I first became aware of Scotland when as a child I asked my mother why Star Trek’s Scotty’s speech sounded different. When she said “he’s Scottish.” I replied, "No, his name is ‘Scotty.’ " Once I caught on to what she was saying, I became a fan of Scotland, Scottish accents, and all that.
Over the years, though, I have come to realize that Scotty’s accent wasn’t exactly authentic.
What I’ve always wanted to know, though, is from the point of view of people very familiar with the complete range of Scottish accents – Exactly how bad is Scotty’s accent? Is it slightly bad? Is it Dick-Van-Dyke-level bad? Is it just laughably horrible?
I’m English rather than Scottish, but when I used to watch Star Trek as a kid I did actually think James Doohan was Scottish. Maybe a Scot who had lived in America for some time. Listening to his accent now, I still think it’s a reasonable attempt. It’s a kind of stagy cod-rural-Scottish accent, but not bad, I would say.
My Glaswegian granddad had a long conversation with a dutch guy - neither could get through the other’s accent.
To those of us listening in, it was complete gibberish on both sides as the more they tried to make themselves understood, the thicker their accents got.
My mum just says that Scotty isn’t from Glasgow and leaves it at that. According to a friend he ain’t from Edinburgh either.
Nevertheless, speaking as an American who’s heard a fair few real Scottish accents, it was a reasonable attempt, if a bit generic, as someone said. As good, say, as Bob Hoskins doing an American accent.
“there are even places (in britain) where english completely disappears. why, in america they haven’t used it in years!”
–prof. henry higgins
joking aside, i remember scotty’s first long speaking part. he was at the helm when both kirk and spock were planet-bound. that “captain’s log” report of his sounded weird. but doohan exudes toughness (he’s a WW2 veteran) so i didn’t really think it was funny. just quaint.
Jimmy Doohan is actually of Irish descent, and offtered Roddenbery the option of an Irish or Scottish character; Gene chose the Scot. While his character’s name is “Lt/. Cdr. Montgomery Scott”, he is supposed to be an ethnic Scot, from Aberdeen.
I had that exact same converstaion at an Irish Pub (Matt Kelly’s Irish Pub!) in Bad Kreuznach with a Welshman. Didn’t really get what he was saying until I had a few pints of Guinness Extra Stout.
It’s not great, frankly, but it isn’t even remotely in Dick Van Dyke territory. Pretty generic - no one in Scotland actually has this accent but it is at least recognisably Scottish.
Yeah, but Craig Ferguson said that about everyone’s Scottish accent. That’s how he justified his atrocious (he admits – I didn’t notice) British accent as Mr. Wick, British actors have been butchering the Scot accent for years.
Of course I, and Ximenean: think James Dohan is doing just fine. I also think Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was doing a fine Cockney accent. But British people listening to him want to hit mute and rely on close captioning.
The ‘rebooted’ Scotty is apparently from Glasgow.
The original Scotty was from either Aberdeen or Linlithgow (15 miles west of Edinburgh), depending on who you believe. (more info in the same link)
A few years ago Mary Chapin Carpenter was on Jay Leno and talked about her experiences being interviewed on a Glasgow radio station. The DJ asked her if “generally, do you play with a band”. To her ears it came out “genitally”, she thought he was crudely asking if she was romantically involved so she said “no!”. So he said “so you play solo” and she said “no, I play with a band”. Leno laughed and said his mother was from Glasgow and when he went over there, he couldn’t understand a word they were saying.
