[BITList] Scots: an auld dug with plenty of bite | Brian Logan | Comment is free | The Guardian

[HUGH]

John,

Scots is certainly a distinct language, but nowadays it's a literary language.  When not being posh, the language we speak in this neck of the woods - south bank of the Clyde, west of Paisley - is a colloquial Scots/Irish/English hybrid, courtesy of the influx of Irish migrants in the mid to late 1800s.  They were only the second biggest group of incomers, but the biggest group were from all over Scotland, so had minimal influence on the way English was spoke here.

UK-wide, I'd say so-called Standard English is mostly spoken to strangers or on TV, though I've yet to hear a Geordie make any concession to the listener - not that a concession is needed.  Any of us could be incomprehensible to others if we chose - many of the young around here are incomprehensible to me, and they're not even trying.  I had an English teacher in High School (she was English, and she taught English very well indeed).  She tried in vain to convince us that "sword" is pronounced "sewed".

Hugh.

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