Rose Leslie, the Scots goddess.
Mrs. CW and I are watching "Shetland" on Amazon, a British crime thriller series set in a far northern/norse patch of islands in the UK. Everyone talks like Rose there, and the wife and I are frequently befuddled by their odd lingo. Mrs. CW keeps saying, "Why don't they speak English?"
I worked at an international airport and I learned quickly that they are speaking English, and we are speaking American. I do remember telling an excited Scot that I could not understand anything he said.
ReplyDeleteDuring TV watching we have turned on the captioning to understand English.
The Highland and Isle's accents are easy (friends with those often get irritated because they're accused of being Irish) - now the Glaswegian one, not even other Scots (hint: Scotch is a drink ... sorry to be pedantic) can understand what they're saying.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the difficulty may be in part due to the fact that you've been raised on a diet of fake 'Americans pretending to be English/Irish/Scots/Welsh' for decades and the real deal is a shock (Hey, we over here have been spoon-fed all 'your' accents and I can even understand someone from the boonies with a really weird/obscure accent ... like Boston).
The most frustrating part is that they will go along a bit and be perfectly clear, and then suddenly, it's just flat out argle bargle. Always worse the faster they go. But still, it's a great accent, super sexy coming from a gal, and fun to listen to.
DeleteAnd pedantry in the service of clarity and accuracy is no vice.
DeleteHaving lived in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen, I have the ear for Scots. However it did not come automatically after I'd eaten my first haggis, as I'd been promised...
ReplyDeleteThen there is the venomous flying haggis. Don't get me started on that.
https://youtu.be/sAz_UvnUeuU
ReplyDeleteVoice recognition technology in a lift, in Scotland.