“Scottish”, “English” or “foreign”: Mapping Scottish dialect perceptions

This paper provides the first perceptual dialectology survey of Scotland. Respondents from the northeast fishing town of Buckie were asked to mark and label dialect areas on a map, and to rate 12 government regions on five scales: “degree-of-difference”, “correctness”, “pleasantness”, “broadness” and “sounding Scottish”. Based on the results of the survey, Scottish dialect perceptions could be placed into three main cultural dimensions: : (i) “Scottishness”, the “Good Scots/Bad Scots” distinction; (ii) “Englishness”, the cultural prominence of the Scotland-England border; and (iii) “Foreignness”, the influence of other languages on its islands. The conflicting responses regarding correctness offer a glimpse into different aspects of linguistic (in)security in Scotland. These findings provide a means of understanding Scotland’s current perceived linguistic landscape through significant regional and cultural dimensions.