Yes. The dutch speaking part of belgium, me. You?

The Hebrew speaking part of Israel.

Hi there! I don’t think the finnish and norwegian and scottish speaking parts of the world are awake yet, this could take a while...

Yah we have people here who are Finnish, Dutch, Belgian, German, Estonian... and probably others I’ve missed. I know there’s some ILXers who live in Japan.

Most of the non-English speaking ILXors speak better English than the natives, mind (though Tiit gets points for having invented his very own dialect)

I love Tiit’s dialect!

I don’t post that much to ILM these days, but I’ve tried to represent da Helsinki massive.

Hello, this is Sweden calling.

Isn’t scottish more of a comedy accent than a language?

There’s also Hanna from Stockholm, but she hasn’t posted in ages. I did meet her last spring though, she was nice.

xpost

“scots” is certainly a language but i’d argue that nobody speaks it exclusively. (i used to know a lot more about this, but it’s a long time since i was at university and i was always more interested in a) stylistics and b) whether it was true that the moderately attractive scots tutor never wore knickers than in the actual details of scots itself.)

whether or not people are aware they’re using elements of it is a different matter. mostly what we (and yes, i know i’m english, but let’s overlook that for the moment) do is use a smattering of scots words (wee, thole, scunnered, radge, bam, dobber etc) within the grammatical and lexical framework of english.

i assume scots has (had) its own grammatical structure but i know fuck all about it. however, i did buy my dad a copy of “the mither tongue” for christmas so maybe i’ll nick it back and read it myself. or get him to post here, heh :)

It’s probably more accurate to say that we use an ever increasing amount of English words in the grammatical framework of Scots. At least spoken anyway. (The last sentence didn’t contain a verb as an act of open rebellion. Heh.)

:)

you might well be right. fucking hell, i wish i’d paid a bit more attention at university now, instead of thinking about scanties (another scots word, surely) and the lack thereof.

I wondered how long until Scotland was mentioned hehe

Am awa’ tae read ma Oor Wullie Annual.

Jings.

crivvens!

10 ... 9 ... 8 ... anyone? ... 7 ...

Help ma boab!

I’m black affronted by you all in here!

my mate once made me a broons christmas card (this was in blackpool in the late 1980s, so you’ve gotta appreciate the surrealism; that said, i assume he was heavily influenced by the genius-level piss-takes in “viz”). he cut out lots of the figures and had hen and the bairn saying i was a dick and stuff, and even wrote a rhyme for the top:

granpaw laughs hard
when he sees this shite card!

anyway. moving on. one of the more interesting sociolinguistic points here stems from stan’s comment up the top:

the finnish and norwegian and scottish speaking parts of the world are awake yet

when i first read this i thought he was joking. but then i thought: hang on—is he? i mean, i wasn’t sure (until he said upthread) what stan’s first language was, and—even though my sister-in-law now lives there—i’m pretty shaky on what else is spoken in belgium (flemish? walloon?) and where.

so, stan: were you joking, or is there a perception in europe that scotland is divided from england not just in all the ways we know about (hem-hem) but by language too? i’m genuinely intrigued.

I think Stan was taking the piss when he mentioned Scotland..

Isn’t scottish more of a comedy accent

No it is not! There are many many varieties of Scottish accent, and I don’t find any of them particularly comedic. Grimly, don’t some relatives of yours speak the Doric?

Born in Germany, living in Portugal.

*raises hand*

Malaysia.

Grimly, don’t some relatives of yours speak the Doric?

[gruff] aye, quine. [thinks] er, fit like yersel’?

(as you can tell, despite half my dad’s family speaking fluent doric—a dialect rather than a language, i’d argue—i’m not very good at it myself. that said, if i’m up speyside way i do find myself using all manner of words and pronunciations i’d never normally adopt, eg “onyway”.)

juhhõi to everyone! and a verily new yearness to y’all!

i’d like to devide my 12-point vote heartily between all who’ve spoken whichever language on this thread (& for being hearteningly articulate so unbelievably early in the day, too!:)

p.s. a personal (repeat) message to fair ailsa: beer is food! (hint: look up that other thread for a longer ‘xplanation:)

I apparently speak Californian. Erm, dude.

(Tiit, no, I have NOT forgotten about the CDR I owe you.)

Are their any ILMers here who are not from english writing countries?

j/k

so, stan: were you joking

It was included to teasingly tickle the Scottish sensibilities, yes. But I wasn’t laughing at them at all, I respect those feelings (after all, I should have written “Flanders” instead of “Dutch speaking part of Belgium” myself, but I didn’t because I thought that would complicate my answer for people who don’t know about the situation over here).

(I guess I just wanted to see if Welsh speaking people would reply and a British civil war would erupt.)

Yes, admins, please correct thread title to they’re.

Are their any ILMers here who are not from english writing countries?

meh! meh!

(*gets hand out from offa arse, waves madly*)

admins please correct thread title to is they.

Reply to the second part of Grimly’s question: or is there a perception in europe that scotland is divided from england not just in all the ways we know about (hem-hem) but by language too?

I don’t know about the rest of Europe, but as someone from Flanders (a part of a country where we speak our own (some would say comedy versions of) Dutch and not connected to the other half except by royalty, taxes and football (if and when successful), I think we think we instinctively feel a bond with other peoples who are in (reasonably) similar situations.

previous message needs more )

(Ned—thanks, to quote Slade, “for the Memory”! :)

Language in Scotland is more fun for the speaker and the listener than plain old boring English, which is baws in comparison. Also the laws and certain governmental things are also distinct from the rest of Britain.

Emsk can speak Welsh. Anyone else?

ie!

or is it oes?

goddamn internet.

as you can tell, the answer’s not “yes” at all. it’s the opposite. still, i find women speaking welsh—or even women with a welsh accent—strangely erotic.

on the subject of scotland and england, here’s iain macwhirter’s 2007, from the (scottish) sunday herald. sure, it’s tongue-in-cheek. but it does deal deftly and cleverly with what might just prove to be a fucking enormous constitutional explosion—and also serves as a primer for the many, many issues involved in the whole union v independence affair, if anyone’s interested.

i look forward to discussing this more at substantial length come the run-up to the holyrood elections :)

(marcopollo, sorry for derailing your thread so spectacularly. i’ll stop now. still: lang may yir lum reek wi ither fowk’s coal, or something.)

ik begrijp jullie allemaal niet. stan’s de coolste gast hier. allez, coolste belgische gast.

i’m from the flanders, like stan, but i’m not cool like him.

There’s also Hanna from Stockholm, but she hasn’t posted in ages. I did meet her last spring though, she was nice.

Hi Tuomas, I lurk these days. You were also very nice and it was fun to meet you!

There’s a couple of Spaniards and a Portugueezer hanging around somewhere as well.

Maar Nathalie toch! Jij bent met grote voorsprong de coolste Belgische madam hier! (euh... zijn wij de enige twee niet? ;-) )

Nathalie is WAY cooler than me. And she can knit!

(Well some of An Pierlé’s songs are way cool too. In a nice cool Belgian way:)

Hi Tuomas, I lurk these days. You were also very nice and it was fun to meet you!

Thanks, hope we get to meet again one day. If you ever come to Helsinki and want someone to show you around, just ask me.

Norweegicker present at last! *raises hand*

Norwegian #2 *high-fives raised hand*

Stan, you know better. You’re the cool waffle around here. :-)

An P sucks. Sorry, that last record might be bearable, the previous ones were simply horrendous.

I actually find Scottish accents kinda sexy if spoken by a male with a deep voice.

Heck, if a pretty Scottish boy opens his mouth and starts talking, regardless of “deep voice” qualification, I’m like, SWOON.

Y ¿donde esta las personas de España? O, en más, alguien del pais, er, que hablamente español. Boy didn’t that deteriorate rapidly? Or “rapidamente” if you’re so inclined. Anyway, if you would’ve caught any of my forebearers 85 years ago, you would’ve needed someone who understood both Spanish and English to translate. Though they would’ve definitely spoken a lot better Spanish than I do. ;)

Tuomas— Same goes for you, if you’re in Stockholm get in touch and we’ll have beers again! A friend of mine has moved to Helsinki, so if I go visit her I’ll drop you a line.

Lovelace— Are you someone I know? What with the Embassy e-mail addy and everything, seems you might be.

Hey, France reprazent !

Are there no Italians at all on ILX?

we’d headbutt’em !

I’m from a country whose first official language is not English, does that count?

Not to mention its inacapacity to create any noteworthy English language writers.

I thought there was some Ilxor living in Italy who posted to some Italian politics thread.

Really? I don’t think so Tuomas. DV is right! This is the language of the evil oppressor!

there is an italian lady on the parenting thread!

Wasn’t there a Marco from Italy who managed (or had some connection to) Jennifer Gentle?

Also that Sebastien guy who posts metaphysical stuff is French or Belgian, isn’t he?