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 
Btw, what about “how come”? Is that standard English? They used to used it in South Africa when inquiring how something was to explain or how it did happen, and the literal equivalent existed in Afrikaans, “hoe kom”, but I was never sure which was to be considered the original one and what the literal translation.
Germans (i.e. former students of mine) tended to use “how” instead of “what” – e.g. “How do you mean?” instead of “What do you mean?”
‘how come’ – Informal
How is it that; why: ‘How come you’re so late?’
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/how+come)
Maybe that’s where ‘How’ for ‘why’ comes from:
‘How (is it that) I am in arrears?’
contracted to:
‘How am I in arrears?’
‘How do you mean?’ I believe is the translation of the similarly incorrect/: ‘Wie meinst du?’ instead of ‘Was meinst du (damit)?