Regional Varieties of British English: Scottish Standard English

Term Paper (Advanced seminar) , 2010 , 16 Pages , Grade: 2,0

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics

1. Introduction

It's a braw bricht muin-licht nicht the nicht.
(literally: It's a beautiful bright moonlight night tonight.)

Kiddingly, Scottish people love to let English people try to pronounce this
sentence from Scots. For English people it is hard to pronounce the Scottish
sentence since it contains the /x/-phoneme that English Standard English does not
know. Therefore Scots is in the eyes of English Standard English Speakers a quite
foreign language. But what happens when the two languages – English Standard
English and Scots – merge and make up a new language, namely Scottish Standard
English? When did the influence of English on Scots start? How much of the
language heritage from Scots was imported into SSE? Which special features in
phonetic, grammar and lexis can be found? What other languages influenced SSE
and which so-called loanwords can still be found? This term paper will try to give
answers to these questions.
Therefore in (2.) will be given a definition of SSE in contrast to Scots. Then there
will be given a rough overview of the historical background and development of SSE
(3). Afterwards, certain differences of SSE and English Standard English in phonetic
(4.1), grammar (4.2) and lexis (4.3) will be described. Then there shall be given an
insight in SSE nowadays (5).
2.

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Definition Scottish Standard English vs. Scots

3. The History of Scottish Standard English

4. Differences between English Standard English and SSE
4.1 Phonology
4.1.1 Vowel System
4.1.2 Rhoticity
4.1.3 Vowel length
4.2 Consonants
4.3 Grammar
4.3.1 Differences in Tenses
4.3.2 Negation
4.4 Lexis
4.4.1 Loan Words

5. Scottish English today

6. Conclusion

7. Works Cited

• College: University of Tubingen (Englisches Seminar)
• Course: Englisch Grammar: Phonetics
• Grade: 2,0
• Author: Daniel Buchmaier (Author)
• Publication Year: 2010
• Pages: 16
• Catalog Number: V183609
• ISBN (eBook): 9783656079965
• ISBN (Book): 9783656080077
• Language: English
• Tags: Varieties, British English, Scottish Standard English, Scottish, Scottish Phonetics, Phonetics, Scotland