English dialect

Although I live in south Birmingham now, in the 90's I lived in Tividale - between Dudley and Oldbury. encouraged by locals I soon agreed that it was possible to distinguish many variants on 'Black Country' Coseley was different to Sedgeley, and yes, Lower Gornal was different to Upper Gornal! our butcher, who retired well past the normal age told me that when he moved to Coseley he fiound it hard to understand the 'locals' - about 5 miles away.

It's getting so that I can understand DoubleBoost..I am beginning to wonder about Myself,Should I be worried?

As you will have found out , English is the second language of Scotland

Speaking as a Doric spikker loon brocht up in the Collach ( eng trans - Cummingston) I would have thought as an editor of the Banffie I thought you would have noticed that along from you there is a difference in the fisher gaelic of Buckie and Finechty, just as the three mile difference between Cairnbulg and the Fraserbroch cos the proper Broch to me is Burghead and 3 mile away is Hopeman (pronounced houdman by the real locals) and you should know how those in the know pronounce Aberchirder.

I'll leave you to put everyone else out of their misery on that one.

I think Scotland is a foreign country (as an Englishman) firstly I have problems understanding the language and when I go in a pub things are different from England, the food is unfamiliar as well so I could be in France or Spain or anywhere but England. Luckily I can go down my local in Oxfordshire and enjoy a pint with an expat Scotsman so no need to drive 450 miles to drink with foreigners.😀

Mike

Ah, the nostalgia! Chocolate/sulphur dioxide smog catching the back of your throat walking down to Brum University, autumn mornings in 1968. Came from Bournville and Longbridge I expect, trapped in a temperature inversion.

The first time I sailed round UK I stopped at Peterhead. I wanted to find a supermarket which is a long walk from the marina.

The first 3 groups I asked for directions were Polish !!! & could not tell me.

Then I came to a bearded chap & asked the way & he replied in a broad accent & I said " at last English" meaning English speaking

I thought he was going to slaughter me. He went into a tirade about being Scottish & wanted nothing to do with the sassenachs & would not give me directions until I explained & apologised profusely.

I never got round to explaining that I was from clan Graham on my mother's side in case they were still at war

My mother was born & raised in Berwick on Tweed but moved to Essex when she married. As a result her accent changed. However, whenever we went back to Berwick, after a few days it was really noticeable how her old accent & phrases, which she never used in Essex, came back as she spoke to the locals.

A friend of mine born in Rotherham but lived in Oxford since he was a youngster and had no obvious Yorkshire accent. He would phone his mother every evening when we were at work and unconsciously use his Yorkshire accent, he said he didn't realise he was doing it.

Mike

I was brought up in South London, Selhurst, when I was thirteen my Father got a job in Bury St Edmunds and the Family moved to the town, it wasn't long before the children picked up the accent of the locals and I eventually married a Suffolk girl and we moved to Bedfordshire. My wifes Suffolk accent has slowly disappeared but we still occasionally use Suffolk words in conversation.

Martin P

When my grandfather retired from a high pressure job in London during the 50’s he decided to move back to my grandmothers roots in North Wales where he bought a small holding and raised turkeys. It was an idyllic place on the side of a mountain complete with woods and a stream, an ideal playground for a young boy, however I digress, when one day my mother and I went to the local village and went into the village shop, as we entered the atmosphere changed and the conversation that had previously been in English suddenly changed to Welsh. Eventually it was established that we were relatives of my Welsh grandmother and the conversation returned to English and the atmosphere became more relaxed. I remember struggling to understand what was being said because the Welsh accents were so strong, strange how communities were so insular and excluded “foreigners” if they could.

Dave W

George Clarihew is right: the area around Burghead is also known as "The Broch". In the circles in which I moved before I retired, Aberchirder was always known as "Foggieloan", or just "Foggy". And in the North-east Scottish tradition, George must be known as "Dod."

Edited By Mike on 18/04/2018 10:17:45

Strange, I've just got back from Cumminstown with a new MOT. Don't get going about Fougie, or however it's spelt or pronounced. At long last I have found why a dyke is a ditch in England and a wall in the north, it is derived from Viking and just means "boundary". A few years ago we were at the Welsh two day trial, in one pub all were speaking Welsh, including the Polish barman. No probs tho' ,very friendly.

I worked in Welsh speaking North Wales for a good few years. As long as I started off by apologising for not speaking Welsh I met absolutely no hostility, in fact they were quite friendly. When I went to play with the local brass band they swapped to English so I could understand, and I have absolutely no Welsh ancestry.

Gordon W. - your "dyke" or "ditch" is also known by yet another name in some parts. Either side of the Bristol channel, there is an area of flat agricultural lands known as the Somerset Levels and the Caldicot Levels. In these parts, they are called "reens".

As a Lincolnshire lad (a Yellowbelly" I got caught out over the two definitions of the word "dyke" when I first visited Scotland in the early 1950s, so thanks to Gordon for pointing out that "dyke" means boundary. In the house where I first stayed in Scotland I was told that there was a thing called a "lade" at the end of the garden. I was a bit disappointed to discover it was just a mill stream. Later, in the early 1960s, when I spent a couple of years wandering about in the bush in Rhodesia and Mozambique, I was told that, if Africans didn't understand my English, to try English with a Scots accent. This was a widely-held belief among Europeans. I never had to put it to the test, but it shows just how far in the world Scots influence has spread.

Edited By Mike on 18/04/2018 15:53:46

I got called by a reader this morning., He didn't have an accent so I correctly guessed he was from my part of South Wales.

Neil

I've got relatives near Boston, and according to them 'dyke' is a verb.

It means running a vehicle into one o' them huge roadside drainage ditches that abound in that county - especially for 'tired' drivers after a night on the town at the bend on the end of a long straight... >

Spot on Mike, Foggieloan,

by Turra, nowhere near Auchterturra , explain that one

Was known here as Dod till compooter took over and lost me so was set up as me is now

Edited By George Clarihew on 18/04/2018 19:55:43

I too am from Lincolnshire and whilst visiting Northern Ireland in the late seventies I went to a pub and I felt a bit worried and was cautious about exposing my English accent.I needn't have worried as our dialect and accent must be a drawl as they thought I was Canadian and I did not enlighten them.

Frank

Min you wan bin in the Cumineston by Turra, - the Collach (Cummingston) by the Broch, not the FraserBroch, disnae hae a MOT placie.