From Andrew Stuttaford at The Corner
It’s election year in Britain, and diligent British expats are registering to vote.
A friend of mine – a former British army officer now living in NYC – takes up the story:
“This link takes you to the official website of the Electoral Commission, something I laboriously have had to do to register as an overseas voter. I noticed the Languages hyperlink, and so, anticipating the usual polyglot mix of tongues to reflect (a) our glorious Imperial past; (b) the inevitable legacy of our immigration policy; and (c) our role as 19th century colonialist oppressors (take your pick) in I went. Imagine my surprise when, nestled amongst the possibly deserving Pakistani, Punjabi and Chinese (?) translations, a sub-site for the “UlsterScots” language.”
If you want the actual links, you’ve got to go to The Corner, which is a blog of sorts, no matter what they say.
Hat tip and thanks to Mike Lonie, who really ought to be a blogger himself (here at OTTH, preferably).
Apropos of nothing much; I speak Scots English (and some Scots Gaelic). I especially speak Scots English (accent and all) if I spend more than 5 minutes talking to someone from Scotland (any area, I pick up all of the accents). Worse yet, it lingers, so it’s a day or two before I can talk to anyone who doesn’t understand the accent without making a real effort to stop it. The only other accents that I do that with are Australian (which may have something to do with the Scots influence there). Don’t ask me, I gave up on figuring myself out years ago.
One Comment
Neil McIntosh from The Guardian speaks “Broad Scot” dialect. Or Brade Scot or something like that. Although he writes fluent English, I couldn’t understand a word he said in an audio blog. I was very surprised. This dialect was only recently officially recognized, I believe, when a novel was actually written and published using it.