Ron.M -> RE: Todd's latest Buleria (Jul. 2 2004 21:58:20)
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Mike, There is no such thing as a Scottish "brogue". Like anywhere else in Britain, the regional dialect changes every 50 miles you drive in any direction. So there are several dialects in Scotland. Generally they are all English language words, but up here we play around with some vowel sounds and the occasional consonant to trip up foreigners LOL! "Ken" is not an exclusively Scottish word. It means "to know", or "have knowledge of". It was used in an older form of English, but you seldom hear it in England now. You must have heard the English song "Do you Ken John Peel"? I actually heard an American use the term on the Radio a while back. He said something like "Surely it's not beyond the ken of human civilization to sort out these kind of issues" "Ken" is really just used in the Eastern side of Scotland. No Glasgwegian or anybody to the West would dream of using the word, lest they would be thought of as a "Teuchter", (or country bumpkin.) I know Edinburgh is meant to be the Capital city of Scotland and not actually rural country, but Glasgwegians don't pay any attention to them anyway, so it doesn't matter LOL! The Scottish dialect is pretty easy to grasp once you've got a hold of a few pointers. Like, the English say "What?" The Central Scottish say "Whit" (note the vowel shift). And the NorthEasterners say "Fit". (note the vowel, plus fricative shift) So where I live, if somebody says "Fit like?" ("How are you?") The answer normally is "Nae bad min, foos yersel'?" (Not bad, man ..how are you?) "Min" is something I've heard only in Aberdeen. There was an Aberdeen City poster campaign here a few years ago, to alert folk against littering the streets by dropping paper etc called "Pititinabinmin". You're a pretty analytical guy so I'm sure you should be able to work it out! There is a rich vocabulary up here...something that took me a while to get used to. Like, a boy is called a "loon" and a girl called a "Quieney" (queenie..but rhymes with "shiney") I don't know where "loon" originated from, but if you called somebody in Glasgow a "loon", (looney) you would be eating Hospital food for the next week! So a quick lowdown on the general Scottish dialect for you Mike. The main vowel shifts that puzzle foreigners. Engish "no", or "home".... Scottish "nae" or "hame" English "first", or "shirt" ....Scottish "furst" or "shurt" English ""what" or "where"... Scottish "whit" or "whaur" As I mentioned in the NorthEast , the "wh" sound changes to an "f" sound. So here it would be "fit" or "faur" Scots never sound the final "ng" sound as in "singing"...so it's always "singin'" And Glasgwegians never pronounce the final "t" in a word, (sometimes *any* "t" in any position), preferring to replace it with a "glottal stop". So "can't" becomes "can'*" or "won't" become's "won'*", where "*" is the glottal stop. I would mention "don't", but Glasgwegians prefer the construction... "Goanny no dae tha*" (Kindly refrain from doing that, if you will). "Goanny" is a great word, only to be bettered by "Goanny no". Also there is no singular "you" and "you" (plural). In Glasgow, they have their act together, so you know immediately what they are talking about as they use "You" and "Youze". It's not as complicated as you think. A few weeks here and you'd get the swing of things. I've spoken to Simon, (who is Southern English) a couple of times on the phone and within a minute or so his ear attuned to the different sounds, so at least he could understand ever second word I said LOL! [:D] The Spanish Language (although I am very rusty at it now) is absolutely beautiful! They have great words for things. One of my favourites was "chisme" (thing) and it was jolly useful, 'cos if I didn't know the name for something, I'd just say "Este chisme". A valuable word. When I was in Madrid, my good friend Fernando always used to respond to the greeting "Qué pasa?", with the reply "Pasa agua" (piss) if life hadn't been too good to him on that particular week. Also countless other great (and sometimes funny) Spanish words that don't have a direct English equivalent. cheers Ron
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