LL-L 'Language varieties' 2006.06.24 (02] [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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L O W L A N D S - L * 24 June 2006 * Volume 02
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org>
Subject: LL-L 'Sports' 2006.06.22 (05] [E]

>From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
>Subject: LL-L 'Levity' 2006.06.21 (05] [E/S]
>
> From: Tom Mc Rae
> Subject: Humour: You Are Glaswegian If.....
>
>Actually, as an Englishman, for some reason I find Glaswegian easier to follow
>than some English dialects. There's a bloke at the gym from just a few miles
>away (I'm on in the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border) who occasionally talks to
>me, and I just have to grin and nod like a foreigner, I've no idea what he's on
>about half the time. It's a mixture of slurring and rapid-fire speech rather than
>the actual words, which (when I can work them out) are fairly standard English.
>
Most people in Glasgow no longer speak Scots, so they're speaking a
clearly-pronounced form of Scottish English.

>Now, some parts of Edinburgh; they are REALLY incomprehensible, I'm better of
>with Dutch or German.
>
So, do you know what they're speaking? It might be Scots or a form of
Scottish English that's heavily influenced by Scots phonemes (such as
glottal stops for "t" and so on).

Would you say slurring is a feature of localised dialect? I do it a lot
when speaking to people in my local Scots dialect, but I wouldn't do
that when speaking Scots to people from other areas. Maybe your gym
chappie just doesn't realise that not everybody speaks exactly as he
does, and as long as people just keep nodding like foreigners that's not
likely to improve. Shame on you, Paul! :)

I'm not sure that the rapid-fire speech thing is really happening in
cases like that. If you don't understand someone speaking at a normal
rate then it will sound too fast to you.

We get slurring in BSL too. Some speakers just can't seem to realise
that a signing still that's perfectly comprehensible in their own area
isn't going to work with people from fifty miles away. I know one Deaf
chap who, though obviously he's always been perfectly fluent in the
language, will stand up and start miming for someone who can't
understand him sooner than he'll start moving his hands properly!

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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