Glasgow dialect
Glasgow patter | |
---|---|
Glaswegian | |
Native to | United Kingdom |
Region | Scotland |
Native speakers | (undated figure of Unknown, likely up to 1,000,000 (see Greater Glasgow)[citation needed]) |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
IETF | sco-u-sd-gbglg, en-scotland-u-sd-gbglg |
The Glasgow dialect, also called Glaswegian, varies from
As with other dialects, it is subject to
for well-known local figures and buildings.Literature
The Glasgow vernacular has also established itself in
Michael Munro wrote a guide to Glaswegian entitled The Patter, first published in 1985. With illustrations by
James Kelman's 1994 novel How Late It Was, How Late is written largely in Glaswegian dialect from the point of view of Sammy Samuels, a 38-year-old ex-convict who wakes up blind after a drinking binge and a fight with police. The novel won the 1994 Booker Prize.
Jamie Stuart, a Church of Scotland elder from the High Carntyne Church, produced "A Glasgow Bible" in 1997, relating some biblical tales in the Glaswegian vernacular. More recently, in 2014 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was translated into Glaswegian Scots by Thomas Clark as Alice's Adventirs in Wunnerlaun.
A 2020
Phonology
Jane Stuart-Smith contributed a chapter to the 1999 book Urban Voices entitled "Glasgow: accent and voice quality". She defined two varieties for descriptive purposes:
- Glasgow Standard English (GSE), the Glaswegian form of Scottish Standard English, spoken by most middle-class speakers
- Glasgow vernacular (GV), the dialect of many working-class speakers, which is historically based on West-Central
Differences between the two systems are mostly in lexical incidence.[14] Many working-class speakers use the SSE system when reading aloud, albeit with different qualities for the vowels.[15] The table below shows the vowels used in both variants, as given in Table 11.1 of Stuart-Smith's work.[16]
Lexical set | GSE | GV |
---|---|---|
KIT | ɪ | ɪ̈ ~ i |
DRESS | ɛ | ɛ |
HEAD | ɛ | i |
NEVER | ɛ ~ ɛ̈ | ɪ̈ |
TRAP | a̠ | a̠ |
STAND | a̠ | ɔ |
LOT | ɔ | o |
STRUT | ʌ̈ | ʌ̈ |
FOOT | ʉ | ɪ̈ ~ ɪ |
BATH | a̠ | a̠ |
AFTER | a̠ | ɛ |
CLOTH | ɔ | o |
OFF | ɔ | a̠ |
NURSE | ʌ̈ | ʌ̈ ~ ɪ |
FLEECE | ï ~ i̠ | i ~ i̠ |
FACE | e | e |
STAY | e | e ~ ʌi |
PALM | a̠ | a̠ |
THOUGHT | ɔ | o |
GOAT | o | o |
MORE | o | e |
GOOSE | ʉ | ʉ |
DO | ʉ | e |
PRICE | ʌi | ʌi |
PRIZE | ae | ae |
CHOICE | ɔe | ɔe |
MOUTH | ʌʉ | ʉ |
NEAR | i | i |
SQUARE | e | ɛ ~ e |
START | a̠ | e |
BIRTH | ɪ | ɪ̈ ~ ʌ̈ |
BERTH | ɛ | ɛ ~ ɪ |
NORTH | ɔ | o |
FORCE | o | o |
CURE | jʉ | jʉ |
happY | e | e ~ ɪ̈ |
lettER | ɪ̈ ~ ʌ̈ | ʌ̈ |
horsES | ɪ | ɪ̈ ~ ʌ̈ |
commA | ʌ̈ | ʌ̈ |
Stuart-Smith also gave the following summary of how consonants differ in the Glasgow patter from other dialects.[17]
- T-glottalization is "strongly stigmatized yet extremely common". Glottalization also occurs of k and p, albeit less frequently.
- d and t can be pronounced with dentalisation. d is sometimes omitted at the end of a word (e.g. old, stand).
- Th-fronting occurs with some younger speakers.
- x is used in words such as loch, although this is dying out amongst younger speakers.
- ʍ is used in words beginning "wh" (e.g. whine).
- There is no H-dropping except in unstressed cases of him and her.
- Yod-droppingonly occurs after l or s.
- Most Glasgow speech is rhotic, but non-rhoticity can be found amongst some younger working-class speakers. The realisation of /r/ can be ɹ, ɻ or r.
- l is a dark l in almost all positions.
In the media
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2020) |
In the 1970s, the Glasgow-born comedian Stanley Baxter parodied the patter on his television sketch show. "Parliamo Glasgow" was a spoof programme in which Baxter played a language coach and various scenarios using Glaswegian dialogue were played out for laughs.[18][19][20]
The 1998 film by
Alleged influence from Cockney
Studies have indicated that working-class adolescents in areas such as
The linguist John C. Wells, a critic of the media reporting on Estuary English, has questioned whether Glasgow is being influenced by Cockney speech. He claimed that journalists had misrepresented the prevalence of th-fronting in Glasgow and that there is no evidence that th-fronting originated in London. He also wrote that all dialects change over time and that change does not mean that the Glasgow patter will disappear.[32]
References
- References to "Stuart-Smith" are to Stuart-Smith, Jane (1999). "Glasgow: accent and voice quality". In Foulkes, Paul; Docherty, Gerard (eds.). Urban Voices. Arnold. pp. 203–222. ISBN 0340706082.
- ^ Macafee C.I. (1983) ‘Glasgow’ in Varieties of English around the World. Amsterdam: Benjamins. p.7
- ^ Stuart-Smith J. Scottish English: Phonology in Varieties of English: The British Isles, Kortman & Upton (Eds), Mouton de Gruyter, New York 2008. p.47
- ^ Macafee C.I. (1983) ‘Glasgow’ in Varieties of English around the World. Amsterdam: Benjamins. p.31
- ^ Menzies, Janet (1991), "An Investigation of Attitudes to Scots", Scottish Language, 10: 30–46
- ISBN 978-0-7190-3692-7.
- ^ Robert McColl Millar (2018) Modern Scots: An Analytical Survey, Edinburgh University Press, p. 135
- ^ Hagan, Anette I. (2002) Urban Scots Dialect Writing. Bern: Lang.
- ^ a b c Macafee C.I. (1983) ‘Glasgow’ in Varieties of English around the World. Amsterdam: Benjamins p.40
- ^ Book review: The Young Team, by Graeme Armstrong, Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman, 5 March 2020
- ^ The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong review – a swaggering, incendiary debut, Jude Cook, The Guardian, 13 March 2020
- ^ "Ex-gang member and Young Team author Graeme Armstrong on the lonely road to redemption". HeraldScotland. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- ^ "Graeme Armstrong – Standard English is oor Second Language". Literature Alliance Scotland. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
- ^ Stuart-Smith, pp.203–4
- ^ Stuart-Smith, p.205
- ^ Stuart-Smith, p.205
- ^ Stuart-Smith, p.206
- ^ Stuart-Smith, pp.208–210
- ^ "Scotslanguage.com – Parliamo Glasgow". www.scotslanguage.com. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ "A newbie's guide to Glasgow". Blog. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Wright, Jane (1 June 2016). "Parliamo Glasgow? Stanley Baxter is still puredeadbrilliant byrraway". GlasgowLive. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ "Loach film may be subtitled for English audience". The Independent. London. 23 July 2002. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- ^ "'English' subtitles on film set in Scotland". 21 February 2005. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- ^ Neds – Film Review The Hollywood Reporter, October 14, 2010
- ^ Is TV a contributory factor in accent change in adolescents? – ESRC Society Today
- ^ Cockney creep puts paid to the patter – Evening Times
- .
- ^ Speitel, H. H. & Johnston, P. (1983). ESRC End of Grant Report "A Sociolinguistic Investigation of Edinburgh Speech."
- ^ "Soaps may be washing out accent". Bbc.co.uk.
- ^ 'We fink, so we are from Glasgow' – Times Online
- ^ Scots kids rabbitin' like Cockneys – Sunday Herald
- ^ – Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow Archived 30 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Glasgow and Estuary English". Phon.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
External links
- Glesca Glossary: self-published glossary (of variable quality and pertinence)
- Glasgow Dialect Archived 27 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- A series of articles on the Glasgow dialect on the Scots Language Centre website
- Lexicon Planet, featuring excerpts from The Patter
- The Online Scots Dictionary