Order 1111627: Scottish English

Chapter One: Sociolinguistics backgrounds

1.1 Introductory remarks

The aim of this chapter is to provide the definitions of Dialect and Accent. Accent and Dialect are regularly used interchangeably. Therefore it might be misleading to understand these definitions.

1.2 Accent

The pronunciation is important when it comes to definition of the accent. Trask sees accent as “a particular way in which a group of people collectively pronounce a language.” (3). The accent can vary depending on the place of residence. Therefore, most people’s accent have regional features. There are many accents in England. For example, Scottish accent, a working-class London accent and a Deep South accent. It is not possible that anyone would speak without accent (3).

1.3 Dialect

Everywhere, there are people who speak closely related forms of communication. They are often called dialects of one language. Chambers and Trudgill claim that dialect is a variety of speech that is characteristic of a particular group often with relatively minor differences in vocabulary and grammar (5). There are areas where each language is spoken differently. These are regional varieties of a language. Moreover, the language can be spoken in unexpected way by members of different social groups. These are social dialects. According to Trask all people speak with a dialect.

1.2.1 Traditional Dialect

Traditional dialects are spoken by minority of English speaking population around the world. They can be found in remote peripheral and rural areas of England, in eastern, central, and southern Scotland where it is known as Scots, and in a part of Northern Ireland. They differ from Standard English considerably as well as from each other, and they may be difficult to understand.

that each languages change. Furhermore, new words were introduced during these changes. The second principle are people who often talk to each other after time speak very similarly.

a) Mainstream Dialects

Mainstream dialects include the Standard English Dialect and the Modern Nonstandard Dialects. These dialects are associated with native speakers outside the British Isles (America, Canada, Australia) and in Britain with southeast of England, Scottish Highlands, much of Wales, western Cornwall, with the speech of most younger people, and with middle- and upper-class speakers. Mainstream dialects differ much less from Standard English and from each other, and they are often distinguished much more by their accent. (pp. 5‑6)

Chapter One: Language situation in Scotland

1.1 Introductory remarks

The purpose of this chapter is to present information about Scotland as a linguistically diverse socio-geographic area. The compiled material starts with a basic consideration of the language situation in Scotland and briefly characterises the co-existing dialects along with their evolution.

1.2 Scotland as a multi-lingual speech community

In the first place, during the collection of materials for use in this chapter, it was noticed that the 14-volume second edition of Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2006) does not contain a different article regarding the history or the current linguistic situation in Scotland. It is a surprising discovery considering that dedicated encyclopaedic entries are available for Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. After a closer examination it is observed that subsections devoted to Scotland and Northern Ireland are only found as parts of a larger article about the overall language situation throughout the United Kingdom.

According to the recent demographic information, Scotland has a population of roughly 5.3 million people, out of whom more than 20 percent live in one of the two main urban centres, namely Edinburgh or Glasgow (Scotland.org). English functions as the official language across all public domains, as in the entire UK. Probably the most common element prominent in the spoken interaction in Scotland is the distinctive accent characterised by noticeable rhoticity and a total or partial loss of variation with regards to vowel length. The second mentioned aspect is very rare in the south of Britain (Brown 252). Moreover, the use of English typical of Scotland also features differences observed in the use of vocabulary and fixed or semi-fixed expressions (idioms and other formulas). According to Brown (252), there are also minor differences concerning the use of grammar and specific syntactic structures.

Furthermore, the variety of English, which will be called Scottish English , co-exists with several other dialects many of which are grouped under the name of Scots. Aitken (3) reports that some of the most traditional varieties of Scots are used in the north-eastern territories as well as in the Northern Isles. It is also noticed that the same area, also including the Northern Isles, has been enduring constant tension between people advocating ‘dialect loyalty’ and the proponents of adopting Standard British English as a more practical choice.

Among the above-mentioned Scottish urban centres, Glasgow in particular is famous for its dynamics of speech among its inhabitants. People living in the largest city in Scotland regularly code-switch between Scottish English, British English and Scots. Despite the current situation, the British government has not recognised Scots as an official language in the UK. However, the range of dialects and their continuity are supported by Scottish Executive’s National Cultural Strategy (SENCS, Brown 252), in which there is a special section focused on the promotion of the Scottish linguistic heritage.

The linguistic landscape in Scotland also features Gaelic, a Celtic language also referred to as Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic. despite its rapid decline witnessed before the onset of the 20th century, Gaelic was able to survive as a language in continual use. It is currently spoken and written or at the very least understood by the fraction of 1.9 percent among the Scottish population. It has maintained a comparatively strong presence across the Western Isles: according to the Scotland’s Census of 2011, Gaelic was, at that time, spoken by the group of over 40 percent (15.5 thousand out of nearly 27 thousand inhabitants). The same census estimated the total number of Gaelic users in Scotland at 1.1 percent (nearly 25 thousand speakers).

Gaelic has been taught at universities in Scotland and other countries, especially in Canada. In addition, numerous primary schools offer Gaelic medium courses alongside English. Regarding the mass media, BBC and other stations broadcast television as well as radio channels in Gaelic. Finally, the European Union has officially recognised Gaelic as a minority language (Brown 252).

Last but not least, it must be underlined that the summary of information on the languages in Scotland provided in this subchapter does not present the linguistic abundance of Scotland in its entirety. The data collected during Scotland’s Census in 2011 indicate more findings showing the linguistic transition that has been happening in Scotland over the last decades. For example, with more than 54 thousand speakers, Polish is almost on a par with all different types of Scots combined. Moreover, approximately 230 thousand residents use (at home) languages that are not native to Scotland. It is mostly due to the growing ethnic as well as national diversity of the Scottish population, which currently includes more that 140 thousand of inhabitants calling themselves either Asian, Asian-British or Asian-Scottish. In addition, according to Scotland’s Census 2011, there are also nearly 30 thousand citizens of African descent. Lastly, the fact that over 12 thousand of people in Scotland use British Sign Language should not be ignores, also including distinctively Scottish vocabulary.

1.3 Scots

Scots signifies a group of dialects mainly found in Lowland Scotland, where they function in a continuum with various Northern English dialects. Users of Scots can be found in Orkney and Shetland Islands as well. Additionally, Scots has also been present in Ireland since the 17th century. Contemporarily, its active use has survived in several parts of Northern Ireland and in County Donegal. Certain selected aspects and lexical items typical of Scots can also be identified in the Canada, the USA, and New Zealand (Macafee 33).

As a set of dialects, Scots has coexisted with SSE in a kind of sociolinguistic continuum. That is why it is also natural that both systems are used interchangeably by many speakers. The most intense stress on sustaining Scots during everyday communication exists mostly in rural areas and small-town communities located away from the large industrialised areas. Macafee (33) elaborates on the fact that in the north-eastern areas of Scotland and also in the Northern Isles, it is considered as normal even among professionals to code-switch and mix English and Scots at will. Moreover, it is believed that this form of flexibility will probably decline over time as a result of exposure of the young generations to the British and international mass media and the language used on the Internet. It must be taken into consideration that in densely inhabited urban areas of Scotland, Scots dialects are mostly used by people representing the working class.

It has to be highlighted that urban Scots dialects are normally thinnest (least prominent and dominated by the influence of English). This is particularly visible in the use of traditional vocabulary. Therefore, urban dialects are also unlikely to be linked to the historical heritage of Scots, its status, dignity and linguistic attributes. Alternatively, such urban dialects tend to be recognised as forms of a sociolect or local slang. To address the situation, academic teaching and studies relating to Scots have been encouraged across Scotland and Northern Ireland. What is more, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow has expressed incessant interest in Scots dialects. In Northern Ireland the Ulster Scots Agency has also conducted and facilitated a variety of cultural and linguistic projects. Nevertheless, as outlined by Mcafee, the projects mostly concentrated on the modern variations of Scots (34), hence the tendency did not receive considerable enthusiasm among native speakers of Scots and many scholars.

1.3.1 Roots of Scots

Similarly to Standard English, Scots dialects generally derive from Old English (OE), particularly its Anglian dialect generally known as Anglic (Woolhiser 510). The roots of this variety of OE point to the region south of Forth around the 7th century. The later development of Scots was also stimulated by the influx of speakers originating from Yorkshire in the 12th century, officially invited by King David of Scotland. The Anglian dialect became common throughout the Lowlands (Macafee 33-34). Its popularity further increased with the progressing growth of cities and the Norman management of both church and civil life. Consequently, present-day Lowland Scots contains numerous lexical borrowings (loanwords) from Old Norse, also shared with Northern English dialects. Moreover, in the regions of Orkney, Caithness, and Shetland, where historically a considerable Norse settlement occurred, Scots at some point replaced the Scandinavian dialect called Norn (Tröster-Mutz 460).

The characteristic Scots orthography was developed around the 15th century. To begin with, the double spellings indicating vowels, such as: ‘ee’, ‘oo’ and ‘ea’, had been eliminated. What was also characteristic was that the sound /x/, started to be represented by ‘ch’ in spelling, as in nicht (‘night’). A number of words were written as ending in ‘-ill’, for example litill (‘little’) (Macafee 34).

The presented examples and the preservation of the described speech sounds in Early Scots demonstrate that the influence of French on the evolution of Scots was mostly independent of the English impact. The situation was similar with regards to Latin-based items. Due to numerous external influences along with the acquisition of loanwords of various origin, Scots progressively obtained its distinctive nature (Macafee 34).

Early Scots progressively evolved into Middle Scots. It included the use of syllables with i-digraph spellings symbolising stressed monophthongs from Northern English dialects, e.g. ‘ai’, as in haim (‘home’); ‘ei’, as in leid (‘lead’ – used as a verb and a noun), ‘oi’ as in rois (‘rose’ – the flower), and ‘ui’ as in muin (‘moon’) (Macafee 34).

Aside from orthographic and phonological patterns, Scots has had a very rich literary legacy. Documents, including historical texts, have existed already during the Older Scots period. Works of ‘makars’ ought to be mentioned at this point – a Scottish literary term indicating a poet or a bard, usually performing at the royal court or for noblemen – such as Robert Henryson (1425-1500), William Dunbar (1460-1520) and Gavin Douglas (1474-1522). Concerning renowned modern-day writers, one should list Walter Scott (1771-1832) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) as well as Robert Burns (1759-1796) and John Galt (1779-1839). A number of folk tales and song lyrics have been compiled also including extended narrative ballads called ‘muckle sangs’ (Macafee 34).

New literary creations have been stimulated by the movement generally known as language revitalisation or language revival. Notable examples include poetry by Christopher M. Grieve (1892-1978) also called Hugh MacDiarmid, songs by Hamish Henderson (1919-2002) and dramatic works or their translations. As mentioned earlier, the dialects found in urban settings are normally ‘thinner’. Within the context of literary rebirth, the goal was to make the works accessible for a larger readership; it can be observed in the successes of writers like Tom Leonard (1944-) and Liz Lochhead (1947-) from Glasgow and Irvine Welsh (1958-) from Edinburgh (Macafee 33). For similar reasons, the variety of Scots employed in television broadcast and other mass media also remains thin.

Macafee (35) adds that modern Scots also includes some slight grammar differences in comparison to the English dialects used across the British Isles. For instance, there is double agreement in the present tense of verbs. To be more specific, if the grammatical subject is a personal pronoun located next to the verb, then that verb must be inflected only in the third-person singular, and in particular cases, also in second-person singular. Otherwise, the verb needs to be inflected in all grammatical persons (in both grammatical numbers). What is interesting, the dialects spoken in Orkney and Shetland continue to use du to mean ‘thou’, i.e. the second-person singular pronoun. Moreover, youse – a novel form of second-person plural pronoun – has gradually spread from Ulster to Glasgow. Another ‘trademark’ characteristic of Modern Scots is associated with its system of demonstratives, containing forms such as yon (and thon) conveying a distance greater than the one symbolised by that or thae (‘those’) (Macafee 35).

It ought to be emphasised that the Scots lexicon also features a considerable ratio of words that are shared with English including some of the most popular lexical items like the article ‘the,’ the noun ‘cat,’ and the verb ‘tell’. There are also forms that survived as loanwords from OE, such as neep (‘turnip’) and een (‘eyes’) (Woolhiser 510). What is more, Scots features many original coinages, e.g. gully ‘knife’ and a more complex lexical form tapsalteerie (‘head-over-heels’). There is also vocabulary indicating historical roots of Scots, such as words sourced from Old Norse (nowt – ‘cattle’), Middle Dutch (craig – ‘neck’), Anglo-Norman (leal – ‘loyal’), Latin (stravaig – ‘roam’), Central French (Hogmanay – ‘New Year’s Eve’), and Gaelic corrie-(fistit) (‘left-(handed)’) (Macafee 35).

1.4 Scots Gaelic

In order to understand the position of Scots Gaelic, also referred to as Scottish Gaelic, in the linguistic landscape of Scotland, the account of its origins must be presented first. Essentially, the Scottish settlement started with the appearance of Gaelic-speaking people who arrived from the north-eastern parts of Ulster. They built their homes in the north-western lands and islands of Caledonia by the end of the 5th century. Later their kingdom called Dal Riata was moved from Ulster to Argyll. Gradually, the community grew larger, thanks to the inclusion of the Picts as well as the conquest of the Britons and Angles in the south. Until the 11th century, it was already common to refer to the area as Scotland. It is also noteworthy that Viking townships which emerged in the late 8th century in the Northern Highlands and Northern Isles introduced the Norn language to the area. It managed to survive till the 18th century in Caithness, Orkney and Shetland (MacKinnon 36).

During the rule of Malcolm III Ceannmòr (1054–1096) Gaelic began to lose its popularity at court and also amidst the aristocracy. Norman French started to become more prominent, except the Lowland areas in which the Anglian speech was popularised in the towns and cities of the eastern Scotland established by David I (1124–1153). The language first became known as Inglis and later as Scots. It soon became the most common language throughout the Scottish Lowlands. Nonetheless, Gaelic continued to exist and develop until the late Middle Ages in places, such as Carrick and Galloway in the south-western Lowlands. According to MacKinnon (36), the last speakers could be found living in Ayrshire till the 18th century.

In essence, Scots Gaelic is classified as a Celtic language. To be more specific, it belongs to the Goidelic or ‘Q-Celtic’ branch which has close links to Irish and Manx. Its sentence structure normally follows a VSO (verb-subject-object) pattern. Adjectives usually follow the nouns, unlike in English. In Gaelic, as in most other Celtic languages, personal pronouns are combined with prepositions and can be declined. Verbs, however, are not normally declinable for person. There are, in fact, only ten irregular verbs in Scots Gaelic (MacKinnon 36).

It is an interesting fact is that Scots Gaelic features two different forms of the verb ‘to be’. Firstly, there is bi – the basic form used to form simple statements. It is similar to its English equivalent: it is conjugated for tense and it can be used to express progressive tenses when combined with the present participle forms. The form is serves the function of expressing emphasis and can only be found in the so-called present-future and past tenses. These two verbs, together with various prepositions (also prepositional pronouns), are sources of a substantial collection of idioms that represent physical actions, as opposed to mental or emotional states and other abstractions (MacKinnon 36).

1.5 Scottish Standard English

As outlined by Schützler (1), the key strength of Standard Scottish English (SSE) is not rooted in the number of its speakers, but instead in its historical importance and the ways it has inspired the cultural development of the British Isles. Along with the growth of urban areas in 19th and early 20th century, a progressively clearer division started developing between the ‘proper’ or conventional rural dialects and their allegedly ‘corrupt’, hybrid urban variants. This perspective was shared by numerous local speakers and was not limited to the difference between Scottish English and ‘pure’ Scots. By the middle of the 19th century, the majority of Scotland had achieved high literacy rates in English, therefore, a continuum had to emerge between the more ‘dense’ forms of Scots and much thinner SSE.

Generally, SSE could be described as “the standard dialect of English used in Scotland, including a Scottish standard accent” (Schützler 20). Consequently, it may be viewed as a counterpart of the standard dialect of southern English, i.e. Southern Standard British English (SSBE) characterised, among others, by the famous and prestigious southern British accent. In practice, the terms SSE and SSBE are mostly employed to represent the respective accents themselves. Even if minor morphological or syntactic dissimilarities can be found, then a given language is commonly perceived as a form of Scots. In this narrow sense, SSE can be described by referring to the statement made by Carr, who asserted that “SSE is the standard accent which many Scots speak when speaking the Standard English dialect” (156).

There is an interesting observation made by Millar (63). The researcher draws attention to the point that the inception of SSE which started approximately during the 18th century allowed the dialect to preserve the primary attributes of the Scottish accent. In addition, SSE helped strengthen the public and political status of Scots not only in Britain but also across Europe. Lexical as well as structural portions of Scots can easily be found in the performance of a typical SSE speaker.

It can be noticed is that many definitions of SSE regularly refer to SSBE as a reference point. Nevertheless, it continues to be an open question whether or not the grammatical systems of SSBE and SSE are, in fact, sufficiently similar to be regarded as a single Standard English grammar. The problem, however, is too complicated to be fully accounted for in this thesis. Giegerich (46) believes that it is not possible to select a single accent in Scotland to be termed standard, not in a clear sociolinguistic sense. According to Schützler (1), the only potential candidate could be the SSE accent. However, it is still much less clearly specified compared to other types of English worldwide.

Alternatively, McClure (79) is of the opinion that SSE might be viewed as an acceptable local and globally recognisable standard. Importantly, McClure does not use the narrowed down meaning of SSE restricted to the characteristic Scottish accent, even though his book clearly points to the fact that pronunciation is an important, if not focal point. Lastly, SEE is frequently discussed in association with SSE. Aitken (99) even describes SSE as the “educated Scottish accent”. Similarly, Stuart-Smith (48) relates the discussed form of English with educated speakers mostly representing the middle-class.

It has to be explained that Grant does not, in fact, use the name Scottish Standard English. Instead, the scholar simply calls it Standard Scottish. However, it can be presumed from his description that the researcher is discussing the same variety characteristic of the “educated middle classes” (Grant 4) along with educational institutions and styles present in official, public performances. From the context, it seems clear that Grant refers to the English variant widely known as SSE.

As already stated, the narrow understanding of SSE perceives it as a variety of SE characterised by the Scottish pronunciation. Therefore, even though there is no longer a rigid division between Scots and SSE in contemporary Scotland, scholars like Machaň (11) claim that for the descriptive clearness morphological and syntactic elements should be understood as the existence of Scots’ characteristics within SSE. As already observed, pronunciation is considered to be the foremost aspect that distinguishes SSE from SE, in a similar manner that General American can be easily recognised as different from British English based on its accent.

1.6 Concluding remarks

The information presented in this chapter indicates the complexity of the language situation in Scotland. Due to extensive language contact, modern-day varieties of the respective dialects have adopted a number of features and patterns from other languages spoken in the neighbouring regions.

Chapter one:

Scottish English

Features of Scottish English

Vocabulary and pronunciation

The Scottish English is the everyday language of the people in Scotland, but this English differs greatly from the standard written English that we know. During pronunciations, words that are associated with Scotland are mostly attached with both British and American pronunciation alongside Scottish pronunciation. Scottish pronunciation shows a great difference compared to both British and United States English (Abercrombie). Words that are pronounced with the same vowel such as bird, nurse, and herd are often pronounced differently in Scottish English. In the Scottish English word that contains the spelling, ear is usually pronounced as /ɛr/. Scottish English usually follows the Aitkens Law. This law is very consistent in the old English dictionary, especially when pronouncing British English words that contain /ʌɪ/.According to Scottish English if the vowel /ʌɪ/ is accompanied by /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /r/ ,a suffix , or is used to end a syllable, then it is pronounced as /aɪ/ (More).However, if placed in a different position it is pronounced as /aɪ/. It is therefore evident that Scottish English creates a great distinction between words that are otherwise pronounced the same in British English. Such words include tide and tied.In Scottish English they are pronounced as /tʌid/ and /taɪd/ respectively.

Scottish English has most consonants take the function of a vowel. These consonants include I, m and n. Therefore it is essential to make it clear when this kind of interpretation is intended otherwise when ambiguity is intended the consonants should appear with a diacritic such as that of the British English. An example is when brackets are used to around a vowel such as /ə/. This indicates that the /ə/ may not be pronounced but in some cases it would mean that the consonant following would be taking the function of the vowel. An example is the name saddle /sæd(ə)l.

However the difference between Scottish English and U.S English there is a similarity in that both have /r/ regardless of the sound that follows however in British English the vowel /r/ only remains when there is a vowel after it. This means that the /r/ sound is present in Scottish English but absent in British English. This is evident in words such as mar(Scottish /mar/, as opposed to British English /mɑː/) (Kay et al).

Stress on words

Stress in Scottish English is indicated by the use of symbols (ˈ) and (ˌ). The first symbol (ˈ) is used at the beginning of a syllable as an indication of primary stress while pronouncing while the second symbol (ˌ) is used to show secondary importance during pronunciation. However, when both symbols are used at the beginning of a syllable, they are used to indicate that pronunciation can have both primary and secondary stress.

It is essential to note that Scottish English uses the "i.e., as a diminutive ending to nouns to indicate that something is small. An example is when describing a young boy or girl. In Scottish English, they are described as laddie and lassie (Robertson).

Additionally, there are minor differences in stress between the Scottish English and the British English. However, the principle underlying stress in a language is the same throughout the English language (Gordeeva , and Scobbie) . Scottish English tends to stress particular verbs differently as compared to British English. The latter has a characteristic of highlighting the first syllable in verbs that are suffixed by –ize and –ate. However, this is different from the Scottish English where stress is put on verbs in the second syllable.

Grammar

In Scottish English progressive verbs are used more often as compared to other forms of English such as British English, such as "I am wanting a drink" to mean I want a drink. However in other areas “be” is used as an auxiliary verb together with “after” as the preposition. An example is seen when saying, "He is after going" which according to British English is "He has gone."

It is essential to note that most vowels are formed as a result of merging between the long and short vowels. This merging creates phonemic mergers which refer to the absence of contrastive difference. This merger is concerned with words such as trap/palm and goose/foot. However, most Scottish English speakers have a hard time distinguishing the pairs of vowels. According to Abercrombie, when there is a pose while speaking the contrastive / Ʊ/ takes the presence of contrastive / ɒ/, but the opposite cannot be the same (Abercrombie). This same rule applies to the contrastive / ɒ/ which makes the existence of contrastive / ɒ/.Among the Scottish middle class, most of the speakers are affected by British English and therefore though their punctuation contains some essential Scottish features they are not perceived to be speaking Scottish English. These speakers have specific contrasts that bear phonemic contrasts as well as a monophthongal realization of diphthongs. Although their ascent may seem different, it is the standard form of Scottish English. Although the British English can be used to differentiate between trap and palm words the distinction is however not clear in Scottish English (Robertson) .

It is quite evident that Scottish English neutralizes the lax/tense difference of the vowels present in words goose and foot. The two words are most pronounced with a high, central and sometimes fronted speech. Most dialects by the Scottish people have the vowel being of a high front or rounded. An example of these is;

foot [ pɑm]

goose [ trɅp]

Consonants

Consonants in the Scottish English do not differ a great deal from that of British English; however, there arises a small difference in phonemics. We are therefore going to discuss some of the Scottish English consonants that are not present in the British English system of consonants.

/ʍ/ and /x/

Consonant /ʍ/ is a unique feature of the Scottish English since it contains a velar secondary articulation that has a voiceless labial fricative. In some cases, it is the voiceless counterpart of /w/. This consonant is mostly seen in the words that have wh. Though restricted only to the consonant clusters it mostly appears at the start of a syllable. Therefore in most English accents the difference between /ʍ/ and /w/ is not present. However, in Scottish English, it is present. This explains the reason why the words Whale and Wale may be considered as homophonous in other English ascents but not in Scottish English (Abercrombie).

The consonant /x/ may have few usage and frequency in other English accents. However, this is not the case in Scottish English where it is considered in the consonant inventory. If used, its quality may be weakened by the presence of the high back vowels leaving it to be devoiced. Even with all these, Scottish English conserves its pronunciation, especially where foreign words that are spelled with "ch” are involved.

Rhoticity

Rhoticity is the feature that distinguishes two types of English; it is the absence or presence of a post-vocalic /r/. Scottish English is described as a rhotic dialect since iot conserves /r/ in word-final position before a consonant while British English is referred to as non-rhotic dialect where the post-vocalic /r/ is lost to create a glide (Gordeeva , and Scobbie).

Prosody

Prosody is a feature of the language that is created by pitch, loudness, and length all combined. British English and Scottish English are not very different from prosodic features however in Scottish English the process of syllabification is altered (Kay et al). This difference is evident with phrasal verbs where a consonant present at the end of a word in a closed syllable is syllabicated with the vowel that is present in the subsequent word.

Rhythm

The rhythm of a language is mostly affected by stress patterns. It is through rhythm that an accent is created. Rhythm in British English tends to stressed syllables that appear at regular intervals of time. However, those of the Scottish English appear as irregular where the first stressed syllable is short and the second is long. Therefore, both languages have very different rhythm (Kay et al).

Conclusion

It can be well deduced that Scottish English is a particular accent compared with other English languages. Therefore it is tough to limit its borders to the standard forms of English. However, in most situations, the laws underlying the structures of English also apply to the Scottish English. The features discussed well indicate that Scottish English does not fall far from the British English that is common in most parts of the world in fact; most of the new generation in Scotland are diverting from Scottish English and have become more inclined to the British type of English.