Glasgow dialect

The Glasgow vernacular has also established itself in Scottish literature. Many authors spell some of the Scots elements phonetically, often coinciding with common spelling errors, rather than using the prestigious Modern Scots conventions. The general effect of that, particularly its comic forms, is to exaggerate the unintelligibility of Glasgow speech to outsiders. Armstrong, who had been inspired by the style used by Irvine Welsh for Trainspotting – written in the similar but distinct accent of Edinburgh – struggled to have his novel published and was advised to mitigate the use of the dialect to appeal to a wider audience, but refused to compromise the authenticity of the characters' voices. ==Phonology==

Jane Stuart-Smith defined two varieties for descriptive purposes in a chapter of the 1999 book Urban Voices entitled "Glasgow: accent and voice quality": • Glasgow Standard English (GSE), the Glaswegian form of Scottish English, spoken by most middle-class speakers • Glasgow vernacular (GV), the dialect of many working-class speakers, which is historically based on West-Central Scots, but which shows strong influences from Irish English, its own distinctive slang and increased levelling towards GSE Differences between the two systems are mostly in lexical incidence. Many working-class speakers use the SSE system when reading aloud, albeit with different qualities for the vowels. The table below shows the vowels used in both variants below: describes notable features of consonants that distinguish the Glasgow dialect from other dialects. • T-glottalization is "strongly stigmatized yet extremely common". Glottalization also occurs of and , albeit less frequently. • and can be pronounced with dentalisation. is sometimes omitted at the end of a word (e.g. old, stand). • Th-fronting occurs with some younger speakers. • is used in words such as loch, although this is dying out amongst younger speakers. • is used in words beginning "wh" (e.g. whine). • There is no H-dropping except in unstressed cases of him and her. • Yod-dropping only occurs after or . • Most Glasgow speech is rhotic, but non-rhoticity can be found amongst some younger working-class speakers. The realisation of can be , or . • is a dark l in almost all positions. ==In the media==

In the 1970s, the Glasgow-born comedian Stanley Baxter parodied the patter on his television sketch show. "Parliamo Glasgow" was a spoof programme in which Baxter played a language coach and various scenarios using Glaswegian dialogue were played out for laughs. Popular television comedies using the dialect include Rab C. Nesbitt, ''Chewin' the Fat, Still Game, Burnistoun and Limmy's Show''. The 1998 film by Ken Loach, My Name is Joe, is one of the few films recorded [almost] entirely in Glasgow dialect. As a result, the film had to be given subtitles when released in the United States and even for audiences in England. The same situation occurred with another Loach film, 2002's Sweet Sixteen, based in the town of Greenock which has a local accent virtually identical to that of Glasgow, and with the 2010 release Neds set in the city. ==Alleged influence from Cockney==

Studies have indicated that working-class adolescents in areas such as Glasgow have begun to use certain aspects of Cockney and other Anglicisms in their speech, infiltrating the traditional Glasgow speech. For example, th-fronting is commonly found, and typical Scottish features such as the post-vocalic /r/ are reduced, although this last feature is more likely to be a development of Central Belt Scots origin, unrelated to Anglo-English non-rhoticity. Researches suggest the use of English speech characteristics is likely to be consequential on the influence of London and south east England accents which feature prominently on television. The linguist John C. Wells, a critic of the media reporting on Estuary English, has questioned whether Glasgow is being influenced by Cockney speech. He claimed that journalists had misrepresented the prevalence of th-fronting in Glasgow and that there is no evidence that th-fronting originated in London. He also wrote that all dialects change over time and that change does not mean that the Glasgow patter will disappear. It has also been proposed that the adoption of th-fronting amongst Glaswegian youths may serve as a social identifier; usage of [θ] may be considered middle-class or "posh", so the adoption of alternatives [f] or the more traditional [h] projects a working-class, "tough" image, or a rejection of the establishment. ==Notes==