Laura has returned to her career's fundamentals and is now concentrating on the Additional Support Needs sector. Her career in teaching started while she was a university student, working in a play program for kids with impairments.

Laura also has her own radio interview show, which is "Representation Matters" on Teacher Hug Radio.

Scottish English has been the dominant language in Scotland since the 18th century. The Scots language started to become more Anglicized in the 16th century, and more and more Scots and Scottish English were combined in literary works. The Union of the Crowns in 1603, which increased the number of English speakers among the Scottish nobility, had a significant impact on this shift. English became the official written language of Scotland with the Union of Parliaments in 1707, uniting it with England. As a result, the people of Scotland have been using both Scots and Scottish English in daily speech.

Scots have a direct influence on many essential aspects of the pronunciation of the modern Scottish accent. As an example, fewer vowel sounds are used, which produces a comparable pronunciation to terms like "caught" and "cot," in contrast to English accents. The Scottish accent is also unique because it emphasizes the rhotic rolled Rs, which is a feature that is similar to the Spanish accent. The accent has mostly not changed even if Scots and Scottish English have different linguistic patterns.

Over its history, the Scottish accent has been significantly influenced by a number of factors, such as geographic location, social status, and regional dialects. This complexity is further compounded by Scotland's varied topography, where the eastern and southern regions are often more urbanized and have flatter terrain, while the northern and western regions are more hilly and have more rural environments.

1.1 Demographic of Scottish Speaker

1.2 Demographic of London Speaker

2) History of English

2.1 History of Scottish English

2.2 History of London English

3) Analysis of Variations

3.1 Sentences and Transcriptions (Scottish English)

3.1.1 Phonemic Variation

3.1.2 Prosodic Variation

3.1.3 Lexical Variation

3.2 Sentences and Transcriptions (London English)

3.2.1 Phonemic Variation

3.2.2 Prosodic Variation

3.2.3 Lexical Variation

4) Reflection and Conclusion

5) References

As of 2021, it was reported that over 8.9 million people lived in London. For every km², there was over 5.6k people, which makes London 15 times more dense than the rest of England. Central London was the densest of all with a grand population density of over 11 thousand.

The city of London has a greater ethnic diversity compared to England as a whole. In London alone, the Black and Minority Ethnic groups total to about 46% of Londoners. The highest population of ethnic diversity was West London with over 50%, and the least was South London with 36%.

The Received Pronunciation (RP) is referred to as British English, which is based off the London dialect as well as its surrounding areas. This form of English is taught in school and used in official settings like the news broadcast BBC. So, it can be deduced that London English and British English can be used interchangeably.

Old English began around the first half of the 5th century. After the Romans left the British Isles, new Germanic settlers, who would later be known as the Anglo-Saxons, arrived from the other side of the North Sea. The existing Latin language would be dropped overtime as the Anglo-Saxon language was thought to be much easier for the people to use. However, some Latin was maintained due to the rise of Christianity. As time went on, "Englisc" and "Englalond" became the new names of the language and the land respectively.

The Middle English period lasted 400 years, starting from the year 1100. The language faced a Norman French invasion by William the Conqueror. French became the official language as it controlled the political, economic and cultural life in England. Despite French being the official language up until the second half of the 14th century, there were two major events that occurred that secured the comeback of English: The Black Death and The Hundred Years War between the English and the French (Millward, 1996).

Between the 15th and 18th century did the Early Modern English occur. The English Renaissance, the invention of printing, and colonization are some of the monumental moments in history that greatly affected the language. In 1611, King James brought together a team of scribes to publish a new translation of the bible. It was greatly received as both social groups of higher and poorer status could comprehend the contents. The King James translation introduced the English language to a new world of metaphors such as "a leopard can't change its stripes" and "a wolf in sheep's clothing". To this day, the King James Bible continues to be a reference point to how the language is spoken.

Starting from 1800 and beyond did the next period of language arise, known as the "Present-Day-English".

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities - (Ladefoged, 2024).

Non-rhotic /r/

In London English, the /r/ sound is not enunciated. This is called "non-rhotic". In the video, the speaker does not sound out the /r/ in "dark" (/dɑːrk/) and instead pronounces it as "daak" (/dɑːk/). Another instance from the video is when the speaker utters the word "turned" (/tɜːn/ instead of /tɜːrn/).

Long diphthongs

Diphthongs comprise of two vowels that blend into one syllable. In the IPA, there are 8 different diphthongs:

• /aɪ/(aa-ee)

• /aʊ/(aa-oo)

• /ɔɪ/(oo-ee)

• /ɪə/(ee-uh)

• /eə/(eh-uh)

• /ʊə/(oo-uh)

• /əʊ/(oh-uu)

• /eɪ/(aye-ee)

While diphthongs are not a uniquely British dialect trait, a feature that makes them stand out is uttering them longer rather than abruptly stopping.

Examples of diphthongs from the audio text:

/maʊs/, /strəʊl/, /nəʊz/.

Long "aah" sound

"ɑː" is an open-back unrounded vowel that can be produced by letting your mouth hang open with your tongue low and shifted to the back. Air should be pushed out from the mouth, vibrating the vocal cords. Some examples include:

/təˈmɑːtəʊ/, /ɡrɑːs/, /bɑːθ/

A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood. (London)

A moose took a dauner through the deep mirk widd. (Scots)

In London, the word to describe the action of walking in a slow relaxed manner is "stroll". On the other hand, Scotland uses the word "dauner". In the same sentence, instead of the word "dark", Scotland uses "mirk" to describe little to no light. If a Londoner were to use either dauner or mirk, chances are they will not be understood by other Londoners. To summarise, London English uses different words that carry the same meaning.

There is also an example shown in the attached video above, where the British speaker and Scottish speaker both use the word "loch". The British speaker goes to elaborate that it is a very Scottish word. "Loch" originates from Scottish Gaelic which describes a lake or sea inlet. Hence, London English borrowing lexical items from other languages and dialects.

Prosody is the part of phonetics that deals with stress and intonation as opposed to individual speech sounds - Oxford Learner's Dictionary

When talking about prosody, there are 2 main features: intonation and stress. Intonation is the variation in the pitch of the voice, whether it goes high or low. Stress on the other hand is adding emphasis to a syllable.

Stress

In the audio text, the speaker utilises the use of intonation phrases to separate the content words which she stresses as she lists each feature one by one.

"He has knobbly knees, and turned out toes, and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose."

The content words (knobbly knees, turned out toes, poisonous wart) are stressed, meanwhile the function words (and, a, at, the, of) are less so. We can infer that the speaker's reason in doing so is to grab the listeners attention and frighten them with the scary details.

Intonations

When asking WH- and HOW questions, London English uses a fall-rise intonation. This means the voice goes high before dropping at the last syllable of the question. For instance, in the video, the speaker asks a question:

"Why, didn't you know?"

A fall-rise pitch pattern can be heard at the word "know".

Pausing

What is pausing? Pausing is vital when the speaker is reading a story out loud. Pauses can enhance the suspense, provide attention to a key point, or help the narrative progress. From the video, at 00:21, the speaker read the first sentence:

" A moose took a dauner through the deep, mirk widd. "

The speaker emphasises the pause when she's describing the wood's situation. She paused after deep, and she paused briefly again after mirk before proceeds with widd. This is because the speaker wanted the listeners of the storytelling to feel the suspense and make themselves see the situation vividly.

Intonations

Intonations refer to the rise and fall of our voice projection while talking. It can indicate whether the speaker is trying to ask a question, statement, or emotion. In the audio, at 1:49, the speaker asked

" Whaur are ye meetin him? "

The speaker used the rising intonation in question to indicate that she's asking. Scottish English speakers are commonly found using this intonation when they're trying to ask a question.

" Just walk behind me and soon you'll see, everyone is afraid of me. " - London English

" Jist walk ahint me and ye'll soon see, awbody is feart fae me. " - Scottish English

In Scotland, awbody refers to all people. While in London, it is spelled as everyone. Nevertheless, both of them have the same meaning.

" Here, by this stream, and his favourite food is owl ice cream. " - London English

" Here, by this watter, and his favourite food is hoolet in batter. " - Scottish English

The word to describe a small, narrow river in Scotland is watter. While in London, the word stream is being used. In the same sentence, a bird of prey with a large round eyes is called as hoolet in Scotland. On the other hand, in London, hoolet is called as an owl.

There are more examples in the video attached above.

In mid-2021, Edinburgh's population was estimated to be 526,470, with women comprising 51.2% of the total. Approximately 16.6% of the population is under 18 years old, while individuals over 65 account for 15.4%. Those aged over 85 represent 2% of the population.

The Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland, is one of the major institutions located in Edinburgh. The highest courts in Scotland, the Scottish Parliament, and the Scottish Government are also located in this city.

It is made clear through this project that language is a medium that can change, whether it is from the passage of time, or a more forceful approach such as colonisation. Most forms of the English language to this day are from a country's history of colonisation by the UK or USA. Even after they gained their independence, the marks left behind are so deeply embedded into the culture. This of course is not necessarily a bad thing. Countries who's people speak English have better global opportunities, whether it is to work or study abroad, have the ability to connect with other people from different cultures, and learn cultural sensitivity.

• Scottish English would pronounce the /r/ with a strong and clear sound. The "r" sound is pronounced at the end of syllables. For instance:

'weld' (/wɜːld/) (London English)

'werld' /wɜːrld/ (Scottish English)

The Scots pronounce the /r/ sound more clear and strong. They avoid letting the tip of their tongue touch the roof of their mouth when producing the letter /r/. That's what makes it sounded more clear.

Short vowel sound

• The Scottish are commonly known to pronounce words using short vowel sounds. For example:

/kɔːt/ (London English)

/kɒt/ (Scottish English)

The Londoner would pronounce caught as /kɔːt/, it is in longer vowel sound. But The Scots would pronounce it shortly, /kɒt/. The sound of caught pronounced by The Scots is more clean and sharp.