Mose Hutchison Born: 17 December 1949 Lives: Penicuik, Midlothian Time lived in area: All my life

Jonnie Robinson, Curator, English accents and dialects, British Library Sound Archive, writes

There are a number of aspects of Mose's speech that immediately identify him as a speaker of Scots dialect. Listen, for instance, to the number of localised alternatives he favours over more mainstream equivalents, such as graith for tools or gear, mind for remember, afore for before, gan for go, aye for yes and ken for you know. Until relatively recently these were features of broad dialect in much of the northern half of Great Britain, but nowadays they're perhaps restricted to the far north-east of England and large areas of Scotland.

Listen also to the vowel sound Mose uses in the words out and house. This actually reflects a much older pronunciation that was common both to Middle English and Middle High German and is an illustration of the Germanic origins of modern English. Again this was until fairly recently common in broad dialect speech in much of the far north of England, but nowadays it's perhaps restricted to Tyneside, Northumberland and parts of Scotland. His use of a sound for the <th> in the middle of the word anything is likewise a striking feature of many speakers with a broad Scottish or indeed Irish accent.

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 Mose's says did nae rather than didn't in the statements it did nae matter whether it be a joiner or a plumber or a brickie or whatever he be.

There are several forms of address used in different dialects of English. Man is widely used in the north-east of England and indeed in London Jamaican English. Pet is also a typical north-eastern term of affection directed at women or children and popularised in the title of the television programme, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. In many parts of West Yorkshire, even in conversations between absolute strangers, an older speaker is liable to address a younger person as love and the speech of the East Midlands is characterised by people calling each other duck. Mose's use here of pal in the statement mind your graith, pal is typical of a number of Scottish dialects and indeed common on Merseyside, too.