Hmmm ... the elusive "r" in Scots..

I'm from Glasgow, and a long time (and long story) ago I studied phonetics as part of a course I was doing. I've forgotten a lot of it but...

There are actually about 4 distinct sounds used in different areas of Scotland and even within those areas differing sounds may be used (and variations blending from one sound into another).

1) The trilled or rolling "R" that say Matt McGinn uses in the "The Sweet Rrrrollling Hills of The Borrrders"... ( personally think this gets used when singing a lot - I know I tend to do it although I use 2) in my speech more)

2) There's a "flapped" R... this one is tricky -- but if you can try saying "petal" or "pedal" in a sort of Mid-Western US accent... then it approximates to how the word "pearl" is said in many parts of Scotland. My linguistics teacher said that although most Scots speakers would have trouble identifying it as such - they would mostly say that they "roll" their "R's" - this and approximations to it - is about the single most common method of pronouncing the R sound in Scotland. Personally, my version of this is less pronounced, but it's closer to this than the others

3)In addition there's the smooth "English/American" R which is often heard.. don't know whether this is a recent adoption after radio/TV...

4) Lastly some bits of the north-east have a tendency to a back voiced R (I forgot the actual technical name) similar - but not as pronounced as - the FRench/German r sound at the back of the throat.


Ohhh , and we mix them all up...


Hope that helps... hehehe....


Cheers


Steven