# ST: TOS. Was Scotty’s accent Scottish or Irish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [March 8, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695 "2022-03-08T18:08:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/21 "2022-03-08T21:57:15Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > > [@vislor](#): > > > > Years ago on Craig Ferguson’s show, he talked about how when they saw the Original Series Star Trek back home in Scotland, no one recognized Scotty’s accent. When they found out Scotty was supposed to be Scottish, they all wondered what had happened to him that he spoke so poorly. He may have been saying that as comedy or exaggeration but I don’t think he was impressed. > > I came to mention this. > > “We had no idea he was supposed to be Scottish. ‘Mom, why is the man with the Pakistani accent called Scotty?’” Actually, the line is “Why is the Pakistani gentleman called Scotty?” ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/22 "2022-03-08T22:14:40Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > He also had a surprising fondness for Shakespeare. - And Melville. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/23 "2022-03-08T22:26:43Z")
Scotty’s accent was at least as good as Patty Duke’s. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QU-W9kSTqA) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/24 "2022-03-08T22:27:31Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Steve Martin’s accents are generally terrible. So are most Russian males’. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/25 "2022-03-08T22:41:51Z")
I actually met a French person once whose accent was just as English as Picard’s. Being from Europe, when she learned English, she learned it from teachers from England, and apparently she learned it well enough that she didn’t have an accent (i.e., she had the same accent as her teachers). ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2022, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/26 "2022-03-08T23:42:33Z")
Right, “Scotty”'s accent was a completely made-up accent, aka the [what-the-hell-is-that accent](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatTheHellIsThatAccent). Real Scottish accent: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/u4UqyjHJIc0/maxresdefault.jpg "GLASGOW GLOW Season 2 Episode 2") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4UqyjHJIc0) Real Irish accent: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9eXqyfWugyk/hqdefault.jpg "Irish Farmer has Sheep Stolen - Mad Irish Accent") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eXqyfWugyk) Let’s not forget all the regional variations… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/27 "2022-03-09T00:24:25Z")
When I was teaching English in Moscow, I knew a Russian teacher who was living with her Scottish boyfriend. Her Scottish accent was impeccable. Some people have good ears and can pick up a foreign accent in no time at all. Others never seem to acquire one even after 20 years of exposure. The best time to learn a language is the first four years of life. Kids that age can not only hear every sound in every language, they can mimic them perfectly. People lose that ability as they grow older, which is why those who start learning a foreign language in high school will almost always speak it with an accent. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/28 "2022-03-09T01:40:28Z")
I feel y’all are picking on Doohan a wee bit too much. 🙂 I think his accent can be explained by the fact Scotty lied about everything. He’d routinely pad his repair estimates, so why couldn’t he be “padding” his accent? Maybe that’s what 23rd century people expect and engineer to sound like. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/29 "2022-03-09T01:57:32Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Actually, the line is “Why is the Pakistani gentleman called Scotty?” _“I didn’t know he was meant to be Scottish. I thought he was a Pakistani guy that had a stroke.”_ ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/30 "2022-03-09T03:38:40Z")
Note that his parents were both from Northern Ireland, where many of the people are descended from ancestors who lived in Scotland before 1745, and, I believe, are even today known as the “Ulster Scots”. So there’s probably a substrate of genuine Scottish in the mix. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/31 "2022-03-09T07:59:34Z")
FWIW, Gordon Ramsay doesn’t have a Scottish accent. He was mostly brought up in the English Midlands and has a standard near-RP accent. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/32 "2022-03-09T12:54:01Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > I know that James Doohan was Canadian, but to my untrained ear, Scotty sounded more like Rory McIlroy than Gordon Ramsay. Am I off base here? To be fair, Gordon Ramsey doesn’t have a Scottish accent either. ed: ninja’ed ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/33 "2022-03-09T13:11:32Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I feel y’all are picking on Doohan a wee bit too much. 🙂 > > I think his accent can be explained by the fact Scotty lied about everything. He’d routinely pad his repair estimates, so why couldn’t he be “padding” his accent? Maybe that’s what 23rd century people expect and engineer to sound like. - [TVTropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WhatTheHellIsThatAccent/LiveActionTV) > [Craig Ferguson](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/CraigFerguson) once commented that _nobody_ in Scotland understood Scotty. “It was like an Arab had an epileptic seizure.” [James Doohan](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/JamesDoohan) himself explained that in auditions, he tried various authentic Scottish accents – he could, in fact, do a very good Aberdonian and other regional accents – but the producers were absolutely appalled, especially when he read the part in broad [Glaswegian](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/BillyConnolly). Fearing that Americans would not understand any genuine Scots accent without subtitles, the mangled accent was an unsatisfactory compromise between reality and the demands of American television. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/34 "2022-03-09T15:36:52Z")
Richard Dawson had a similar problem when he auditioned for the role of Cpl Peter Newkirk on _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _. IIRC, he read with a Liverpudlian accent (because of the popularity of the Beatles at the time, I guess), but the producers insisted he go “Cockney.” ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/35 "2022-03-09T16:44:13Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > FWIW, Gordon Ramsay doesn’t have a Scottish accent. He was mostly brought up in the English Midlands and has a standard near-RP accent. - Interesting. He refers to himself as a Scotsman so much that I assumed that he was born and raised there. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/36 "2022-03-09T16:59:04Z")
So he’s not a True Scotsman? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/37 "2022-03-09T17:07:46Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Interesting. He refers to himself as a Scotsman so much that I assumed that he was born and raised there. He was born there, to Scottish parents, so he’s officially Scottish. But grew up in England and has a totally mainstream, non-regionally-identifiable English accent. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/38 "2022-03-10T01:24:26Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > However, I asked a Scottish girl I once knew if it was authentic. She said “Not at all.” You’re sure she didn’t say “no Tribble at all”? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/39 "2022-03-10T19:25:40Z")
Yup. Scotty doesn’t sound much like Gordon Ramsey because he’s not trying to sound English. TBH I didn’t find Scotty’s accent bad at all. I’m not Scottish, but I partially grew up with my Scottish Grandad (in London) and heard more Scottish accents than the average. Scotty sounded like a posh Scottish person who’d maybe moved around a bit, and I would definitely never have mixed it up with any Irish accents, even Belfast. He was pretty consistent with the way he said things, which helped. For the time, in comparison to other fake Scottish accents, it was excellent, and is still better than almost much every fake Scottish or (especially) Irish accent now. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695/40 "2022-03-12T19:19:36Z")
FWIW I just reheard Stewart being interviewed after S1 of Picard was released and his answer was that they had him doing a French accent in audition, quickly deciding that it would be a very bad idea. He offered no canonic answer. OTOH his personal history melds some. He describes his speaking in a very broad dialect as a child, learning to speak in RP for theater, code switching between worlds (and getting teased by friends when he did some RP by accident when with them). Then again I don’t think we ever hear Picard code switch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/st-tos-was-scotty-s-accent-scottish-or-irish/960695.md?page=3)