A “generic” Scottish accent is hard to define because there are so many types. But, you can learn to speak with a general accent that non-Scottish people would be able to identify as Scottish. Most of the Scottish accents that you may hear come from the Lowland and Midland areas. These are the regions where the more populated cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Galloway reside. [1] X Research source However, even the accents of these more populous regions will differ. Galloway, which is south-west, sounds slightly closer to Irish as it’s close to Northern Ireland. Additionally, there is a difference in the accents from Glasgow and Edinburgh, not unlike how a New York and Boston accent differ from one another.
Set the tip of your tongue far back in your mouth. When you speak, pull your tongue back toward your throat. Doing this will help you get the harsher, guttural sounds associated with Scottish accents. When speaking, you still want to keep a lot of movement or action in your lips and jaw. Keep your lips out and open your mouth as if to get your lips around each sound and word. Because you are pulling your tongue back, you may be tempted to close or tighten your lips. To counteract this, focus on keeping your jaw loose and unclenched.
When trying a Scottish accent, think of “u” sounds as “oo” sounds. If there are two short words together, pronounce the two as one. “Did not” often becomes “didnae” or “dinnae. " However, avoid speaking too fast. Drop the ‘g’ sound from words ending in a ‘g. ’ For example, say “evenin’” instead of “evening. " “Sewing” becomes “sewin’”.
“To” is pronounced as “tae”. “Do” becomes “dae”. Additionally, “no” gets a bit of an “aw” sound at the end making it sound like “naw” or “nae”. Another example of changing how you pronounce words is in the sentence “I am going to the shops over there. " In a Scottish accent, it would be pronounced as “Am gan tae the shoaps oor air. "
For example, if you were to say “glottal stop” with a Scottish accent, you would say “glo’al stop”. The glottal stop is not used for every “t” sound in a Scottish accent. If you have a “t” at the beginning of a word you would still pronounce the “t”. For example, “that” would sound like “tha”. And at the end of the word, you would constrict your throat to stop the airflow.
Words like “draw”, “trip”, and “grand” all get a rolling “r” sound. Words like “where” can get a bit of an “r” roll, but here you want to touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth after the “r” sound. This action forms a sort of “de” sound. So “where” becomes more like “wherde”. This is also called tapping your “r’s”.
Generally, vowels which are followed by consonants are short. Short vowels appear in words like “bead” which is pronounced “bid”. In a Scottish accent, the word “mood” rhymes with “good” as you don’t elongate the “oo” in “mood”. Long vowels occur when a word ends on another vowel. For example, you would pronounce a word like “key” as “kee”. The same applies for a word like “done”. Here it would sound more like the word “dome” but with an “n”. The vowels are key in a true Scottish accent. As a general rule, vowels are less hard sounding in a Scottish accent. Vowels may be short or long, but you pronounce the vowel with more of an open mouth. Remember to keep your jaw loose and not clenched.
Instead of saying “go away” you can say “oan yer bike pal. " Note, a bike doesn’t have to be present. But this is a colloquial term you may hear in the Midland or Lowland areas. While you might say “I don’t know” or even “I dunno” in your normal speaking voice, it sounds quite different in a Scottish accent. To say “I don’t know” in a Scottish accent, you might say, “I dinnae ken. " or simply, “I dinnae”. The word “ken” is typically only spoken in Midland dialects. “Instead of “hello” you can greet someone with “awright ya?” Oftentimes, instead of saying “yes” or asking “yeah?” you would simply say “eh?”
For example, instead of saying “everybody” you could say “aab’dy”. Here you are condensing the word from five syllables down into roughly two. “I am not” becomes “am no’”. Here, “am” serves the same purpose as “I’m”.
Television shows like Doctor Who often have Scottish actors who speak in his or her natural accent. Karen Gillan, David Tennant, and Peter Capaldi are all Scottish. Listen to how these actors speak compared to the English actors on the show. [10] X Research source James McAvoy and Gerard Butler are two other Scottish actors to listen to. Watching interviews of these actors is a good way to listen to the accent. Both the film and the book “Trainspotting” are also great ways to get acclimated to the Scottish accent. The book is written phonetically so when you read it aloud you are forced to speak with an accent. Both ‘Dead Man’s Chest’ and ‘At World’s End’ from the Pirates Of The Caribbean series feature Bill Nighy as Davy Jones, where he speaks with a heavy Scottish brogue.
