bairn’, ‘blether’, ‘braw’, ‘coorie’ or ‘peellie-wallie’ are far more conscious choices of Scottish English.

Regional dialects 

The Scots language is divided into four main Scots dialects, and it’s characterised by a much harder pronunciation. 

• Insular Scots – spoken in the islands of Orkney and Shetland. This dialect is heavily influenced by Scandinavian countries, and its origins go back to the 1400s. Today, it’s the Scots dialect furthest sounding from English. 
• Northern Scots – primarily spoken in the north east of Scotland, including the city of Aberdeen. It’s recognised by the noticeable use of an ‘f’ sound in place of the ‘w’ sound. 
• Central Scots – the widest spoken Scots dialect, heard in the central belt of Scotland, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, and it’s probably the closest sounding to Global English. 
• Southern Scots – also called Borders Scots, or simply Borders, due to the location in which it is spoken, which is close to the border between England and Scotland. Its differentiating feature from other Scots dialects is its vowel sounds, where long ‘oo’ sounds more like ‘ow’.

To make things just a ‘tad’ bit (a little bit) more complicated, each of the Scots dialects can be further divided into other dialects, like Doric (spoken in Aberdeen only), Glaswegian (spoken only in Glasgow), or Shetlandic (spoken only in the Shetland islands).