Over the last few days, I’ve been going back to using some variants of Scottish English. It’s not a lot, but it happens subconsciously due to being exposed to Scottish English instead of its standard English variants.
A few examples:
– today, I phoned the council to enquire about a letter they had sent me regarding some arrears (turns out it was an automated letter etc. so basically I’m *not* in arrears). I asked them:
How am I in arrears?
Or something to that effect. In Scottish English, ‘How’ is used as a substitute for ‘Why’. A very common short phrase is: ‘How no?’ (= ‘Why not?’).
Another very common substitution is to use ‘stay’ instead of ‘live’. So, I said to my neighbour the other day:
I stay in London (= I live in London).
This one can be quite confusing for English speakers who don’t know that ‘stay’ = ‘live’. For instance, my friend had an email from her Columbian friend, saying:
‘I’m staying in Greenock’.
I had to explain to my English friend that it may mean that the person currently lives in Greenock, rather than ‘staying’, which in standard English could mean:
(a) I’m (currently) staying in Greenock (but will return to Glasgow next week)
(b) I’m staying (= remaining) in Greenock (for a while/for good).
but *not* ‘I live in Greenock’.
I do enjoy very much listening to it. Compare this to an Oirish guy who came to view my flat on Monday. I cannae stand the Oirish accent, especially the ROI one that is used e.g. in Dublin (though I do find a Belfast one quite sexy, at times).
Oirish really gives me the creeps, which is one reason I could never ever live there.
Scottish English, on the other hand, I find almost sexually arousing 😛
How to be Happy 