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Kenneth Ainslie
Born: 23 February 1944
Lives: Dunbar, East Lothian
Time lived in area: All my life
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Kenneth remembers the 'ugly' - a hat worn by women who worked in the fields and were made by his mother.
Language of interview: Scots
Duration: 0:49 (mins/secs)
The participants were asked to describe how they spoke in their own words.
How do you describe your accent: "Lothians."
Have there been other influences on the way you speak: Not Given
Do you have skills in languages other than English?: No
Other languages: None
KENNETH: An ugly in ma days, was when the weemen worked in the fields, it was a hat, 'n it was cawed an ugly, 'n it was the most ugliest thing ye've ever seen. A big thing made with..ma mother used te make them..it's a big thing wi' hoops, canes, 'n things like tha', 'n it came right ower the front a their heid, en it went right ower the back o' their heid, so's thet they couldne get burnt off 'e sun, or any'hin' like that, fer singlin', working in the fields, separaten durnets, 'n' the hervest time, every'hin', just anybody wore them in the fields, weemen did, no men, weemen wore the uglies, me mother used te make them, any colour you wanted, it was just a cloth that they made, and that they baw' 'n' wha'ever cloth they wanted, what hat they wanted they baw' the cloth, gave it te ma mother, 'n' ma mother put the canes in an' made the hat 'n an auld sewing machine.
Jonnie Robinson, Curator, English accents and dialects, British Library Sound Archive, writes
An extremely subtle difference between various dialects across the UK is the way in which negative constructions are formed in speech. For many speakers in Scotland, the preferred negative particle is nae which can be attached more simply to most verbs than its Standard English counterpart, not, which is abbreviated in a variety of ways in different dialects. Listen to the way Kenneth says could nae rather than couldn't in the statement so's that they could nae get burnt off the sun. Interestingly he also uses another Scottish alternative negative particle, no, in the statements that's no true and women did, no men, which would probably be rendered that isn't true or that's not true and women did, not men in Standard English.
There are also a number of aspects of Kenneth's speech that immediately identify him as a speaker with a Scottish accent. First of all he's a rhotic speaker - that is he pronounces the sound after a vowel, at one time a feature of speech throughout the UK. Nowadays, however, it's increasingly restricted to the West Country and the far south-west of England, a small area of Lancashire and most of Scotland and Ireland. Listen carefully to the way he pronounces the words worked, ever, over, their, burnt, for, turnips, harvest, wore, colour, whatever and mother.
There are a number of other features of Kenneth's speech that are typical of the accent in the south-east of Scotland. Listen, for instance, to the distinctive vowel sounds he uses on the words hat and back and big, thing, singling and women. Listen also to the way he pronounces the word over - the sound is omitted and so it sounds similar to the pronunciation of the word our in a number of other English accents. This in fact reflects an older English pronunciation still common in the north-east of England and preserved in the poetic usage o'er. Crucially, however, Kenneth also includes the sound at the end of the word which therefore distinguishes him from speakers south of the border. Finally Kenneth's pronunciation of the vowel in the word head is typical of a number of Scottish speakers and is indeed a feature of broad dialect speech on Tyneside. This was until relatively recently very common in the north of Britain as a whole and is an echo of a Middle English vowel used in words such as bread, dead, deaf and so on.
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