Glaswegian Patter

Just about every place we’ve been, here at home, people have asked us whether we can do the Glaswegian accent (since we’ve had such an interesting time understanding it). No, we can’t, really. Not at all (despite many people pointing at us and crowing, “Ooh, is that an accent?” the answer is STILL “no.”) It’s a lot harder to acquire, for some reason – maybe because we still don’t understand it all of the time.

We think that this guy was probably taking the micky (we don’t know why it’s micky either, it just is) out of the poor interviewer, just a wee bit, but it’s an example of the type of accent we hear on a fairly regular basis. There is a particularly good Wikipedia Article discussing Scottish English, although it’s a bit much if you’re not into the formal study of linguistics. We DO encourage you to check out the British Library’s Page, which has an interactive map of the different regional dialects, and sound clips to go along with each (and transcripts, so that you’ll know what you’re hearing). In particular, around where we live, we tend to hear the following regional accents:

• Glasgow is a good example of what we usually hear, although this guy has worked abroad, and has much less of an accent than we’d expect. This example is probably more along the lines of what D. hears from his classmates: it is the normalized Glaswegian accent, cleaned up a bit so as to be understandable to outsiders.
• Kilmarnock is more along the lines of the kind of accent T. has been hearing from the workmen fixing the gas. It’s a bit harder to catch, and is quite distinct from that of Glasgow.
• New Cumnock is another example of one of the accents from around Glasgow.

Here’s perhaps a better example of the Glasgow accent. It’s a clip from the Glaswegian soap opera River City. We still think that the accents are cleaned up a bit, but they’re fairly good representations (particularly the poor guy without any clothes).

If you come visit, this is about what you can expect from the cab driver who takes you from the airport to the bus drivers and the average persons on the street. If you come to live here, you’ll hear far more than you could ever ask for, and maybe you’ll understand about a quarter of it. Eventually.

– D & T

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