The Scottish dialect is one of my favourite accents. It's like music to my ears! Of course, it is also very difficult to remember what it sounds like in your head, while writing scenes with Scottish characters talking with a Scottish accent - like Tom (from my Renmington Pirate book series)!
Image is from the popular new TV show called "Outlander" (originally a book series) set in Scottish culture of the 18th c. (A few decades before my Remmington Pirates book series is set). The show is one of the ways I train my mind to be familiar and comfortable with the Scottish accent. Also, watching interviews of people from that country (i.e. Scotland, Ireland and England) helps train my inner voice and the characters in my head to use those accents when writing or simply talking in my head.
Why train your inner voice to speak with a different accent?
As a reader, I like to be able to hear what certain accents sound like and to bring the book more to life. I do confess, though, that, that does not always happen. I mean seriously, you're trying to the read book fast, so your brain is going to switch the voice in your head to the accent that you speak in your every day life - assuming you speak???
But I like to challenge my brain to speak to me with different accents when I'm reading and writing - mostly when I'm writing. It expands my culture and makes me feel awesome!
With writing a book that includes different accents, it helps to differentiate between how they sound when they are spelled out in writing.
So I found various websites to help me remember.
So I found various websites to help me remember.
Examples of Old Scottish (before the 1800s specifically) vs English Dialect:
English say "I"
Scotsmen say "Ah"
English say "I don't know"
Scotsmen say "Ah dinnae ken"
English say "I will not"
Scotsmen say "Ah willnae"
(I will post more in Scottish Dialect - Part 2)
Scottish Accents in Interviews:
James MacAvoy
Gerard Butler
Ewan McGregor
Scottish Slang Videos:
MVPT
NEXT TIME I will show some more of the Scottish words and dialects and in examples from my Remmington Pirates book series.
By the way...buy the first 16 chapters of my Remmington Pirates book series on Amazon in the ebook edition here:
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