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Greetings everyone! We are Farhana (left), and Liyana (right) from LG243 2A!

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Five sentences were given to both of the speakers:

1. It's a good day for a walk, isn't it?

2. Oh no, I missed the bus!

3. Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?

4. I was just joking, don't be upset.

5. Did you hear that someone has moved in down the road?

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Phonemic variation refers to changes in how sounds are perceived and understood by language speakers, which frequently leads to different phonemes being used to convey the same meaning (Phonemic Variation vs. Phonetic Variation - What’s the Difference? | This vs. That, 2023).

According to Anderson et al. (2022), phonemic analysis is the process of determining the phonemes of a spoken language, as well as the allophones of those phonemes and their distribution. The overall analysis is referred to as language phonemicization.

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Name: Ewa

Age: 22 years old

Ethnicity: Scottish/Polish

Grew up in Scotland

Living in Glasgow/Scotland for 3 years

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The history of English in Scotland (Scottish English)

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The history of English in Scotland (Scottish English)

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The term "lexical variation" refers to the various words and phrases we use to refer to the same objects or concepts (Lexical Variables, 2019).

Lexical variation focuses on the aspects of a language's vocabulary and spelling.

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Rolled Rs /r/ sound

The Scottish accent is considered fully rhotic, which means the /r/ sound is clearly pronounced in all positions within a word (O'Mahony, 2024).

Examples:

Car: /kar/ — the "r" is pronounced clearly at the end.

Better: /ˈbɛtər/ — "r" is tapped or slightly rolled.

Elongated vowels

In Scottish accent, some short vowel sounds are stretched out (O'Mahony, 2024).

Examples:

Words like "dress" (/ɛ/), "trap" (/æ/), and "lot" (/ɒ/) have longer vowel sounds than usual.

The vowel in "foot" (/ʊ/) can sound more like the one in "goose".

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According to Davies (2021), Scottish English contains a wide range of distinctive expressions not commonly found in other varieties of English due to the influence of both Scots and English.

Examples:

“Ah cannae dae tha.”

Translation: “I can’t do that.”

Usage: This phrase is relatively straightforward in meaning, but it effectively illustrates how vowel pronunciation in the Scottish accent differs from other English varieties.

“What dreich weather!”

Translation: “What lousy weather!”

Usage: This looks similar to the English version of the phrase, but there’s a word people may not have encountered before which is dreich. It is pronounced as dreek, it’s a well-known Scots term used to describe dull, gloomy weather—offering a good hint about Scotland’s typical climate.

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Map retrieved from https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/united-kingdom/scotland

According to World Atlas (2023), Scotland is a country in the northern part of the United Kingdom. It shares a border with England to the south and is surrounded by the North Sea on the east and the Atlantic Ocean on the west and north. Covering about 30,090 square miles, it is the second-largest country in the UK. Scotland's landscape is mainly divided into two regions, which are called "the Highlands" and "the Lowlands".

The Highlands, located in the north and west, are known for their steep mountains and wild scenery. The highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, is located here and stands at 4,413 feet tall. This area also includes the Grampian Mountains, which have many peaks over 3,000 feet (World Atlas, 2023).

World Atlas (2023) also states that the Lowlands, located in the south and east, are made up of gentle hills and rich farmland. Most of Scotland's people live here, and it is where much of the farming takes place, especially growing crops like barley and wheat. The Central Lowlands, also called the Midland Valley, are home to Scotland's two biggest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

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The vowel /u:/

In Scottish English, the vowel sounds typically occurs near the front of the mouth. Depending on the region, these vowels may sound rounded and high-pitched—often described as “hooty”—or broader and flatter, as is commonly heard in Glaswegian speech (O'Mahony, 2024).

Examples:

From the video (0:28-1:00) - "who" "you" "through".

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Name: Emily

Age: 22 years old

Ethnicity: Irish

Grew up in England/Scotland

Living in Glasgow for the last 13 years

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The history of English in Ireland (Irish English)

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The history of English in Ireland (Irish English)

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Map retrieved from https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/ireland

According to World Atlas (2023), Ireland, which is also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a country in Western Europe located on the island of Ireland.

World Atlas (2023) also states that Ireland shares its only land border with Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. To the east is the Irish Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean surrounds its west and south coasts. The warm North Atlantic Drift, part of the Gulf Stream, plays a big role in shaping Ireland’s climate.

The country covers about 70,273 square kilometers (27,133 square miles). The Irish landscape includes four main regions, various rivers and lakes, and many islands (World Atlas, 2023).

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According to Steffen (2022):

Aside from being the yellow center of an egg, the term "yoke" refers to something you don’t have a proper name for (which is arguably less wacky than “thingamabob”).

Calling someone "bold" speaks more about their bad behaviour than courage, similarly to the British "cheeky".

Every inanimate thing is probably a "she," not a "it."

"Craic" (pronounced "crack") is the infamous, multipurpose slang word from Ireland. In fact, the Irish first acquired the Middle English word crack or crak (to brag loudly), gaelicized it, and reintroduced it as craic. It is now widely used as a catch-all expression in sentences such as "What's the craic?" which use as Irish "Whassup?".

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According to Britannica (n.d.), prosody is the study of the sound and rhythm of language, focusing on elements like tone, stress, and flow. It is especially important in poetry, but it also plays a role in everyday speech and prose. The term comes from ancient Greek, where it originally referred to a musical song or the specific tone given to a syllable.

According to Administration (2024), prosody is the study of the tune and rhythm in speech—how our voice rises and falls, how loud or soft we speak, and how fast or slow we talk—and how these patterns help us express meaning.

Its speech features are often applied at a higher level than the individual phoneme and, in many cases, to word sequences (in prosodic phrases) (Administration, 2024).

At the phonetic level, prosody includes characteristics such as:

vocal pitch (fundamental frequency)

loudness (acoustic intensity)

rhythm (phoneme and syllable duration)

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Rising and falling intonation

According to Cao, R., & Jin, S. (n.d.), Scottish English has different intonation patterns depending on the region. The accents in most parts of Scotland, other than those found in Glasgow, both statements and questions usually have a falling tone pattern.

Many northern cities, like Glasgow, are known for using rising tones when they speak. The difference between how people speak in Edinburgh and Glasgow is that Edinburgh speakers usually end their sentences with a mid-to-low falling tone, while Glasgow speakers tend to use a high rising tone at the end (Cao, R., & Jin, S., n.d.).

Stress on the syllables

According to Cao, R., & Jin, S. (n.d.), the primary stress in words like advertise, baptise, realise, and recognise falls on the final syllables in Scottish English. In words of porpoise and tortoise, there will be equal stress on each syllable. While words like lamentable and preferably have the primary stress on the second syllable.

Scottish English distinguishes between verbs and nouns by stressing the second syllable in the case of a verb and on the first syllable in the case of a noun. For example, words like present and record have the second stressed syllable in the case of being verbs and the first stressed syllable in the case of being nouns (Cao, R., & Jin, S., n.d.).

Rhythm on the syllables

According to Cao, R., & Jin, S. (n.d.), the distinct rhythm of Scottish English is known as Scottish snap—in disyllabic words, one syllable is long and the other is short. Disyllabic words such as table are often pronounced with a short first syllable and a long second syllable. It has something to do with word stress patterns of the Scottish accent, as a stress pattern of a language is probably the most crucial factor influencing rhythm.

Syllabification tends to favor open syllables; a consonant at the end of one word in a closed syllable tends to be syllabicated with the following vowel of the subsequent word in Scottish English. For example, the phrase St Andrews will be syllabified into /sn tan drʉz/, and phrases of an aim and a name bear the same syllabification, with both bearing /ə.nem/ (Cao, R., & Jin, S., n.d.).

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Speak quickly, but enunciate

According to Woltmann (2023), Irish speakers speak fast while making sure to clearly pronounce each sound.

Stress on the right syllables

One of the most distinguishing features of the Irish accent is the stress on specific syllables. This stress pattern varies according to the word and regional dialect (Brandon, 2023).

Rising and falling intonation

Rising intonation occurs when the pitch of your voice raises at the end of a sentence or phrase. Meanwhile, falling intonation occurs when the pitch drops near the finish. These intonation patterns give the Irish accent its melodious sound (Brandon, 2023).

The Irish sing-song quality

Brandon (2023) states, because of its melodious intonation and rhythm, the Irish accent is frequently referred to as having a sing-song sound. The sound provides charm and character to the accent, making it easily recognizable.

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Hi everyone! I'm Farhana. Here are 3 fun facts to get to know me better!

1) My favourite korean food is bibimbap.

2) I have a dimple on my right cheek.

3) I'm allergic to dark chocolate.

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Hello everyone! I'm Liyana. Let's get to know more about me!

1) I could recite almost every line in the Harry Potter series

2) Lord of the Rings & The Hunger Games are in my top 3 most favourite movie series

3) I've always loved the quote "a hero would sacrifice you for the world, but a villain would sacrifice the world for you"

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Introduction: Demographics of speakers and maps of the countries (Scotland and Ireland)

Demographics of Scottish speaker

Map of Scotland

Demographics of Irish speaker

Map of Ireland

The history of English in Scotland and Ireland

Scottish English

Irish English

Variations

Phonemic Variation

Prosodic Variation

Lexical Variation

Analysis: Audio files of the speakers

Scottish English vs Irish English

Scottish speaker

Irish speaker

IPA Transcription

Conclusion

Reflection

Individual Written Reflection #1

Individual Written Reflection #2

References

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Now, cue the bagpipes and may the wind always be at your back. Happy reading!

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The pronunciation of /r/

According to Brandon (2023), to make the Irish "r" sound, gently tap the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth, directly behind your front teeth. Avoid rolling or trilling the "r" like you would in other dialects. Instead, concentrate on producing a delicate, nearly whispered sound.

Examples:

In the video (2:09-3:22) - "park" "garden" "earth"

The "o" sound

It's frequently described as a cross between the "o" in "cot" and the "u" in "cut." To say it correctly, begin with the "o" sound but round your lips slightly and pull your tongue back slightly into your mouth (Brandon, 2023).

Examples:

In the video (3:23-4:57) - "how" "flower" "found"

The "u" sound

Brandon (2023) states that the sound is often described as a blend of the "u" in "put" and the "oo" in "loop." To acquire it, start with the "u" sound, but round your lips and push your tongue slightly forward. This will give it a more rounded, front-of-mouth feel.

Examples:

In the video (4:58-6:03) - "home" "blown" "stone"