[QUOTE=Sir Rhosis]
I recall watching an absolutely captivating movie from Scotland a few years back which (iirc) concerned a middle-aged drug addict falling in love with his counselor and trying to keep a young addict from going down the same road he had traveled (can’t recall the title of the film). Even though it was in English, I was glad the damn thing was subtitled as I only understood about every fourth word.
Sir Rhosis
[/QUOTE]
It’s not the film you watched, but I watched Bill Forsythe’s *Gregory’s Girl * on DVD last year (his Local Hero’s a favorite movie of mine, natch), and had to turn on the subtitles to understand the dialect. After watching the movie, I discovered (via scenes from the original release in the Special Features) that the version I couldn’t understand without subtitles was dubbed to make it more understandable.
[QUOTE=muldoonthief]
I humbly submit, that had he picked Canadian, Star Trek would never have become the phenomenon it did.
Aye Cap’n - I dinna ken fix these engines!
vs.
Hey you hoser - how aboot giving me some more time to fix this, eh?
[/QUOTE]
Everyone knows that all good engineers are Germans.
*Captian, you haf a problem. Zee first is zhat zee engine is shit. Zee second is that it is a German National Holiday vhich means for me, I have a four day weekend. Beam me down to zee Canary Island, sank you very much. *
Now, if Scotty were Japanese.
Rook, Captian, Deed Gorzirra piss in this or whut? I drank too much sake an’ woke up in a Vegas Horogram. Wifa Was Wegas! Anywhooo, You ore fooked!
What if Scotty were Jamaican? What’s the worry, mon? We are not in the gravitational pull of any planet and if that happens, we will do a mass beaming of our staff down to safety. Smoke a spliff and lighten up, mon.
What if Scotty were a Redneck?
*Welll, SHEEEEE-IT, Cappy. You done blown the flux capacitor like I said you would. Now’s I can fix it. Alls I need is some duct tape, wire, tobacco, a potatoh, and a case of Coor’s. Maybe two cases. *
[QUOTE=muldoonthief]
I humbly submit, that had he picked Canadian, Star Trek would never have become the phenomenon it did.
Aye Cap’n - I dinna ken fix these engines!
vs.
Hey you hoser - how aboot giving me some more time to fix this, eh?
[/QUOTE]
“Holmes, I need warp now!”
“Ooh, you see what they did here, eh?” (shakes head in sorrow) “It’s all gonna come out, yeah, take it all out.”
I’m English but born in Scotland, and James Doohan’s Scottish accent always sounded authentic to me. It sounded kind of rural, not at all like Glasgow or Edinburgh or wherever. But it did sound Scottish, to me, and I’m sure to other Brits. I think that that is pretty good going for a Canadian actor.
[QUOTE=Struan]
Yeah, that too. In any case he isn’t due to be born for a couple of hundred years, in the town of…well, that’s a matter of some controversy in the real world.
[QUOTE=Struan]
I wish I could see what Craig is doing on his sober-Craig chat show. He was funny when he was doing his stand-up as Bing Hitler.Very self-destructive though.
[/QUOTE]
There are clips on YouTube, but also some RealVideo at CBS.
The Hundred Years War was finally resolved. The Last Black Prince (Edward XVIII) won the 5th Battle of Crecy, and France was subsumed into the Anglo-Pakistani Empire.
I really recall the Glasgow accent to be relatively mild compared to a city like Edinburgh or a town like Sterling.
[/QUOTE]
My experience was exactly the opposite. Most Edinburghers spoke what I thought of as a “refined” (sorry about the choice of words) brand of Scottish English. I had no problems understanding the average Edinburgher. Glaswegians, on the other hand, were all over the place, with much stronger and musical accents than Edinburghers. I kinda thought Edinburgh accent:Glasgow accent as London accent:Birmingham accent.
While traveling through about a dozen European countries, the only person I met whose English was damn near unintelligible to me because of his accent was a Glaswegian, and I’m including many people who spoke English as a second or third language. I had no trouble whatsoever understanding anyone in Edinburgh.
[QUOTE=Struan] A typical Glaswegian, yesterday (video)
[/QUOTE]
Thank you! I’ve never heard of Rab C. Nesbitt before but that justifies upgrading from dialup even more than that a fast connection is now cheaper.
ETA: My daughters think David Tennant makes an ugly woman (see the Davina bit). I direct them back to their Monty Python collection and point out the extent their grandmother (on my wife’s side) looks like Terry Jones. Thank GOD my wife doesn’t take after her mom. By comparison, Tennant’s not bad.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
My experience was exactly the opposite. Most Edinburghers spoke what I thought of as a “refined” (sorry about the choice of words) brand of Scottish English.
[/QUOTE]
The “refined” accent that you are talking about is probably the Morningside accent, which is the equivalent of RP in Scotland. It isn’t really representative of Edinburgh accents at all, which can be as incomprehensible as Glaswegian.
[QUOTE=Struan]
I wish I could see what Craig is doing on his sober-Craig chat show. He was funny when he was doing his stand-up as Bing Hitler.Very self-destructive though.
[/QUOTE]
He had a very moving talk about the media’s coverage of Britney Spears, and how he feels terrible for her considering his own background. Official CBS posting of the segment on YouTube, so it shouldn’t be country-limited.
[QUOTE=Capt. Ridley’s Shooting Party]
The “refined” accent that you are talking about is probably the Morningside accent, which is the equivalent of RP in Scotland. It isn’t really representative of Edinburgh accents at all, which can be as incomprehensible as Glaswegian.
[/QUOTE]
You’d know better, of course. And I know there’s rough accents in Edinburgh (just like there are in London, plus I understand the book Trainspotting was mimicking a certain Edinburgh accent and, lord knows, it took several days to get accustomed to reading it–I just didn’t encounter that accent in my times in Ediburgh), it’s just that in my day-to-day activities in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, Glasweigian accents seemed, on the whole in the central part of the city, stronger than the same in Edinburgh. I didn’t find much, if any, “Scottish RP” in Glasgow.
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder]
He had a very moving talk about the media’s coverage of Britney Spears, and how he feels terrible for her considering his own background.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for posting that Ferret Herder. It’s good to see he is doing well, because at one point he was really caning it - even by Scottish standards.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
You’d know better, of course. And I know there’s rough accents in Edinburgh (just like there are in London, plus I understand the book Trainspotting was mimicking a certain Edinburgh accent and, lord knows, it took several days to get accustomed to reading it–I just didn’t encounter that accent in my times in Ediburgh), it’s just that in my day-to-day activities in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, Glasweigian accents seemed, on the whole in the central part of the city, stronger than the same in Edinburgh. I didn’t find much, if any, “Scottish RP” in Glasgow.
But perhaps I just had an anomalous experience?
[/QUOTE]
There’s a large class element (for want of a better phrase) to the accents. In my experience Glasgow is much less class-conscious than Edinburgh - it’s entirely possible that you could have met far fewer “working class” Edinburgh folk than the equivalent in Glasgow. And you are correct about the dialect in Trainspotting.