Scottish
Standard English (SSE) is the variety of English spoken in Scotland. Note
that in Scotland other languages are also spoken: Gaelic and Scots. Traditionally, these two languages were the
main languages there, however, after the Act
of Union in 1707 (which led to the creation of the United Kingdom), English
became the language of the Scottish Church, administration and upper classes. SSE
resulted from the language contact between Standard English and Scots. That’s
why we are going to find many features from Scots in SSE. Nowadays, boundaries
between Scots and SSE are really blurred.
Some of its features are:
- — Rhoticity: /r/ is pronounced in the syllable coda. /r/ may be an alveolar approximant as in RP [ɹ] or an alveolar tap [ɾ]
- — There is a distinction between /w/ and /ʍ/so that witch and which are pronounced differently.
- — Use of the phoneme /x/ for <–ch> in a small number of Scottish words. Eg: loch.
- — Use of Scots /u/ instead of /ʊ/. This vowel may be pronounced [ʉ] or even [ʏ]. Thus pull and pool are homophones.
- — Non-initial /t/ is often realised as a glottal stop /ʔ/.
- — Vowel length: The Scottish Vowel Length Rule( ”Aitken’s Law”)
- — Use of double modals. Eg: They might could be working in the shop.
- — Negation: use of the suffix -nae . Eg. She isnae leaving for She is not leaving.
- — Vocabulary: wee = small; bonnie=pretty, bairn=child, haggis, kilt, kirk=church, etc.
- — Scotticisms: She learnt him some manners = She taught him some manners ; Pure dead brilliant= exceptional, fantastic.
ACTIVITIES
- Do some research on Aitken's law and summarise its more important aspects.
- Write down at least five Scottish words not mentioned above.
- Watch the following video and try to identify at least three features described above.
More on Scottish English:
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