How to Do a Scottish Accent (For Beginners)

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Plus tips from acting coaches on perfecting your accent for auditions
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The Scottish accent is certainly interesting and fun (or, in other words, it’s good craic! ). But it’s also a difficult accent to do correctly and convincingly. However, with some practice and a solid understanding of Scottish dialects , you may be able to start adopting the speech of some of your favorite Caledonian speakers! For some extra help, we’ve included insights from expert acting and dialect coaches on how to develop and improve your accent .

Doing a Scottish Accent: Quick Tips

  1. Pronounce “u” as “oo.” E.g., “pull” → “pool.”
  2. Replace “o” with “æ” (as in “have”). E.g., “to” → “tæ.”
  3. Drop the “g” in words that end with “g.” E.g., “morning” → “mornin’.”
  4. Replace a mid-vowel “t” with a glottal stop. E.g., “Scotland” → “Sco’land.”
  5. Roll your “r” if it comes after “d,” “t,” or “g.” E.g., “draw,” “trip,” “grand.”
  6. Use short vowels after consonants and long vowels in words that end with a vowel.
  7. Adopt slang like “aye” (yes), “wee” (small), and “bonnie” (pretty).
Section 1 of 4:

How to Speak in a Scottish Accent

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  1. Before practicing your Scottish accent, you want to set your oral posture (or vocal tract posture), which is the way you position your jaw, lips, tongue, teeth, and vocal cords in order to speak in a certain way. [1] For the Scottish accent, you want to position your articulators in this manner:
    • Place the tip of your tongue far back in your mouth. When you speak, pull your tongue back toward your throat. Doing this will help you master the harsher and more guttural sounds that are associated with Scottish accents.
    • Keep a lot of movement or action in your lips and jaw. When speaking, keep your lips out and open your mouth as if to get your lips around each sound and word. Because you’re pulling your tongue back, you may be tempted to close or tighten your lips. To counteract this, focus on keeping your jaw loose and unclenched.
  2. In general, pronounce the letter “u” as an “oo,” rather than “uh.” For example, in American English, “pull” would have a slightly different pronunciation than “pool.” In most Scottish accents, however, both words sound like “pool.” [2]
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  3. Officially known as the Near-Open Front Unrounded Vowel, “æ” makes a wide “ah” sound, like how an American speaker would pronounce the “a” in “have,” “that,” or “tax.” In Scottish English, many words that have “oh” sounds (and words that end in “oo”) will swap out the “o” for an “æ.” [3]
    • For example , “to” is often pronounced as “tæ,” and “no” is often pronounced as “naw” or “næ.”
  4. 4
    Drop the “g” sound from words that end in a “g.” In other words, replace the “ng” sound at the end of a word with just “n.” For instance, you’d say “evenin’” instead of “evening,” or “mornin’” instead of “morning.” [4]
  5. If you see a “t” in the middle of a word (e.g., “ki tt en,” “bu tt er”), try omitting the “t” sound and replacing it with a glottal stop. To do a glottal stop, close off and constrict airflow in the back of your throat to create an absence of sound instead of the “t” sound. [5]
    • For example, if you were to say “glottal stop” in a Scottish accent, you would say “glo’al stop.” Similarly, if you were to say the word “Scotland” in a Scottish accent, you’d say something similar to “Sco’land.”
    • Don’t use the glottal stop every time you see a “t.” If the “t” is at the beginning of the word or directly after a consonant, you’d most likely pronounce it (e.g, “s t op,” “t r ack”). However, if the “t” is at the end of the word or between two vowels, you’d usually skip over it in favor of a glottal stop.
      • For example, the word “that” would be pronounced “tha’.”
  6. In general, you want to roll your “r” after letters like “d,” “t,” and “g.” For instance, words like "d r aw", "t r ip", and "g r and" all get a rolling "r" sound. Then, you want to tap your “r” on any other words that have “r” in them to create a soft, fluttery “d” sound (like the sound that the “tt” makes in the American English “butter”). For example, a word like “near” would become something like “nearde.” [6] .
    • To roll your “r”s, relax your tongue so it’s flat in your mouth, then gently raise its tip to point at your alveolar ridge (the bumpy ridge behind your upper front teeth ). With your lips slightly parted, breathe out with enough force to make a sound. [7]
    • To tap your “r”s, place the tip of your tongue against your alveolar ridge and leave a tiny gap for air to pass through. Quickly flick your tongue against your ridge and lay it back down. As your tongue moves back down, push a small amount of air through the gap to create one quick and percussive “d” sound.
  7. 7
    Follow Aitken’s law to differentiate between short and long vowels. When first learning to speak in a Scottish accent, you can generalize the vowel pronunciation using Aitken’s law, which is the rule that characterizes how different vowels are formed. Here are the general rules you should follow to pronounce vowels like a Scot: [8] [Image:Talk With a Scottish Accent Step 7 Version 3.jpg|center]]
    • If a vowel is followed by a consonant, it’s usually short . [9]
      • For example, “b ea d” might be pronounced as “b i d,” and “m oo d” might rhyme with “g oo d.”
    • If a word ends on another vowel, the first vowel is usually long .
      • For example, “k e y” might be pronounced as “k ee ,” and “d o ne” might rhyme with “c o ne.”
    • Vowels are crucial to a convincing Scottish accent. Scottish vowels are extremely unique and specific to native speakers, making them very difficult to master for imitators. As a general rule, vowels are less harsh-sounding in a Scottish accent, and they’re pronounced with more of an open mouth and loose jaw than in American English. [10]
  8. If you want to pass for a Scot, you’ll have to learn to speak like one! Familiarize yourself with some of the most common Scottish slang —if you’re trying to pass as having an accent of a specific region of Scotland, look for slang from that area. Note that a lot of the so-called “slang” in Scotland simply comes from their unique pronunciation of certain vowels! Here are especially popular Scottish sayings and phrases to get you started: [11]
    • “Aye” = yes, ‘I agree.’
    • “Naw” = no, ‘I disagree.’
    • “Wee” = small, little.
    • “Bonnie” = pretty, beautiful.
    • “Bairn” or “Wean” = child.
    • “Tattie” = potato.
    • “Coo” = cow.
    • “Braw” = fine, good, pleasant.
    • “Peely wally” = looking pale, sick, or unwell.
    • “I dinnae ken” = “I don’t know.”
    • “Pure dead brilliant” = exceptionally good.
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Section 2 of 4:

How to Improve Your Scottish Accent

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  1. The quickest way to pick up and get an ear for the Scottish accent is to “find real speakers,” says celebrity dialect coach Jack Wallace. [12] By listening to Scottish people speaking in their native accents, you should get a good idea of the overall cadence, intonation, and how sentences are put together. If you have any Scottish people in your life, ask if you can have a phone call or meet-up to listen to their speech. Otherwise, you can watch Scottish movies and TV shows, listen to podcasts with Scottish hosts, or even listen to Scottish music!
    • Some popular movies and TV shows that have Scottish leads include Doctor Who , Trainspotting, Pirates of the Caribbean, Braveheart , Outlander , and Brave. You can also look for interviews with famous Scottish actors like James McAvoy, Gerard Butler, Ewan McGregor, Rose Leslie, and Karen Gillan. [13]
    • If you’re able to travel to Scotland, you could also have some conversations with native Scottish people. Acting coach Rita Litton recalls traveling and “going around and [saying], ‘Could you just read this for me?’ So I had my own voice bank, which can be particularly helpful.” [14]
    • “We’re also lucky in this day and age to be able to find recordings and voice banks,” continues Litton. You just have to Google that you “want to hear a person from this specific territory…and get that specific dialect.” [15]
    • Wallace agrees and also recommends using resources like “YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and podcasts…On YouTube, you can also slow playback speed to 0.75x or even slower to really hear vowel shifts….For more common accents, look for speakers as demographically similar [to you] as possible. That makes a difference in how the accent will sound.” [16]
  2. 2
    Practice your accent with basic language, like saying the days of the week. “One exercise I like,” shares Wallace, “is simple questions—counting to ten in the accent, naming the days of the week, or saying the months of the year. That way, [you] don’t have to think about the content and can rather focus on the accent itself.” [17]
  3. 3
    Hire a dialect coach who can help you improve. There are some “brilliant dialect coaches” that you can contract to really get a hang of any accent, says Litton. [18] Professional coaches will be able to give you individualized instruction to work on your Scottish accent. Acting instructor Thomas G. Waites also recommends to “get a dialect coach, but if you can’t do that, go online and just practice your speech with a tape” or audio recording. [19]
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Section 3 of 4:

What are the different types of Scottish accents?

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  1. There are several Scottish accents, including Glaswegian, Edinburgh, and Highland. Just like American, Canadian, and British English accents, Scottish accents can vary widely based on what part of the country a person is from. In film and television, Scottish characters are generally portrayed with a Lowlands or Midlands accent (e.g., from Edinburgh or Glasgow), but there are many more dialects in the land of the Scots! Here are some of the most common, along with their defining characteristics: [20]
    • Glasgow: Very strong and distinct accent with extended vowels and unique slang. It may be difficult to understand, even to other Scots and native English speakers.
    • Edinburgh: Lighter and more neutral than Glasgow, but still distinctly Scottish. This is typically considered to be the “standard” version of Scottish English.
    • Highland: Very musical with a “slurred” effect. This accent is very influenced by the slang and intonations of Scottish Gaelic.
    • Island: Depending on which island the speaker is from, they’ll likely sound similar to the Highland accent but with their own unique linguistic features, phonetic sounds, and local vocabulary.
    • Borders: The Borders accent is clear and neutral, similar to the Edinburgh accent, but with more infusion of local slang and vernacular.
Section 4 of 4:

How did the Scottish accent develop?

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  1. Scottish English evolved from Celtic, Norse, French, and Old English influences. The ancient Scots first had their language influenced by the Celts, who brought the Gaelic language along with them. Then, when Vikings invaded what is now Scotland, they left some Old Norse words and intonations behind that stuck with Scottish speakers. [21] The Old Scots language then developed as a variation of Old English, but with more influence from the Gaelic Scots and Old Norse languages. [22]
    • Moving closer to modern times, Scottish people continued to have more contact with other European languages. In the Middle Ages, for example, French speakers had some influence on the Scottish dialect, which further set it apart from the English spoken in England.
    • During the 19th and 20th centuries, Scotland was seized by England and suffered a loss of Gaelic speakers. A more neutral and uniform Scottish accent emerged, which is closest to what we know as the Scottish accent today—although it continues to evolve!
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  • Question
    What are the communication barriers in Scotland?
    Community Answer
    There are not many. Essentially everyone in Scotland is bilingual, in the sense that they speak Scots casually, and in the business world they speak a more refined English. You will still hear the glottal stop and the R tap, but you won't hear people in a business meeting say, "Ye ken hoo tae increase th' biznus projection?" Generally you would hear a more refined, "Anybody know how tae increase the business projection?" Note how "tae" is kept the same, because it is so standard, but you'll see in both cases people tap the R.
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    Do Scots have another language?
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    Yes, but it's a minority language. Only approximately 85,000 people speak Scottish Gaelic.
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    Is there a Scottish language similar to English?
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    Yes, and it's called Scots. Scots is the "English equivalent" language in Scotland.
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      Tips

      • Remember that accents can vary widely from person to person, so this article gives general tips for a general Scottish accent—it may not be precisely accurate for all regions or speakers.
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      • As with all accents, don’t use a Scottish accent in order to make fun of people who are actually Scottish. You may want to be wary of trying to put on a Scottish accent in front of people who are from Scotland.
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      Tips from our Readers

      The advice in this section is based on the lived experiences of wikiHow readers like you. If you have a helpful tip you’d like to share on wikiHow, please submit it in the field below.
      • Lightly abbreviate and condense words instead of fully dropping syllables. For example, "everybody" becomes "everyb'dy". This balances clarity with authenticity.
      • Don't attempt to mimic heavy Scottish slang or profanity unless you're extremely familiar with it. You don't want to risk causing offense or being too vulgar.
      • Avoid assuming all Scottish dialects are the same. Accents have distinct regional differences much like American regions. Base yours on a specific area.
      • Roll R's similar to Spanish pronunciation. Let the tip of your tongue lightly trill the roof of your mouth once instead of a full "purring" roll.
      • Listen to interviews of native Scottish actors versus their film acting. TV/movies often exaggerate accents which sound inauthentic to locals.
      • Soften and round out vowel sounds so they have more of an "aw" versus "ah" tone. This helps distinguish from English accents.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://www.eriksinger.com/blog
      2. ↑ https://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/gb-sse
      3. ↑ https://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/general/scots.html
      4. ↑ https://www.oed.com/information/understanding-entries/pronunciation/world-englishes/scottish-english/?tl=true
      5. ↑ https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-variation-and-change/article/bit-by-bi-variation-in-tglottaling-in-scottish-standard-english/AF3EAB56150D930548AF33ECB1E2EF96
      6. ↑ https://www.oed.com/information/understanding-entries/pronunciation/world-englishes/scottish-english/?tl=true
      7. ↑ https://becomingbilingual.org/2023/02/18/a-step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-teach-your-child-to-roll-their-rs/
      8. ↑ https://www.uv.es/anglotic/accents_of_english/02/vowels.html
      9. ↑ https://www.oed.com/information/understanding-entries/pronunciation/world-englishes/scottish-english/?tl=true
      1. ↑ https://www.visitscotland.com/things-to-do/attractions/arts-culture/scottish-languages
      2. ↑ https://www.uv.es/anglotic/accents_of_english/02/examples_of_scottish_english.html
      3. ↑ Jack Wallace. Celebrity Dialect Coach. Expert Interview
      4. ↑ https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/british-accents-scottish-english
      5. ↑ Rita Litton. Acting Coach. Expert Interview
      6. ↑ Rita Litton. Acting Coach. Expert Interview
      7. ↑ Jack Wallace. Celebrity Dialect Coach. Expert Interview
      8. ↑ Jack Wallace. Celebrity Dialect Coach. Expert Interview
      9. ↑ Rita Litton. Acting Coach. Expert Interview
      10. ↑ Thomas G. Waites. Acting Instructor. Expert Interview
      11. ↑ https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/69
      12. ↑ https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/norn-language-scotland-viking-tongue-4197136
      13. ↑ https://www.scotlands-enchanting-kingdom.com/scottish-accent/

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      To talk with a Scottish accent, drop the "g" sound from words that end in a "g." For example, instead of saying "good evening," you would say "good evenin." You should also pronounce "u" sounds as "oo" sounds. For example, instead of saying "pull," you'd say "pool." Also, practice rolling your "r's," especially when they come after a "d," "t," or "g." For example, you would roll your "r's" when saying "draw," "trip," and "grand." To learn how to say popular Scottish slang words, scroll down!

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