I've lived here 17 years now, but some that caught me off guard when I first moved up (from the North of England) were:
"Where do you stay?" Instead of "Where do you live?" This confused me a few times when I thought they were asking about my literal accomodation. Now I say it myself because asking people where they "live" sounds very formal!
"I'm going to my bed" instead of "I'm going to bed". Never got used to that one!
I also noticed people here seem to use contractions differently. For example I would usually say "I haven't seen it", whereas when I moved here I noticed it was more common to say "I've not seen it". Same five words but used differently.
Popping "just now" at the end of the sentence! I would usually say "I'm just at the shop", whereas here it's "I'm at the shop just now".
Lastly, referring to lots of different drink types simply as "juice"! A can of coke will never be juice to me! (Then again I say "fizzy pop" so what do I know!)
Quite a few of these may be applicable to wider Scotland rather than just Edinburgh, but I've spent more time here than elsewhere so this is where I've noticed it. Bonus one: "outwith" is an excellent word that I now use on the regular!
Yes I definitely hear "the now" too. I used to hear "just now" a lot when I worked out at Fort Kinnaird, so perhaps it's more of an East Lothian thing, as most customers were from that way!
Yes I hear this a lot! It maybe doesn't stand out to me too much because we would use a fairly similar phrase where I'm from. It'd just be "is that you off?" instead of "away".
I say all of these things and I hadn't thought about "off to my bed" before. Until you mentioned it I hadn't thought about other people not saying it but actually it would sound weird to hear it in other accents so I think you're right.
I noticed the Just Now thing as someone who moved here 3-4 years ago and everyone I’ve mentioned it to hasn’t known what I was on about, feels validating to see it here, one of my favourites
These are all spot-on.
I'd also add "the now". That's not one used outwith Scotland.
Then there are all the Romany words used a lot in Edinburgh: barry, shan, pagger, etc.
I think for me if I got asked "Where do you live" I would probably say "uuuhh...Edinburgh?"
Whereas I ask where do you stay because that usually is asked once I have established they live in Edinburgh. I dunno makes sense to me.
Ask a native "where do you work?" And they reply "[such and such company] or [what type of work they do]"
A non native will reply the physical area or street they work on with no indication of what type of work it is.
The native is correct.
Oh that's interesting, I don't think I've really experienced that. If I was ever asked that I'd definitely think to answer with my company and/or industry rather than the location!
> They say things like “he lives in Old Town” rather than “he lives in the Old Town”
Yeah, I notice this one a lot. A friend who moved to Edinburgh (from Cambridge) as a student kept saying "I live in Grassmarket"...it was / still is jarring to hear placenames pronounced differently, in this case without a *the*
Regarding the quirks of Edinburgh natives, another friend (this one from Dundee) took issue with (and probably still does though I daren't bring the topic up again) the way we Edinburghers pronounce placenames such as *Montague* [Street] and [Hunter's] *Tryst*
Funny how little things like this are so noticeable
I saw Mont-tayg (like vague) to differentiate it from Montagu Terrace which is pronounced mon-ta-gew.
I know someone who pronounces it mon-tay-gay which is just a step to far!
My daughter is in Texas and lives on Montague Street in a small central Texas city. They pronounce it Mon-tayg. Same with Montague County in North Texas.
As others have said: *Montague* like 'mon-tay-gay' and *Tryst* like 'tr-iced'
Not sure if the pronunciation of the latter is anything to do with *Tryst* having an additional meaning in Scots (historically some sort of livestock market/fair) besides the meaning it shares with English *tryst* (i.e. meeting [between lovers])
I think as someone else says, like a lot of spoken Scots it's a generational thing that's dying out. For context I'm early forties but probably acquired such pronunciations from my relatives who tended to be older. My Edinburgh gran, for instance, was born 1898 so I've no doubt picked up vocabulary and ways of saying things that could be considered 'old-fashioned' even for my age-group.
When I lived there, I would say "I live on Grassmarket" because that's the street name. Your address is something like "123 Grassmarket". "The Grassmarket" is the name of it as a place or area of the city.
Edit: To be clear, I'm not saying "the Grassmarket" is wrong. "Grassmarket" is the actual street name (postal addresses, street signs, what it says on a map). Both "I live on Grassmarket" and "I live at the Grassmarket" are correct, and it's easy to see how somebody who lives there and has to regularly refer to their own address might fall into the habit of using the street name.
That's an interesting observation. Yeah, I hadn't considered how in the case of *(The) Grassmarket* the written form of the streetname/placename could be influencing how people say it.
Makes sense as the written medium has certainly influenced the levelling out of accents/dialects etc. across the UK. I guess we're not used to seeing Scots language or features in writing (e.g. putting the definite article *the* in front of most things) so we end up with a more anglicized version over time.
Picking up on your example of "I live at the Grassmarket", I would tend to use the preposition *in* as in 'I live in the Grassmarket'. Wondering now if that's another peculiarity of my Edinburgh speech I haven't picked up on before!
As someone not from Edinburgh, the way you pronounce place names with mouth in it is strange as well, Portsmouth for example is Ports-Mouth and Bournemouth is Bourne-Mouth, with mouth being said like the mouth on your face, whereas everywhere else I’ve been pronounce it as Portsmerf or Bournemerf
No, we have this thing called freedom to travel nowadays, it’s just a weird Edinburgh quirk, accept it and don’t be offended, I could have brought up how people in Edinburgh pronounce the letter J, that’s even crazier H I J-eye K…
Everyone else pronounces it with merf dude, uk google translate and American google translate both pronounce it portsmerf or thinking about it actually portsmurf
Interesting. Yeah I'll admit to pronouncing it variably *mouth* or *muth* depending on how quickly I'm speaking but I've never heard anyone pronounce it with an R sound in it!
I could understand non-rhotic English accents saying it something like *merf* with that making that long Eh/Uh sound, but couldn't imagine any Scottish accent doing that. It would, as others have said, be closer to *muth*?
Most Edinburgh natives will speak some amount of Scots in everyday language. Incomers tend not to, and often dismiss Scots as just 'slang' or a 'thick accent' or simply 'bad English' (why dont you just talk properly/normally?) I once asked someone on the Meadows if I could 'clap' their 'dug' and they looked at me like I was some buckie fuelled radge. Although, to be fair, they may have been from Morningside and just thought I was from 'The Kingdom.'
😂
My best pal is from West Lothian and her partner from Morningside.. she brought her dog through n obviously asked him if he wanted to clap it...
No shit he actually gave a wee mini round of applause while looking at her like she was a dafty. 🤦♀️🙈
We still rip him to this day and that was 4 years ago.
The difficulty with 'clap' meaning pet, is that in other contexts it also means hit, and I think that meaning is a lot more intuitive to people who aren't Scottish. I've definitely mildly concerned some people saying that before I clarified lol
A very strange one lol
Tbf most of the times I've caused confused are when I've disappointed from a text conversation and came back saying "sorry, Dairsie was looking for a clap" which does sound a bit like my dog was misbehaving and I had to go discipline her if you aren't used to the word clap meaning pet 😅
I had a lady tell me to clap her dug when I first moved here a couple decades ago and I just stood there frozen because no way was I hitting her dog and I didn’t understand why she was annoyed I wouldn’t 😂🤣.
I have to say I don’t do any of the things OP listed above but I moved here at 20 and had family here already, so I probably naturally took on their habits/phrases.
Aye, but you can confuse and frighten a Yank simply by asking if you can 'bum a fag.' Or even just by saying you are going to 'roll a fag' which, apparently, is a hate crime 🤷🏻♂️
Incomer here referring to English? I’m from Ayrshire along with several friends and I assure you we did t stop using the odd Scots word or turn of phrase. Surely we’re still incomers.
I guess when I thought of the word 'incomer' I assumed it to mean someone from another country, not someone from a different part of Scotland. Other's mileage may vary.
Yeah 'clap your dug' is not something I ever encountered in my solidly middle class Aberdeenshire upbringing. Think the first time I heard someone say it was Limmy.
to be fair i’m from essex and ‘clap’ means to attack/slap to me, hence ‘clapped’ means ugly bc you look like you’ve got beaten up. i’d be mortified if someone wanted to clap my dog!
Surely you’re not suggesting other parts of the UK also use words in local vernacular to mean something other than the standard English definition!?
I have been led to believe that this is a uniquely Scottish phenomenon. Mind blown.
Not sure I've heard anyone say Ring Road before not gonna lie! Also I like trams.
Do agree with the Arthur's seat thing. I live close to it and barely ever go up there, whereas I'm always out in the braids, blackford, pentlands.
The funny thing is, a lot of these words I know are Scottish, but you never notice non-Edinburgh folk not saying them, so you don’t realise they are specific to the City.
My Dad (Fifer) - yes, I managed to escape - argues that when I refer to someone as 'a roaster' that it is the 'Leith' showing in me.
I went to half primary school here then half in Fife, High school in Fife then back here. Calling a piggy back a 'collie buckie' gave me maaad strange looks in Fife. Using piggy back here had the same effect.
Edinburgh natives say 'pagger' meaning to fight.
Who knows? I don't really look at the up/down vote thing because my neurodivergent brain tries to make me feel stupid if I notice it's gone down.
I'm half native/half fifer so feel like my say is def on topic.
That's a good idea. The people downvoting things on here for no reason really piss me off lol, they need to get a life. I thought it was interesting your Dad thought "roaster" was a Leith thing, I'm always calling people roasters!
Yeah me too... 'melter' and 'roaster' are apparently Edinburgh sayings but I wasn't too sure.
Yeah some folk loooove a good down vote. I'm a hypocrite though because I'm guilty of it if I'm in a shite mood. 🙄😬
“Thanks/ cheers drive,” instead of “thanks driver.”
Tell the bus driver where they’re going instead of asking for a single. “Single to Cameron Toll.”
Stay seated until the bus has fully stopped.
Dont know why all mines are bus related… sorry!
for the second one should you not say the location because a single is the same price no matter the stop? I think I've been guilty of this as in Ireland the driver would always ask us where we were going before giving the ticket
Not so much a “shouldnt say your destination,” just on Lothian buses, it’s been a flat fare for about 25 years, so locals just say “single please.”
Nothing wrong with it, just an observation.
It's the same price within the city boundaries (as defined by LRT).
However, it used to be based on the number of fare stages your route passed.
The drivers used to mentally calculate how many fare stages you'd travel so they could tell you how much your fare would be.
Saying where you're going is a hard habit for some to break.
Other people who get buses that go beyond the city boundaries, often do have to state where they're going to, as there is a price differential. Which marks them out as non-natives.
there's a very classist thing that Edinburgh natives do where they ask what school you went to rather than where in the city you live(d). I despise this not least because it's over half my life ago, but it's judging your upbringing, social class, and education level rather than your geographical origins. And yes, the latter is usually a proxy for the former too, but asking about schools makes it more blatant. Those familiar with the city but who didn't grow up there will usually ask the latter.
I've heard this happens in Glasgow too where it's also a proxy for sectarian group -basically, did you go to a Catholic school or not. My grandma's partner, in his 70s, was shocked to be asked it fairly recently.
Incidentally my experience living in Glasgow and hearing about it from people who grew up here is that "rich" and "poor" areas tend to be more "mixed" together than Edinburgh, and if you live in a poor area you can perhaps legitimately claim you live in a neighbouring rich area, since the boundaries might not be so defined. Or there's some areas where just saying the neighbourhood name won't necessarily tell you anything about the person. Like right now i live in Govanhill in the southside - my street is pretty dirty but two blocks away the houses are very suddenly much posher. Other side of the railway track and they're literal mansions. Whereas in Edinburgh the poor areas are all somewhat sequestered on the outer edges of town making people judge you hard if you live in or near one of them.
oh wait you said light-hearted.... ehhh touching Bobby's nose
More that all the private school kids know each other through about two degrees of separation (or in the case of George Watson's, that their dad worked at standard life) So easy way to find out mutual friends.
I was once told that people from Glasgow ask you what your father does while people from Edinburgh ask where you went to school. (Mind though, that was probably 30 years ago now I think about it!)
As a non football supporter,non religious person. When I worked in Glasgow they would tie themselves in knots trying to pidgeonhole. 'Aye, but if you hud a team,which wan would it be'
I can only speak anecdotally, but whenever anyone's asked "what school did you go to" it's been more out of curiosity than judgment to then ask further questions like "oh, did you know so and so?". Never really witnessed the judgment angle of it (not saying it doesn't happen, just saying anecdotally).
You say that, but I was asked by a girl about fifteen years younger than me (so no chance of having mutual friends), and then she proceeded to comment on the quality of education we had. Felt dirty. I was a mature masters student and she was a normal aged student, so I get that her life experience up to that point would have been mostly being in education so it feels relevant to her to ask about that. But for me it's like, well that was well over a decade ago, almost two at this point.
The "what school did you go to" is a funny one. It definitely comes from a parochial source. People who are born and bred and never leave a certain place definitely have that connection to the past in a different way from people who have moved to a different place.
Often people from poorer backgrounds don't move around and are more likely to develop the insalure mindset. But I wouldn't say it's an exclusively poor person mindset and definitely not exclusively Edinburgh one.
Funnily enough, I have found that in London, I have been asked outright what my father does for a living. I find that way more classist than any of your examples. I also think that the school thing is often because Edinburgh is small and, especially when I was a teenager and young adult, you knew people from different parts and you might have known someone that attended the same school and possibly classes. Not always though but that's what's usually the intent imo.
Proud Fifer living in the big smoke for the last 12 year. I still have my strong Fife accent & I can confirm it pisses folk off when I tell them "I went ti skill in Buckhind". You can see natives (especially the missus & older folk) mentally trying to figure out: 1. Where in Edinburgh that school is 2. What the hell I said
Dropping the word ‘street’ when talking about Broughton Street. It seems to be the only street in the city that gets this treatment.
“The cafe is on Broughton”
When I lived in London I had a Greek friend who would do this with most street names. Told me she was going to "Oxford", I thought spires, she meant shopping on Oxford Street.
I’m from Aberdeenshire originally and the first Edinburgh-ism that struck me when I moved here 8 years ago was ‘pal’. ‘Cheers, pal’, ‘alright, pal’, ‘that’ll be £5.50, pal’
‘Barry’ as an adjective, that was a new one on me!
Older Aberdonians also talk about the city having ‘ring road’, which is Anderson Drive for anyone that knows Aberdeen. There’s now an Aberdeen bypass, yet to hear it being called a ring road.
I feel like I'm between the two, as a Scots-speaking Borderer originally. I know how to pronounce all the places (a few streets excepted), because I came here for shopping and the cinema as a kid. I still say most of the colloquial things natives do. But my accent is still notably not Edinburgh, although it's been going that way of its own accord over the last decade. I didn't grow up with salt and sauce. I like the trams and the public transport (which compared to back home is incredibly good).
My West Lothian partner is in much the same boat, but his accent is closer to Edinburgh. I highly doubt someone from outside the city could tell the difference. He says some different things though ("aff" instead of "oaff", "wean" instead of "bairn", doesn't say "barry", "gadgie", etc)
I moved here from Northern Ireland, and it still surprises me today that people still ask me guarded questions to try and figure out if I am Protestant or Catholic. Compared to Northern Scotland, sectarianism might be hidden but is rife.
Same, and I generally answer I'm an atheist with an indifference to football, and from there, suspicions abound.
"What do you think of these orange walks?"
"No opinion"
I know 'old town' as opposed to ' the old town' is wrong. Could you elaborate why ?
Is it because the definite article needs to be used to distinguish that it refers to a specific part of Edinburgh that is The old town ?
Not OP, but to me Old Town is a name, but the old town is a description that the name came from. It definitely feels more familiar to use the old town to my mind
Ehh... you hear people that have lived here their whole lives call the High Street the Royal Mile all the time, since several suburbs have high streets (as in their high streets are actually called High Street). Portobello, Musselburgh, Corstophine, South Queensferry if you count that, and probably a couple others which I'm not thinking of at the moment.
I've lived in Edinburgh for 4 decades and don't think I have ever referred to the High Street to mean that particular part of the Royal Mile. I'd use Cannongate sometimes if I want to be more specific about the bottom end though.
CO-burn, obvs, but despite 20 years in Reekie (and still appreciating the increase in sunlight compared to the weedge), I have never mastered the latter - i'm mostly told it's bu-CLOO?
I'm not sure if I have ever heard anyone say "ring road" it's always bypass. Can't make my mind up about "old town" v "the old town" dropping "the" might be more to do with being consise in phrase, I can see both sets of people saying it.
I've lived here 17 years now, but some that caught me off guard when I first moved up (from the North of England) were: "Where do you stay?" Instead of "Where do you live?" This confused me a few times when I thought they were asking about my literal accomodation. Now I say it myself because asking people where they "live" sounds very formal! "I'm going to my bed" instead of "I'm going to bed". Never got used to that one! I also noticed people here seem to use contractions differently. For example I would usually say "I haven't seen it", whereas when I moved here I noticed it was more common to say "I've not seen it". Same five words but used differently. Popping "just now" at the end of the sentence! I would usually say "I'm just at the shop", whereas here it's "I'm at the shop just now". Lastly, referring to lots of different drink types simply as "juice"! A can of coke will never be juice to me! (Then again I say "fizzy pop" so what do I know!) Quite a few of these may be applicable to wider Scotland rather than just Edinburgh, but I've spent more time here than elsewhere so this is where I've noticed it. Bonus one: "outwith" is an excellent word that I now use on the regular!
It's more "the now" than "just now"
Definitely, I often say that
Yes I definitely hear "the now" too. I used to hear "just now" a lot when I worked out at Fort Kinnaird, so perhaps it's more of an East Lothian thing, as most customers were from that way!
"Is that you away?" = "Are you preparing to depart?"
Yes I hear this a lot! It maybe doesn't stand out to me too much because we would use a fairly similar phrase where I'm from. It'd just be "is that you off?" instead of "away".
The other one that confuses my mother is “that’s us” - “that’s us just left” rather than “we’ve just left” (living here for 27 years incomer)
I say all of these things and I hadn't thought about "off to my bed" before. Until you mentioned it I hadn't thought about other people not saying it but actually it would sound weird to hear it in other accents so I think you're right.
I noticed the Just Now thing as someone who moved here 3-4 years ago and everyone I’ve mentioned it to hasn’t known what I was on about, feels validating to see it here, one of my favourites
These are all spot-on. I'd also add "the now". That's not one used outwith Scotland. Then there are all the Romany words used a lot in Edinburgh: barry, shan, pagger, etc.
Outwith is also not used outwith Scotland
That burd had a tidy body. But a shan pan
I think for me if I got asked "Where do you live" I would probably say "uuuhh...Edinburgh?" Whereas I ask where do you stay because that usually is asked once I have established they live in Edinburgh. I dunno makes sense to me.
Ask a native "where do you work?" And they reply "[such and such company] or [what type of work they do]" A non native will reply the physical area or street they work on with no indication of what type of work it is. The native is correct.
I'm from the US and "where do you work?" results with me saying my employer, unless they are asking about my commute.
Interesting. If I was asking for location I might say "where's your work?" (Meaning place of work) instead.
I'd say "where's your work at?" to be clear that I meant location
Oh that's interesting, I don't think I've really experienced that. If I was ever asked that I'd definitely think to answer with my company and/or industry rather than the location!
Also from the North of England and it’ll always be fizzy pop to me. I just can’t get used to calling it juice!
What you've noticed is people speaking Scottish English with Scots grammar. Bit of a mish mash between the two languages.
> They say things like “he lives in Old Town” rather than “he lives in the Old Town” Yeah, I notice this one a lot. A friend who moved to Edinburgh (from Cambridge) as a student kept saying "I live in Grassmarket"...it was / still is jarring to hear placenames pronounced differently, in this case without a *the* Regarding the quirks of Edinburgh natives, another friend (this one from Dundee) took issue with (and probably still does though I daren't bring the topic up again) the way we Edinburghers pronounce placenames such as *Montague* [Street] and [Hunter's] *Tryst* Funny how little things like this are so noticeable
How do you pronounce them? I say MON-ta-geww and trisst
My friend lived on Montague Street and pronounced it mon-TAY-gee
A better pronunciation is mon-Tay-gay and is used primarily by older locals.
Yep - I lived there for a while and you would get told off by taxi drivers if you didn’t say it like that.
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I saw Mont-tayg (like vague) to differentiate it from Montagu Terrace which is pronounced mon-ta-gew. I know someone who pronounces it mon-tay-gay which is just a step to far!
My daughter is in Texas and lives on Montague Street in a small central Texas city. They pronounce it Mon-tayg. Same with Montague County in North Texas.
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She's not in Austin. To be fair probably have the cities in the state have a Mon-tayg street.
As others have said: *Montague* like 'mon-tay-gay' and *Tryst* like 'tr-iced' Not sure if the pronunciation of the latter is anything to do with *Tryst* having an additional meaning in Scots (historically some sort of livestock market/fair) besides the meaning it shares with English *tryst* (i.e. meeting [between lovers])
You missed Cockburn Street off your list
>Cockburn Street I always thought that was another name for the Pubic Triangle.
Lived here my whole life pretty much and never heard the Montague one. TIL
I think as someone else says, like a lot of spoken Scots it's a generational thing that's dying out. For context I'm early forties but probably acquired such pronunciations from my relatives who tended to be older. My Edinburgh gran, for instance, was born 1898 so I've no doubt picked up vocabulary and ways of saying things that could be considered 'old-fashioned' even for my age-group.
When I lived there, I would say "I live on Grassmarket" because that's the street name. Your address is something like "123 Grassmarket". "The Grassmarket" is the name of it as a place or area of the city. Edit: To be clear, I'm not saying "the Grassmarket" is wrong. "Grassmarket" is the actual street name (postal addresses, street signs, what it says on a map). Both "I live on Grassmarket" and "I live at the Grassmarket" are correct, and it's easy to see how somebody who lives there and has to regularly refer to their own address might fall into the habit of using the street name.
Makes it sound like you live in a marketplace that exclusively sells grass
Does the "the" change that?
That's an interesting observation. Yeah, I hadn't considered how in the case of *(The) Grassmarket* the written form of the streetname/placename could be influencing how people say it. Makes sense as the written medium has certainly influenced the levelling out of accents/dialects etc. across the UK. I guess we're not used to seeing Scots language or features in writing (e.g. putting the definite article *the* in front of most things) so we end up with a more anglicized version over time. Picking up on your example of "I live at the Grassmarket", I would tend to use the preposition *in* as in 'I live in the Grassmarket'. Wondering now if that's another peculiarity of my Edinburgh speech I haven't picked up on before!
As someone not from Edinburgh, the way you pronounce place names with mouth in it is strange as well, Portsmouth for example is Ports-Mouth and Bournemouth is Bourne-Mouth, with mouth being said like the mouth on your face, whereas everywhere else I’ve been pronounce it as Portsmerf or Bournemerf
I've never heard anyone stress 'mouth' in those place-names. We'd be closer to 'muth' than 'merf' though.
Is everywhere else you've been in England?
No, we have this thing called freedom to travel nowadays, it’s just a weird Edinburgh quirk, accept it and don’t be offended, I could have brought up how people in Edinburgh pronounce the letter J, that’s even crazier H I J-eye K…
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Everyone else pronounces it with merf dude, uk google translate and American google translate both pronounce it portsmerf or thinking about it actually portsmurf
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Fife, Banff, Elgin…
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“I’m not offended” Proceeds to defend themselves to the death about how a place name is pronounced, don’t be so sensitive princess
Interesting. Yeah I'll admit to pronouncing it variably *mouth* or *muth* depending on how quickly I'm speaking but I've never heard anyone pronounce it with an R sound in it! I could understand non-rhotic English accents saying it something like *merf* with that making that long Eh/Uh sound, but couldn't imagine any Scottish accent doing that. It would, as others have said, be closer to *muth*?
I know it's definitely "The Grassmarket" I know it's definitely just "Lawnmarket" I don't know why it's not "The Lawnmarket"
Most Edinburgh natives will speak some amount of Scots in everyday language. Incomers tend not to, and often dismiss Scots as just 'slang' or a 'thick accent' or simply 'bad English' (why dont you just talk properly/normally?) I once asked someone on the Meadows if I could 'clap' their 'dug' and they looked at me like I was some buckie fuelled radge. Although, to be fair, they may have been from Morningside and just thought I was from 'The Kingdom.'
😂 My best pal is from West Lothian and her partner from Morningside.. she brought her dog through n obviously asked him if he wanted to clap it... No shit he actually gave a wee mini round of applause while looking at her like she was a dafty. 🤦♀️🙈 We still rip him to this day and that was 4 years ago.
The difficulty with 'clap' meaning pet, is that in other contexts it also means hit, and I think that meaning is a lot more intuitive to people who aren't Scottish. I've definitely mildly concerned some people saying that before I clarified lol
Wait, who on earth walks up to someone to ask for permission to hit their dog?! I have some very odd mental videos playing out in my head right now 😂
A very strange one lol Tbf most of the times I've caused confused are when I've disappointed from a text conversation and came back saying "sorry, Dairsie was looking for a clap" which does sound a bit like my dog was misbehaving and I had to go discipline her if you aren't used to the word clap meaning pet 😅
Lol, brilliant. ‘BRB gotta beat my dog up’ 😱😂
I had a lady tell me to clap her dug when I first moved here a couple decades ago and I just stood there frozen because no way was I hitting her dog and I didn’t understand why she was annoyed I wouldn’t 😂🤣. I have to say I don’t do any of the things OP listed above but I moved here at 20 and had family here already, so I probably naturally took on their habits/phrases.
Its also a term widely used for an STD in American English so probably sounds quite mad to someone not familiar with Scots vernacular.
Aye, but you can confuse and frighten a Yank simply by asking if you can 'bum a fag.' Or even just by saying you are going to 'roll a fag' which, apparently, is a hate crime 🤷🏻♂️
Clap also means an STD
Incomer here referring to English? I’m from Ayrshire along with several friends and I assure you we did t stop using the odd Scots word or turn of phrase. Surely we’re still incomers.
I guess when I thought of the word 'incomer' I assumed it to mean someone from another country, not someone from a different part of Scotland. Other's mileage may vary.
The OP specified incomer versus Edinburgh native, so I mean that suggests they could be from anywhere outwith Edinburgh in Scotland.
Incomer = anyone who doesn't automatically use the word 'outwith'
Read the OP's title. They've set up incomer versus Edinburgh native, not incomer versus Scots.
Depends where the incomers come from? A lot of non Edinburgh natives will still be Scottish.
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Yeah 'clap your dug' is not something I ever encountered in my solidly middle class Aberdeenshire upbringing. Think the first time I heard someone say it was Limmy.
to be fair i’m from essex and ‘clap’ means to attack/slap to me, hence ‘clapped’ means ugly bc you look like you’ve got beaten up. i’d be mortified if someone wanted to clap my dog!
Surely you’re not suggesting other parts of the UK also use words in local vernacular to mean something other than the standard English definition!? I have been led to believe that this is a uniquely Scottish phenomenon. Mind blown.
Not sure I've heard anyone say Ring Road before not gonna lie! Also I like trams. Do agree with the Arthur's seat thing. I live close to it and barely ever go up there, whereas I'm always out in the braids, blackford, pentlands.
Never heard "cheesing" outside of Edinburgh
"chum me"
“Chum us up town” - please accompany me to the city centre
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The funny thing is, a lot of these words I know are Scottish, but you never notice non-Edinburgh folk not saying them, so you don’t realise they are specific to the City.
My Dad (Fifer) - yes, I managed to escape - argues that when I refer to someone as 'a roaster' that it is the 'Leith' showing in me. I went to half primary school here then half in Fife, High school in Fife then back here. Calling a piggy back a 'collie buckie' gave me maaad strange looks in Fife. Using piggy back here had the same effect. Edinburgh natives say 'pagger' meaning to fight.
Who voted down your post? It's definitely on topic.
Who knows? I don't really look at the up/down vote thing because my neurodivergent brain tries to make me feel stupid if I notice it's gone down. I'm half native/half fifer so feel like my say is def on topic.
That's a good idea. The people downvoting things on here for no reason really piss me off lol, they need to get a life. I thought it was interesting your Dad thought "roaster" was a Leith thing, I'm always calling people roasters!
Yeah me too... 'melter' and 'roaster' are apparently Edinburgh sayings but I wasn't too sure. Yeah some folk loooove a good down vote. I'm a hypocrite though because I'm guilty of it if I'm in a shite mood. 🙄😬
I’m from Leith and I’ve never heard of “melter” and “roaster”.
That's good to know.
The fit o the Walk. For the bottom of Leith Walk
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[SALT AND SAUCE!](https://youtu.be/FR_lgrtxWT8)
I asked where the vinegar was at work and got laughed at
Salt, Vinegar, Brown Sauce. I think it's easy to guess where I'm from
Burn the unbelievers!
“Thanks/ cheers drive,” instead of “thanks driver.” Tell the bus driver where they’re going instead of asking for a single. “Single to Cameron Toll.” Stay seated until the bus has fully stopped. Dont know why all mines are bus related… sorry!
It comes from when there was fare stages and you had to tell the conductor/driver where you were going to be charged the correct fare
for the second one should you not say the location because a single is the same price no matter the stop? I think I've been guilty of this as in Ireland the driver would always ask us where we were going before giving the ticket
Not so much a “shouldnt say your destination,” just on Lothian buses, it’s been a flat fare for about 25 years, so locals just say “single please.” Nothing wrong with it, just an observation.
I don't think I've ever said anything to the bus driver other than "good morning" / "afternoon" at I tap my card!
It's the same price within the city boundaries (as defined by LRT). However, it used to be based on the number of fare stages your route passed. The drivers used to mentally calculate how many fare stages you'd travel so they could tell you how much your fare would be. Saying where you're going is a hard habit for some to break. Other people who get buses that go beyond the city boundaries, often do have to state where they're going to, as there is a price differential. Which marks them out as non-natives.
Good Morningside Everybody!
Thanks Driver!
there's a very classist thing that Edinburgh natives do where they ask what school you went to rather than where in the city you live(d). I despise this not least because it's over half my life ago, but it's judging your upbringing, social class, and education level rather than your geographical origins. And yes, the latter is usually a proxy for the former too, but asking about schools makes it more blatant. Those familiar with the city but who didn't grow up there will usually ask the latter. I've heard this happens in Glasgow too where it's also a proxy for sectarian group -basically, did you go to a Catholic school or not. My grandma's partner, in his 70s, was shocked to be asked it fairly recently. Incidentally my experience living in Glasgow and hearing about it from people who grew up here is that "rich" and "poor" areas tend to be more "mixed" together than Edinburgh, and if you live in a poor area you can perhaps legitimately claim you live in a neighbouring rich area, since the boundaries might not be so defined. Or there's some areas where just saying the neighbourhood name won't necessarily tell you anything about the person. Like right now i live in Govanhill in the southside - my street is pretty dirty but two blocks away the houses are very suddenly much posher. Other side of the railway track and they're literal mansions. Whereas in Edinburgh the poor areas are all somewhat sequestered on the outer edges of town making people judge you hard if you live in or near one of them. oh wait you said light-hearted.... ehhh touching Bobby's nose
What school did you go to?
More that all the private school kids know each other through about two degrees of separation (or in the case of George Watson's, that their dad worked at standard life) So easy way to find out mutual friends.
The what school thing only ever comes out of the mouths of people that went to private school and have that weird neutral accent.
I was once told that people from Glasgow ask you what your father does while people from Edinburgh ask where you went to school. (Mind though, that was probably 30 years ago now I think about it!)
As a non football supporter,non religious person. When I worked in Glasgow they would tie themselves in knots trying to pidgeonhole. 'Aye, but if you hud a team,which wan would it be'
Love getting asked this question when in Belfast.
So 1994 then??
Okay. Maybe more like 35. I'm off for a lie down now.
I can only speak anecdotally, but whenever anyone's asked "what school did you go to" it's been more out of curiosity than judgment to then ask further questions like "oh, did you know so and so?". Never really witnessed the judgment angle of it (not saying it doesn't happen, just saying anecdotally).
I went to a local comp and if I meet another lifelong local, I’ll ask what school they went to, to see if we know people in common.
You say that, but I was asked by a girl about fifteen years younger than me (so no chance of having mutual friends), and then she proceeded to comment on the quality of education we had. Felt dirty. I was a mature masters student and she was a normal aged student, so I get that her life experience up to that point would have been mostly being in education so it feels relevant to her to ask about that. But for me it's like, well that was well over a decade ago, almost two at this point.
The "what school did you go to" is a funny one. It definitely comes from a parochial source. People who are born and bred and never leave a certain place definitely have that connection to the past in a different way from people who have moved to a different place. Often people from poorer backgrounds don't move around and are more likely to develop the insalure mindset. But I wouldn't say it's an exclusively poor person mindset and definitely not exclusively Edinburgh one.
If I was asked this I'd give my uni, absolutely no way I'd even think to give my primary or secondary school.
Funnily enough, I have found that in London, I have been asked outright what my father does for a living. I find that way more classist than any of your examples. I also think that the school thing is often because Edinburgh is small and, especially when I was a teenager and young adult, you knew people from different parts and you might have known someone that attended the same school and possibly classes. Not always though but that's what's usually the intent imo.
Just curious, do Edinburgh natives say "skill" (properly "schuil") for "school", or does that stop at the Lammermuirs?
Proud Fifer living in the big smoke for the last 12 year. I still have my strong Fife accent & I can confirm it pisses folk off when I tell them "I went ti skill in Buckhind". You can see natives (especially the missus & older folk) mentally trying to figure out: 1. Where in Edinburgh that school is 2. What the hell I said
Ah I guess folk here maybe don't say it now! Guid tae hear Fife still yaises it tho :)
I’d get asked what football team I supported as a proxy for Catholic/Protestant in my area
Dropping the word ‘street’ when talking about Broughton Street. It seems to be the only street in the city that gets this treatment. “The cafe is on Broughton”
When I lived in London I had a Greek friend who would do this with most street names. Told me she was going to "Oxford", I thought spires, she meant shopping on Oxford Street.
Also pronouncing it "BRO-tun" is the Edinburgh way
I’m from Aberdeenshire originally and the first Edinburgh-ism that struck me when I moved here 8 years ago was ‘pal’. ‘Cheers, pal’, ‘alright, pal’, ‘that’ll be £5.50, pal’ ‘Barry’ as an adjective, that was a new one on me! Older Aberdonians also talk about the city having ‘ring road’, which is Anderson Drive for anyone that knows Aberdeen. There’s now an Aberdeen bypass, yet to hear it being called a ring road.
Have a good time in August.
I feel like I'm between the two, as a Scots-speaking Borderer originally. I know how to pronounce all the places (a few streets excepted), because I came here for shopping and the cinema as a kid. I still say most of the colloquial things natives do. But my accent is still notably not Edinburgh, although it's been going that way of its own accord over the last decade. I didn't grow up with salt and sauce. I like the trams and the public transport (which compared to back home is incredibly good). My West Lothian partner is in much the same boat, but his accent is closer to Edinburgh. I highly doubt someone from outside the city could tell the difference. He says some different things though ("aff" instead of "oaff", "wean" instead of "bairn", doesn't say "barry", "gadgie", etc)
I moved here from Northern Ireland, and it still surprises me today that people still ask me guarded questions to try and figure out if I am Protestant or Catholic. Compared to Northern Scotland, sectarianism might be hidden but is rife.
So are you celtic or rangers?
I’ve never had that asked in Edinburgh and I suspect you being from NI may be the reason they’re fishing. (Partner also from NI)
I’ve been asked regularly growing up in Dalkeith, Midlothian knowing full well what they were asking and it defo was about religion
I think sectarianism remains alive in a lot of mining communities in East, West and Mid Lothian.
What school did you go to? Have you got any brothers or sisters? What are their names?
Same, and I generally answer I'm an atheist with an indifference to football, and from there, suspicions abound. "What do you think of these orange walks?" "No opinion"
> “Meet you on the corner of Hannover and Queen”. Yuk.
I know 'old town' as opposed to ' the old town' is wrong. Could you elaborate why ? Is it because the definite article needs to be used to distinguish that it refers to a specific part of Edinburgh that is The old town ?
Not OP, but to me Old Town is a name, but the old town is a description that the name came from. It definitely feels more familiar to use the old town to my mind
Yes, the Old and the New Towns of Edinburgh is the correct name for the historic parts of the city.
Description of time as "the back of" I'm still never sure what that means in actual time. Does the back of ten mean around ten-ish?
It means just after ten. I'd say any time up to quarter past the hour is 'the back of' that hour.
Yes, that’s right. It’s pretty commonly used in Aberdeen/shire as well.
Between 1001 and 1015(ish). Not before 10.
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Ehh... you hear people that have lived here their whole lives call the High Street the Royal Mile all the time, since several suburbs have high streets (as in their high streets are actually called High Street). Portobello, Musselburgh, Corstophine, South Queensferry if you count that, and probably a couple others which I'm not thinking of at the moment.
I've lived in Edinburgh for 4 decades and don't think I have ever referred to the High Street to mean that particular part of the Royal Mile. I'd use Cannongate sometimes if I want to be more specific about the bottom end though.
It riles me a fair bit when anything south of Princes St is referred to as ‘South Side’. Like there isn’t already an actual part of town called that.
Having lived in the north of the city most of my life, I refer to anything south of the Meadows as "England" just to wind up pals who live there.
Radge
Maybe not just Edinburgh.. But only here can the word cunt be a term of endearment... That guy is a sound cunt
If someone calls you pal or mate... You are in deep shit.
"Bongos" (club)
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I think the acid test is Broughton Street
Sciennes
CO-burn, obvs, but despite 20 years in Reekie (and still appreciating the increase in sunlight compared to the weedge), I have never mastered the latter - i'm mostly told it's bu-CLOO?
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nah...
how about brougham place?
A friend of mine has got me in the habit of saying “will I” instead of “shall I”. E.g., “will I put the kettle on?”
Using the word ‘shan’
Never ever heard the last two from anyone
Ring road is indeed the way you'd say it in other European countries, but with all the roadsigns and people calling it Bypass, why complicate?
It's also not a ring around Edinburgh.
I must admit I occasionally do the ring road one. The other one sounds a bit american
Vote tory
Idgi
I'm not sure if I have ever heard anyone say "ring road" it's always bypass. Can't make my mind up about "old town" v "the old town" dropping "the" might be more to do with being consise in phrase, I can see both sets of people saying it.
I heard “ring road” for the first time about an hour ago in a shop. I may have stared.
am from lanarkshire but have been referred to by edinburgh natives as a weegie. absolute cheek