The speech of the middle classes in Scotland tends to conform to the grammatical norms of the written standard, particularly in situations that are regarded as formal.
Highland English is slightly different from the variety spoken in the
Lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically, and lexically influenced by a
Gaelic substratum. Similarly, the English spoken in the North-East of Scotland tends to follow the phonology and grammar of
Doric. Although pronunciation features vary among speakers (depending on region and social status), there are a number of phonological aspects characteristic of Scottish English:
Consonants • Scottish English is mostly
rhotic, meaning is typically pronounced in the
syllable coda, although some non-rhotic varieties are present in Edinburgh and
Glasgow. The phoneme may be a
postalveolar approximant , as in Received Pronunciation or General American, but speakers have also traditionally used for the same phoneme a somewhat more common
alveolar flap or, now very rare, the
alveolar trill (hereafter, will be used to denote any rhotic consonant). • and are contrasted so that
shore and
sure are pronounced differently, as are
pour and
poor. • before is strong. An
epenthetic vowel may occur between and so that
girl and
world are two-syllable words for some speakers. The same may occur between and , between and , and between and . • There is a distinction between and in word pairs such as
witch and
which. • The phoneme is common in names and in SSE's many Gaelic and Scots borrowings, so much so that it is often taught to incomers, particularly for "ch" in loch. Some Scottish speakers use it in words of Greek origin as well, such as technical, patriarch, etc. (Wells 1982, 408). • is usually
velarised (see
dark l) except in borrowings like "glen" (from Scottish Gaelic "gleann"), which had an unvelarised l in their original form. In areas where
Scottish Gaelic was spoken until relatively recently (such as
Dumfries and Galloway) and in areas where it is still spoken (such as the
West Highlands), velarisation of may be absent in many words in which it is present in other areas, but remains in borrowings that had velarised in Gaelic, such as "loch" (Gaelic "loch") and "clan" (Gaelic "clann"). • , and are not
aspirated in more traditional varieties, but are weakly aspirated currently. • The past ending
-ed may be realised with where other accents use , chiefly after unstressed vowels:
ended ,
carried • is often used in plural nouns where southern English has (baths, youths, etc.);
with and
booth are pronounced with . (See
Pronunciation of English th.) • In colloquial speech, the
glottal stop may be an allophone of after a vowel, as in . These same speakers may "drop the g" in the suffix
-ing and
debuccalise to in certain contexts.
Vowels • may be more open for certain speakers in some regions, so that it sounds more like (although and do not merge). Other speakers may pronounce it as , just as in many other accents, or with a schwa-like () quality. Others may pronounce it almost as in certain environments, particularly after and . • The
Scottish Vowel Length Rule is a distinctive part of many varieties of Scottish English, though
vowel length is generally regarded as non-phonemic. According to the rule, and all pure vowels bar , and comm are lengthened before
voiced fricatives or before . Lengthening also occurs before a morpheme boundary, so that short
need contrasts with long
kneed,
crude with
crewed, and
side with
sighed. • Wells analyses the vowel's split as specifically
phonemic rather than
allophonic, citing the regularisation of
wife-wives and similar words: both with despite Aitken's law dictating that the plural should use . • Wells also describes some speakers having length distinctions in words which aren't suggested by Aitken's law: leek [lik] vs. leak [li:k], creek [krik] vs. creak [kri:k]; vane [ven] vs. vain [ve:n], made vs. maid; choke vs. joke, badge vs. cadge. • Scottish English has no , instead transferring Scots . Phonetically, this vowel may be pronounced or even . Thus
pull and
pool are homophones. •
Cot and caught are not differentiated in most Central Scottish varieties, but they are in some others. • In most varieties, there is no - distinction; therefore,
bath,
trap, and
palm have the same vowel. • Although other accents have merged non-intervocalic , , before (
fern–fir–fur merger), Scottish English makes a distinction between the vowels in
fern,
fir, and
fur. • Many varieties contrast and before so that
hoarse and
horse are pronounced differently (i.e. they have not undergone the
- merger). • Some speakers merge non-final with short . s of Scottish English ==Scotticisms==