Accents

[ChrisPBacon]

Do Scots people who live just inside the border with England have the same accent as English people who live just on the other side of the border? At what point do Scots people start speaking with what an English person would consider a Scots accent? Sorry if this is a stupid/naive question.

[doristwonk]

It's a jolly good question, and closely allied to something that has puzzled me for some years. Namely "do they ever serve anything but porrige and haggis in the Palace of Westminster restaurant?"

[KEJ2000]

As Einstein said, "It's all relative."

[Toglet]

Accents are regional, not national! A Borders accent covers both sides of the Border (especially as the Border itself only became fixed comparatively recently - the area was known as "The Debatable Lands" because no-one was sure which country they were in.....)

[sft42]

If you check the history books you'll find that the border has varied between York and just south of Glasgow at various times in the past so as stated the Borders region is a comparitively new area....there is no hard and fast division.

[Miss Zippy]

So does that mean there's a 'grey area' that overlaps the borders where people speak with a gentle Scottish inflection (I'm thinking Kirsty Young), before you get to the hard core 'och aye the noos'?

[Toglet]

It's not even as simple as that! There's the soft lilt of the Western Isles, the near-Norse of the far North-East, the Highland accent, the different Edinburgh accents (compare Sean Connery's accent to that of Maggie Smith in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie") - the inner-Glasgow accent (sort of Billy Connolly), or the Eastern Lowland accect (think Alli McCoist).

[Toglet]

Silly me, I got my directions mixed up. Alli McCoist's accent is, of course, Western Lowland. Basically, there are about as many Scottish regional accents as there are English ones.

[Ember]

Did you know that the people of Inverness speak "The Queens English". I am not sure why but my theory is that they were occupied for some considerable time by English Soldiers in the dim and distant past?