As a scot from Edinburgh that speaks posh we sound more southern English with a slight Scottish twang than sounding completely Scottish but your Edinburgh accent is very good
Hi Matt, I’m from Edinburgh wanted to give a few tips. Your point on the on the a sound becoming o is mostly right, but some words like was use an i sound becoming “wis”. Also with the average accent your pronunciation was a bit off, most folk from Edinburgh under pronounce their K, N, and P but over pronounce their T and G. Other than that pretty good attempt at an Edinburgh accent especially the posh Edinburgh
@@narratormatt It was (allegedly) said by John Lyon, Master of Glamis, to the young King James VI, in August 1582. Lyon and a group of other Scottish nobles had kidnapped the boy-king (age 16) in the daring, infamous Raid of Ruthven (which was part of their ongoing political struggle to prevent the Duke of Lennox and Earl of Arran from gaining power). Lyon and his co-conspirators convinced the lad that they weren't kidnapping him but were actually rescuing him, protecting him from his enemies. For days, they secretly moved James from house to house, under cover of darkness. After about a week of this, the boy-king decided he'd had enough, and wanted to return to Edinburgh. As James walked to the door, Lyon "rudely laid his leg before him," to prevent the boy from leaving. It was then that James realized he was their prisoner, and burst into tears, whereupon Lyon said, "Better bairns greet than bearded men." "Better that boys should weep than grown men do." In other words, "Go ahead and cry, boy. This is a war for Scotland." About 90% of the Game of Thrones series was a re-telling of the Scottish wars of the 14th-17th centuries. Several of the main players in the Raid of Ruthven conspiracy are ancestors of mine, which is why some of them had to emigrate to America. Another favorite Scottish phrase of mine is a sign on the door of a pub that says, "No hawkers or Campbells." Google that one. It's a great story!
I’m a highland man but I worked in Edinburgh fo quite a time and to be brutally frank , that attempt was a bit of a dead loss. I have a natural ear for accents and I heard a fair bit of faux Irish in there, and not a lot of even generic Scottish.
Matt, I've just come across this video. As an intro to what I'm about to say, I grew up in Central Scotland in a linguistically literate and multilingual extended family and have been accustomed to listening to and analysing accents all my life, as well as discussing phonology with linguists - although I'm no expert in that, I hasten to add. I have also spent a fair bit of time in Edinburgh, either as a student many years ago or visiting friends there. That said, phonologically you are on the right track when you talk of fronting in the "generic Scottish accent". As a Scot, I would contest that there is any generic Scottish accent, but I do agree that there are certain features that distinguish the accents of Scottish people from those of other people speaking English. However, in practice you're unfortunately not getting it right in terms of vocal production. There's a great deal too much Irish in your vowels and intonation, and I say this as someone who has two Northern Irish sisters-in-law and their children and many friends from the Republic of Ireland. Also, upper-class RP-influenced Edinburgh doesn't sound at all like your version. You asked other people to provide examples of more accurate sounds. Nobody seems to have done this, so I decided to help out here. I think the only way to do this is to provide examples of actual Scottish people speaking in their natural accents. This is an upper-class RP-influenced Edinburgh accent from the Morningside district, such as spoken by Malcolm Rifkind, born in Edinburgh, educated at George Watson's College (one of the best secondary schools in Scotland) and Edinburgh University - lawyer and UK politician of some stature: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fHTnW31PMnw.html And this is him actually talking about his schooldays. His A-sounds are so very Scottish, as in the way he says "debating" and "mainly". His R's are also very Scottish, both the retroflex word-initial, word-final and the post-vocalic intra-word kind. And his I-sound in the word Friday is especially Scottish (though more open than the I-sound you will find in other Scottish accents): www.bl.uk/collection-items/edinburgh-morningside-accent-sir-malcolm-schooldays www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/history-edinburgh-accent-624193 His accent is more modern than the one affected by Maggie Smith in the film "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", although I have heard some older female Edinburgh ladies speak that kind of exaggerated "posh" in my time. Now it's considered a caricature. If you want to listen to contemporary east-coast Scottish accents, your best bet is to tune into the Accent Tag videos. But be aware that the people making these videos are not necessarily going to advertise their social status when recording the videos.
@@narratormatt Glad to help. The are a number of Scottish RU-vidrs you could look up as well. And all the voice actors on Pixar's "Brave" are people actually born in Scotland. Look them up and find out where they came from. Accents change every few miles in Scotland. Also, try to find Andy Stewart reciting the poem The Rumour. It's a bit dated now but it gives you a very good idea of the vast diversity of accents around Scotland.
I’m from Edinburgh, and I have to say - good try! Maybe not perfect but definitely not a bad shot. From what I’ve heard, the Scottish accents are quite complex for non-Scottish people. My English friend for example, a Londoner, sounded very Newcastle-ish. I don’t know how, but that happened. Haha!
Yeah, we all tend to default to something more familiar when we venture into something new. I've noticed when my British friends attempt a general American accent, they default to Texan. It has a lot more commonalities with the British accent, if not the culture :)
@@narratormatt Tbh, both versions are wrong. Of the two, the 'posh' version is a bit better, but neither are v accurate. I am writing this from Edinburgh, I don't sound like either of these versions, nor do my friends and family. Its hard to explain in words how it 'should' sound, so in the first link, I will give you someone Id consider as having a typical Edinburgh middle class accent. This is v close to how I sound ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q5Lgt_WxTBg.html
@@narratormatt Jack Docherty is also Edinburgh born. Id say his accent would be as good as any for as a model; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q3Gh7NiogBg.html
The vernacular accent’s very odd, but the middle class one’s a little better. There’re a few vowels that sound like they snuck in from Dublin, and don’t belong at all.
I'm so sorry as you're clearly so passionate and have thought about this deeply, but this is not even close... search up the videos "Stephen Fry Scottish accents" and "Nick Abbot's Morningside accent", which are both very accurate renditions
@@narratormatt I wasn't trying to be a dick. If you're ever in Edinburgh you should try and drop the class thing. If you tell someone that you think they're lower class they might(quite rightly)become a little hostile.
@@garyhyndman1105 what would be the more savvy way to describe those with a thicker accent from those who enunciate more and sound a touch more British (a la wasshername in Harry Potter)?
@@narratormatt JK Rowling was inspired by and wrote in Edinburgh. If i could be bothered to stand up i could see a part of the castle and Arthur's Seat from my window. People over here describing someone as lower class is like somewhere between the "N" word and trash over there. It's redundant if not obsolete . You'd get away with "working class" though.
I have heard two or three times someone from Edinburgh speaking on a documentary who sounded very American in their speech. I was curious if this is a specific area of Edinburgh who speak like this, or a class. No way of knowing even if they were transplanted Americans or if they had ever lived in America but it was odd to hear a near American speech from a City in Scotland. Anyone can enlighten me and no I wasn’t hearing things:)
Terrible, really not an edinburgh accent at all. Sounded like an american doing a bravegeart accent and am no trying tae be a dick. Everythin, literally everythin is way aff
He already said he’s an audiobook reader. I think it’s great that he’s trying to learn accents to make the reading of books more enjoyable for the listener