Chris Gilmour

Streetlighting, spreadsheets, running, knitting, guitar, programming.
probably moving to @[email protected]

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@Jamie_Venom @PraefectusCas @sharghzadeh AAVE is treated in a diglossic manner in relation to English, when it ought to be treated in a bilingual manner.

Similarly the relationship between Scots and English.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

Interestingly most football played in the UK is not televised, and so doesn't require the hydration breaks. I doubt it will catch on in the UK.

[Ragged Trousered Philanderer @RaggedTP]

Football is a game that originated in Scotland.
The English claim it because Ebenezer Cobb Morley wrote the first official 'Laws of the Game' in 1863.
Now the US has effectively turned it into a game of 4 quarters to accommodate TV Ad breaks... ripping up 160yrs of tradition.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@william_mc25122 Have you never even considered learning Norwegian?

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi @hugorifkind LOL

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@bellacaledonia In what way is she "from England"?

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi That's not what @hugorifkind says
https://t.co/zUD4duxUqj

[Hugo Rifkind @hugorifkind]

Still thinking about this. On the off chance anyone is interested, I never had a particularly strong Scottish accent, but I certainly sound different now to how I sounded until about the age of 20. Which is exactly how I sound still when I go back up North, or when I speak to somebody else with a similar accent. Or an Irish one, weirdly.

This can be embarrassing on the radio. When I used to do the News Quiz often with Fred Macaulay I'm sure I sounded like two different people. Also, when I started on Times Radio I'd often do the handover from either @CalumAM or @AasmahMir, which tended to mean I'd start Scottish and then get progressively less so for the next three hours. These days, my producers all mock me for the sudden switches. I honestly can't help it. I'm actually not great at doing either accent on purpose at a time when I'm naturally doing the other one, even when I want to.

I suppose some people think I'm faking it. If I am, though, I don't mean to be. I've heard recordings of my own voice made when I can't hear my own voice (in a noisy club, for example) and I'm notably more Scottish then, which suggests the fake accent is the bland South East one I now use most of the time. Although I'm definitely not doing that on purpose, either, because Scottish is a much better accent to broadcast or give speeches in. Jokes land better, and so on. So if I could choose one, I'd definitely choose that.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi Of course their parents have French accents, having been born and grown up in France. But the children picked up their first accents from their parents at home, and now have picked up middle English accents from the classmates and neighbours.

Which would you consider to be fake?

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi We fundamentally disagree on your first point.

Its possible to have lots of accents. Accents change, both over time and according to context.

I have neighbours who are French, their children used to have French accents, and now have Hertfordshire accent.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi But she was born in Scotland, grew up in Kirriemuir and was schooled in Dundee.

In what way could her Scottish accent possibly be fake?

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi Although I should confess that I'm an Englishman from Manchester, with a Scottish father, who studied in Glasgow, and now live in England and act as a so-called "Scots language activist".

In some respects I'm an inverse Lara Bird, linguistically.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi Its not "fake", its literally the accent she uses.

Her mum's English, her dad worked in London, she studied in London. How would it be fake?

It not like when I put on a French accent and pretend to do an 80s sitcom (I'm not at all French).

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@sharmer77 @drumister @DanielleTousi @imccrossan1 @edcumming seems to suggest that such code-switching comes more naturally to "privately educated Leftists" which seems a bit weird.

It might just be that Scottish people are more to the Left than English people in general, and are forced to code-switch more often.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@sharmer77 @drumister @DanielleTousi @imccrossan1 Even if she went to university in London or lived and studied in London for a number of years, the Dundee / Angus accent would be a natural part of her vocal repertoire, able to be deployed or code-switched into when she feels necessary.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi The fact that you interpret her English accent as being more comfortable is a subjective thing.

Her constituents were clearly convinced enough by her manner of speech to vote for her in greater numbers than the other candidates.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @imccrossan1 @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi To be fair, her father was apparently a diplomat, working in the Foreign Office. Its likely that she was accustomed to speaking both the local Scottish vernacular from where she lived, and RP English, being bilingual in some respects.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @sharmer77 @DanielleTousi @imccrossan1 Havers.

[Chris Gilmour @illandancient]

@drumister @DanielleTousi @imccrossan1 Indeed context is important.

If you perhaps lived in Ireland, or Liverpool or Newcastle, do you think you would adopt the local accent after a period of time? Or would you forever incriminate yourself as an outsider?