Enquire within upon everything by Robert Kemp Philp

194. Hints for Correcting the Scotch Brogue.

The same authority remarks that as an Irishman uses the closing accent of the voice too much, so a Scotchman has the contrary habit, and is continually drawling his tones from the grave to the acute, with an effect which, to southern ears, is suspensive in character. The smooth guttural _r_ is as little heard in Scotland as in Ireland, the trilled _r_ taking its place. The substitution of the former instead of the latter must be a matter of practice. The peculiar sound of the _u_, which in the north so of ten borders on the French _u_, must be compared with the several sounds of the letter as they are heard in the south; and the long quality which a Scotchman is apt to give to the vowels that ought to be essentially short, must he clipped. In fact, aural observation and lingual exercise are the only sure means to the end; so that a Scotchman going to a well for a bucket of water, and finding a countryman bathing therein, would not exclaim, "Hey, Colin, dinna ye ken the water's for drink, and nae for bathin'?"