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Take the dialect quiz


Ulysses

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27 minutes ago, FWJ said:

Similarly ‘ned’.  I hid my Guardian in my hand-knitted hessian manbag and said ‘scumbag’ but also added ‘jakey’ (surprised it wasn’t there TBH)

To me the appropriate word is schemie, but since I've not lived in Edinburgh for 21 years now, I usually just use ned. 

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26 minutes ago, Lemongrab said:

I'd pronounce that 'skeens'.  Do I pass?

 

 

Me too.

Another would be Portobello. 

Porty or Portabelly for a local. 

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59 minutes ago, FWJ said:

I tried to answer as honestly as possible too.  I know ‘wean’ and ‘bairn’ is a West/East thing but I’d never use either.  Similarly ‘ned’.  I hid my Guardian in my hand-knitted hessian manbag and said ‘scumbag’ but also added ‘jakey’ (surprised it wasn’t there TBH)

 

Best way to tell if someone is from Edinburgh is ask them to pronounce ‘Sciennes’!

 

Not from Edinburgh but I pronounced it "see - en" when I lived there. How do true Edinburghers pronounce it?

Edited by redjambo
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1 hour ago, XB52 said:

Got me spot on, Edinburgh and Fife 

 

Same with me.  My dad was an Edinburgh man, and my mother was from Fife.. 

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5 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Same with me.  My dad was an Edinburgh man, and my mother was from Fife.. 

 

Historically, if it hasn't been the Vikings raiding the kingdom of Fife for their women, it's been the Edinburghers.

 

It must be tough being a guy from Fife and seeing the stock of women dwindle with each raid.

 

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45 minutes ago, redjambo said:

 

Not from Edinburgh but I pronounced it "see - en" when I lived there. How do true Edinburghers pronounce it?

Sheens

 

I lived in the area, my English cousin came to visit while I lived there, he thought we had a street called Science :laugh:

Edited by Smithee
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3 minutes ago, redjambo said:

 

Historically, if it hasn't been the Vikings raiding the kingdom of Fife for their women, it's been the Edinburghers.

 

It must be tough being a guy from Fife and seeing the stock of women dwindle with each raid.

 

 

That makes sense.

 

And I now understand the origins of the saying, when Hearts go to Starks Park they usually come away with something. :wink:

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4 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

That makes sense.

 

And I now understand the origins of the saying, when Hearts go to Starks Park they usually come away with something. :wink:

 

:D

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10 minutes ago, Smithee said:

Sheens

 

I lived in the area, my English cousin came to visit while I lived there, he thought we had a street called Science :laugh:

 

Thanks. I never knew and no-one ever corrected me (although they probably giggled behind my back ;)).

 

I'm going to call it "Science" from now on though...

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Fascinating quiz. Mine came up as pretty much a perfect map of the old Strathclyde Region.

 

I’m originally from Hamilton but moved South with family aged 14. I’m 52 in April and my original accent remains pretty much  intact. My support for Hearts began at Edinburgh University (start of 85/86 season when we were poor!!!) and I still travel up for matches every season so I have a good understanding of Edinburgh dialect even though I don’t use it in conversation.

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Well, they got the correct coast, unfortunately, I'm from aywhere from shetland all the way down to aberdeenland!!  lol, and possibly a little from east lothian.. I'm fae freaking NIddrie!!!

 

Although my paternal granny is of Maltan descent and paternal grandad... pilton :D (albeit his mum and dad were actually from aberdeen... apparently)

 

Calling shenanigans!

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Got the missus to take it. The times it showed she was a foreigner were the rhyming questions. She couldn't see how fool and full sound the same. 

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6 hours ago, ri Alban said:

Bang on. Maw, Weans, Fitbaw, Tig, Ginger and Dog it, the give aways.

 

And it's Aitch.

Much to my chagrin I got called out for telling people 'haitch' is not a word, lo and behold it's now an acceptable word to use, my ****ing deary me!!  

 

It's spelled aitch (it's even a scrabble word) ye cannae just randomly make words up then expect them to be allowed (that was intentional BTW)

 

Anyway, people that say haitch get right on my tattie scone!!

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Seymour M Hersh
2 hours ago, Lemongrab said:

I'd pronounce that 'skeens'.  Do I pass?

 

 

 

Problem loading post there mods.

Edited by Seymour M Hersh
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Seymour M Hersh
2 hours ago, Lemongrab said:

I'd pronounce that 'skeens'.  Do I pass?

 

 

 

And again. Pressed the button to add the post and nothing happened so did it twice more. 

Edited by Seymour M Hersh
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5 hours ago, Normthebarman said:

Never had you down as a weegie. 

Renfrewshire, of good Glesga stock. (Pollok and Given)

Edited by ri Alban
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1 hour ago, lauriesrank said:

Much to my chagrin I got called out for telling people 'haitch' is not a word, lo and behold it's now an acceptable word to use, my ****ing deary me!!  

 

It's spelled aitch (it's even a scrabble word) ye cannae just randomly make words up then expect them to be allowed (that was intentional BTW)

 

Anyway, people that say haitch get right on my tattie scone!!

Scone(as in gone) , I hope.

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3 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Scone(as in gone) , I hope.

Unless you’re from Perth, where the village rhymes with ‘moon’ (and newspaper headlines like “Man injured in Scone fight” make sense....)

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7 minutes ago, ri Alban said:

Scone(as in gone) , I hope.

Oh aye, always scone :)

 

That's the fastest cake in the world BTW.... (it)S..cone...

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First results were a bit vague but after entering Edinburgh as location and doing even more questions it came back much more focussed and also picked up on the borders connection in the family. 

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Does anyone else say rubbers for the black shoes you used in gym?

 

The quiz had me down for Edinburgh,perthshire and fife which all sound pretty similar and I've lived in all 3.

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10 minutes ago, Herbert said:

Does anyone else say rubbers for the black shoes you used in gym?

 

The quiz had me down for Edinburgh,perthshire and fife which all sound pretty similar and I've lived in all 3.

Sannies, caramac soles or 2 bobs.

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46 minutes ago, Herbert said:

Does anyone else say rubbers for the black shoes you used in gym?

 

The quiz had me down for Edinburgh,perthshire and fife which all sound pretty similar and I've lived in all 3.

I used to call them bumpers.

I would say sheens

I was all up the east coast from Borders to about Perth

Edited by arfurdaley
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N Lincs Jambo

It had me fairly well too. Edinburgh and the Lothians down as far as the Borders, Fife up to Tayside and Dundee. Brought up and 1st 18 years in Auld Reekie, 4 years as a student in Dundee, one further year back in Edina then been down south for last 30 years. Never adopted the local twang (it's feckin horrible!) although I did see quite a few words that people local to me now would use. All three of my daughters pronounce aitch as haitch. Deary feckin me :(

 

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It gave me Edinburgh,Dundee and Aberdeen. I think I probably used words that I have been more used to here, like gym shoes, Never spoke to either of my grannies so I don't really know what I would have called them. But it was interesting to go back and think about it.

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2 hours ago, N Lincs Jambo said:

It had me fairly well too. Edinburgh and the Lothians down as far as the Borders, Fife up to Tayside and Dundee. Brought up and 1st 18 years in Auld Reekie, 4 years as a student in Dundee, one further year back in Edina then been down south for last 30 years. Never adopted the local twang (it's feckin horrible!) although I did see quite a few words that people local to me now would use. All three of my daughters pronounce aitch as haitch. Deary feckin me :(

 

Agree on the lincs accent. Lived there for a couple of years in coningsby, then a wee bit in tattershal. 

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20 hours ago, redjambo said:

 

"Outwith". Now maybe they should add that to their quiz. ;)

 

 

I use "outwith" occasionally at work. I get funny looks, but people understand it.

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18 hours ago, Les Izemore said:

 

Do the young people around your way still wear ‘runners’?

 

Yep.  It's one of the most distinctive markers of an Irish dialect.  In the quiz, there's also "mammy", "mitch" for skipping school (shared with South Wales), "mineral" for soft drink (see also "white lemonade"), "skanger" for ned (in Dublin, anyway), "locked" and "langered" for pissed, "narky" for moody (shared with Merseyside), and "lashing" for heavy rainfall.

 

A big marker for the Irish is "we haven't seen that" as opposed to "we've not seen that".

 

We also have "plank", "gowl", "dope", "eejit" and "gobshite" for someone who is stupid.

 

Farm and palm don't rhyme, same as in Scotland.  Full and fool don't rhyme, unlike Scotland and NI.  But and put rhyme, as they do across the North of England.  Scone rhymes with bone, and we use the same o sound in yoghurt (i.e. "yo").  Food and good do not rhyme, as anyone from England, Wales or the Irish Republic knows.

 

"Grand" meaning "all's fine here" is another go-to of the Irish, and we're more likely than anyone else to describe an attractive person as "a ride".  The wife/girlfriend is the "mot" if you're in Dublin. 

 

Nothing in Ireland starts with a silent "h".  We never had the letter in our own language.

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4 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

 

Yep.  It's one of the most distinctive markers of an Irish dialect.  In the quiz, there's also "mammy", "mitch" for skipping school (shared with South Wales), "mineral" for soft drink (see also "white lemonade"), "skanger" for ned (in Dublin, anyway), "locked" and "langered" for pissed, "narky" for moody (shared with Merseyside), and "lashing" for heavy rainfall.

 

A big marker for the Irish is "we haven't seen that" as opposed to "we've not seen that".

 

We also have "plank", "gowl", "dope", "eejit" and "gobshite" for someone who is stupid.

 

Farm and palm don't rhyme, same as in Scotland.  Full and fool don't rhyme, unlike Scotland and NI.  But and put rhyme, as they do across the North of England.  Scone rhymes with bone, and we use the same o sound in yoghurt (i.e. "yo").  Food and good do not rhyme, as anyone from England, Wales or the Irish Republic knows.

 

"Grand" meaning "all's fine here" is another go-to of the Irish, and we're more likely than anyone else to describe an attractive person as "a ride".  The wife/girlfriend is the "mot" if you're in Dublin. 

 

Nothing in Ireland starts with a silent "h".  We never had the letter in our own language.

How in the actual **** is it possible for food and good not to rhyme? How the hell do you pronounce them? 

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10 minutes ago, Normthebarman said:

How in the actual **** is it possible for food and good not to rhyme? How the hell do you pronounce them? 

 

There are far more people who pronounce them differently than who pronounce them the same.  Rhyming food and good is something that mostly happens in Scotland and NI.  For most people in Wales, England and the Irish Republic, "food" is pronounced with an "ooh" in the middle, while "good" is pronounced with a "uh" sound.

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37 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

 

There are far more people who pronounce them differently than who pronounce them the same.  Rhyming food and good is something that mostly happens in Scotland and NI.  For most people in Wales, England and the Irish Republic, "food" is pronounced with an "ooh" in the middle, while "good" is pronounced with a "uh" sound.

When you say "uh", is that like the "uh" in "uh-huh" and the "u" in "butter"? 

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20 minutes ago, Normthebarman said:

When you say "uh", is that like the "uh" in "uh-huh" and the "u" in "butter"? 

 

Uh-huh.  :thumbsup:

 

But don't forget that we probably pronounce butter differently to the Scots.  :help:

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1 minute ago, Ulysses said:

 

Uh-huh.  :thumbsup:

 

But don't forget that we probably pronounce butter differently to the Scots.  :help:

Never thought it'd be pronounced that way. At a push, I'd have accepted some people using "gid" but "guhd"? Did not see that one coming. 

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24 minutes ago, Normthebarman said:

Never thought it'd be pronounced that way. At a push, I'd have accepted some people using "gid" but "guhd"? Did not see that one coming. 

 

Food and good different:

 

screenshot-www.nytimes.com-2019_02.17-00-10-17.png.b18afab117ab96f3b8e3817809cd5cb3.png

 

 

But and put the same:

 

screenshot-www.nytimes.com-2019_02.17-00-09-31.png.c21dd6571c35868a398fe7e2a4616bd7.png

 

 

Full and fool different:

 

screenshot-www.nytimes.com-2019_02.17-00-07-54.png.844bb864c7295365f61947568da29bf6.png

 

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On 16/02/2019 at 01:04, redjambo said:

 

Ah, now I have no idea how they have process their data, but language use isn't just dialect-based but is also based on other factors such as age, sex and social background (I know, that's a difficult aspect to deal with but I, for example, say "football" rather than "fitba", but many folk up here use the latter*). So, in a perfect world, I personally would see the makers of the test asking folk for some of the principal attributes like these (there wouldn't be too many). That would, in my eyes, allow for a more refined and potentially more accurate analysis. There wouldn't be any harm in asking for the information, but useless if left too late.

 

In the old days, such a test would have been much more accurate because dialects were far more distinct. However, many dialectical words are falling quickly out of use due to the homogeneity that you mention. I used to use expressions (sorry for any misspellings but they were spoken, never written) like "peely-wally", "clarty", "cuddy louping" etc.), but no longer. Algorithms will have to get smarter to work out dialect. It was interesting to note from the maps that flew past that the ones which would uniquely mark out Scotland (and often Northern Ireland) were often to do with whether or not words rhymed with other words. That might end up being of more use to distinguish dialects than the actual language use.

 

* Hopefully this doesn't sound snobby. Both are fine words for referring to our glorious sport.

I pronounce horse and hoarse back to front or the same two different ways. :D

Head scratching choice.

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Truth is, I could’ve picked two answers on some of the questions.

 

Disappointed there wasn’t a ‘radge’ option for the anti social person question ::troll::

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Interesting stuff. Got me mainly as Edinburgh and Fife (fair enough), but quite a bit of Aberdeenshire and North-East England. No idea where they came from...

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In Donegal, the most common word for "very" is "wild", hence expressions like "that was a wild bad error by the keeper."  :whistling:

 

One day on the coast last summer, I remarked to someone that the weather was really good.  He agreed, and noted that the sea was "wild calm."  :help:

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22 hours ago, Ulysses said:

 

Food and good different:

 

screenshot-www.nytimes.com-2019_02.17-00-10-17.png.b18afab117ab96f3b8e3817809cd5cb3.png

 

 

But and put the same:

 

screenshot-www.nytimes.com-2019_02.17-00-09-31.png.c21dd6571c35868a398fe7e2a4616bd7.png

 

 

Full and fool different:

 

screenshot-www.nytimes.com-2019_02.17-00-07-54.png.844bb864c7295365f61947568da29bf6.png

 

I’ve never clocked that example darn sarf but notice it with ‘soot’ and ‘suit’. To me they’re pronounced the same but down here, at least among posher folk, they’re different. 

 

Soot is the same as Scottish folk would say it when you’re almost blowing out on the ‘oo’ sound. 

 

Suit is similar but almost like you’re sucking in on the ‘oo’ so it’s further back in the mouth. 

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6 hours ago, Dave de le Noir said:

I’ve never clocked that example darn sarf but notice it with ‘soot’ and ‘suit’. To me they’re pronounced the same but down here, at least among posher folk, they’re different. 

 

Soot is the same as Scottish folk would say it when you’re almost blowing out on the ‘oo’ sound. 

 

Suit is similar but almost like you’re sucking in on the ‘oo’ so it’s further back in the mouth. 

Fid, Guid ,same

Full(Hull) Fool, different

But, put, different 

 

 

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I made my 66 year old mum do the test. She’s from Dumfries but moved to Edinburgh aged 17. The test got her as Dumfries and Edinburgh. My best mate is from Swindon but has lived in Edinburgh for nearly 20 years, despite her using many Scottish works it still knew she was from Swindon. Must be the way she pronounces things. 

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Born and bred Edinburgh, which I got, but also down to the borders then across to Dumfries. The Angus area and Aberdeen were also quite dark which is odd. 

 

 

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On 16/02/2019 at 13:01, redjambo said:

 

Historically, if it hasn't been the Vikings raiding the kingdom of Fife for their women, it's been the Edinburghers.

 

It must be tough being a guy from Fife and seeing the stock of women dwindle with each raid.

 

Did they exhaus the supply in Aberdeenshire, before moving down to Fife? ?

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On 16/02/2019 at 12:21, redjambo said:

 

Not from Edinburgh but I pronounced it "see - en" when I lived there. How do true Edinburghers pronounce it?

 

 

I've always said it like 'sheens'. 

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