From Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Scotland has long been represented on stage and screen. Actors including Sean Connery, James McAvoy, David Tennant, and Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning continue to offer us authentic portrayals of the country’s accents, but as former Scotsman writer David McLean notes, “When it comes to TV and film portrayals, there can hardly be another tongue on the planet that has been more frequently murdered than the Scottish accent.” Yikes.
If you’ve been asked to audition or perform in a Scottish brogue, you’ll want to get it right. Here, we ask the experts to share their tips for mastering a Scottish accent.
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First things first, let’s look at its origins. Not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, a language in its own right believed to be spoken by a minority of around 60,000 Scots, standard Scottish English is the dominant language in Scotland and has been since the 18th century. The Scottish accent – or accents – is known for containing fewer, longer vowel sounds than English accents and for its rolling Rs.
Of course, there is no singular Scottish accent. Dialects vary depending on several factors, including region and class. Northern and western Scottish accents tend to be more guttural and pronounced, while eastern and southern accents could be described as more refined and less distinctive. Scotland’s two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow, both sit in the south of the country, and it’s southern Scottish accents that are most commonly used in stage and screen productions. They’re much clearer and are easier on the ears of international audiences.
“As with most places in the world, accents tend to be most influenced by their nearest big city or town, with capital cities often acting as a nucleus for accent evolution,” points out London-based voice and accent coach Josh Mathieson. “Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dundee are those most in demand when I’m coaching Scottish accents. It’s always good fun, however, when you get to dive into some research about small towns you’ve never heard of and learn the intricacies of rural sounds.”
For Rachel Coffey, who offers voice and accent coaching worldwide, it’s “Edinburgh, which is slightly more precise with sometimes delicate consonant sounds – in a similar way to RP [received pronunciation] – and Glasgow, which tends to be stronger, wider, with less defined [and] more relaxed consonants.”
“There is considerable variation in the Scottish accent from town to town or county to county, making it hard to identify what might be ‘typical’, explains Mathieson. “All variants share some commonalities, and this helps us shape what we might call a standardised Scottish accent.”
Rolled Rs
“The Scottish accent is exclusively rhotic, which is to say Scots muscularly pronounce the R consonant whenever it features in a word,” Mathieson notes. “Many Scottish people will tap or roll their Rs in certain contexts, offering a sharp, brisk quality to the sound.”
Lyrical, expressive and harmonious
“Like most Celtic accents, Scottish is often perceived as quite a lyrical or expressive accent, with more pitch range (or rise and fall) used over an average phrase than, say, typical southern English accents,” says Mathieson.
“Scottish accents are quite harmonious with a range of notes in a slightly minor key – not a million miles away from the sound of the Scottish bagpipes,” Coffey adds.
Elongated vowels
“Another key feature is the use of long vowel sounds in commonly short, clipped words,” says Mathieson. “Vowels in words such as ‘dress’, ‘trap’, and ‘lot’, for example, are pressed into and elongated, and vowels in words such as ‘foot’ can often closely align with the sound in the word ‘goose’, [while] the words ‘cook’ and ‘kook’ may match exactly.”
“The vowel sounds are mainly made near the front of the mouth, and depending on the region can be quite ‘hooty’ in an owl-like manner, or very broad and flat – as you’ll hear in Glaswegian,” explains Coffey.
Scottish is “a rhotic accent with a pronounced R sound on the ends of words like ‘rather’ and ‘father’,” says Coffey. “The Ts are often dropped in the middle and ends of words and replaced with a small glottal stop, as in ‘bah’uhr’ instead of ’butter’ and ‘rye’ rather than ‘right’.”
As for how to pronounce it, Mathieson suggests it “involves the front of the tongue curling back on itself in an open, spacious mouth setting to give a distinctive yet gentle muscularity.”
Vowel sounds, meanwhile, “are [different to those in] RP, so in Glaswegian you’ll get ‘cheps’ instead of ‘chips’, and ‘behg’ instead of ‘bag’. Also, the ‘ow’ sound is often replaced with an ‘ooo’ so you’ll get ‘hoose’ rather than ‘house’,” Coffey explains.
“Another feature is the clean, sharp use of an ‘eh’ vowel in words more commonly pronounced with an ‘ih’ – meaning that the [syllable] ‘mit’ and the word ‘met’ use an identical vowel, distinguishable only by the shortness in the first word and the length in the second,” Mathieson adds. “This can make script notes nice and easy, as you can simply respell words like ‘bit’, ‘this’, and ‘mix’ with ‘bet’, ‘thes’ and ‘mex’.”
Scottish accents, he continues, will also “find brightness and length in words typically ending in ‘es’ and ‘ed’. This final syllable becomes muscular and weighty with a strong ‘ee’ vowel sound. As such, we might find ourselves saying ‘voy-seez’ for ‘voices’ or ‘won-teed’ for ‘wanted’.
Be specific
Instead of cobbling together a Scottish accent based on a number of different examples, “choose a specific region and stick to those sounds, otherwise you’ll be wandering off all over the place,” cautions Coffey. “If you want a real challenge, try to learn the accent of the western Scottish Isle of Lewis – it’s totally unique [and] definitely one of the toughest accents to learn!”
Listen
“Expose yourself to as many native speakers as you can, preferably in a non-performative context, and tune your listening into specific sounds and qualities that differ from your own,” advises Mathieson.
Coffey agrees: “Use real Scottish people…to model your accent on, not an actor ‘doing’ a Scottish accent – as Mel Gibson in Braveheart notably demonstrated, there are some dodgy imitations out there!” She suggests asking a Scottish friend (if you have one) to record a few lines of them speaking in their native accent to help you practise.
Study how it compares to your own accent
To help distinguish the particularities of the Scottish accent you’re learning, “Get curious about your own accent – its sound and its muscular shapes – and you’ll find differences from other accents jump out at you more readily,” suggests Mathieson.
Practise out loud
“Accent work takes a ‘little and often’ approach if you want the sound to feel settled, authentic and comfortable. Ensure your practice is regular and out loud – don’t be tempted to mutter under your breath or go through the text [only] in your head,” cautions Mathieson. “Treat your accent as a significant part of your character’s identity and personal history, and not just a hat to pop on the top.”