I have no wish to be a pedant but why did not George Watson's College hammer out of Iain Gray MSP his deplorable habit of failing to pronounce correctly the sound represented in the English language by "-ing". Is this some kind of effort to identify with the so-called Scottish working (or workin') class? The man studied physics at the University of Edinburgh - is he so ashamed of an educated Scottish accent?
Or maybe I'm just being snobbish. I'm also prejudiced against Watsonians.
1 comment:
I think not only snobbish, but a touch unfair.
When speaking Scottish Standard English (the kind you learn in school) the correct ending is indeed "-ing" In Scots, however, the correct ending is "-in"
What Gray is doing seems to be very much in fashion among our politicians at the moment; namely, using Scots language shibboleths when speaking Standard English (c.f. Alex Salmond: "facts are chiles that winnae ding")
I suggest this is probably a way of appealing to those who speak Scots in everyday life, or possibly to some shared national heritage. It is monstrous snobbery to imply that only the "workin' class" speak Scots, as I'm sure many a well off oil worker in the North East might depone.
What really needs to happen is that we promote the Scots language to a point where it is perfectly acceptable for people of education to use it, as happens with the Allemanic dialects in Switzerland, alongside Swiss Standard German.
Kind regards, Colin Robertson.
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