From ‘guising’ to ‘actin’ the maggot’: Your voice needed as language survey expands to Ireland and Wales
Published: 31 October 2024
Since 2022, the pioneering Speak for Yersel Scotland project has captured the voices of over 7000 Scots speakers. Now it is expanding to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and into Wales.
Ever wondered why almost everyone in Scotland says, “I’m going to my bed”? Or been curious about how “youse” spread across Scotland? And did you know that the largest city in Scotland – Glasgow – doesn’t use that most Scottish of words, ‘ken’?
These are just some of the surprising and fascinating discoveries emerging from a University of Glasgow project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, that is helping to expand our understanding of how Scots is spoken today.
Since 2022, the pioneering Speak for Yersel Scotland project (speakforyersel.ac.uk) has captured the voices of over 7000 Scots speakers and how they talk to their friends and family.
Now it is set to expand across the Irish Sea to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and into Wales, marking a major milestone in mapping language variation across these regions. The expansion is in partnership with Newcastle University and Cardiff University.
The project uses interactive online surveys to map words, sounds and sentence structures. In order to judge how Scots is used today, questions explore variations such as whether people ‘knock’ or ‘chap’ on doors, say ‘out’ or ‘oot’, or say ‘those trainers’ or ‘they trainers’.
In Wales, researchers are hoping to find out if you say ‘daps’ or ‘plimsols’ for your sports shoes, or whether you can tell a Cardiff accent from a Pontypridd one. Northern Irish participants might share whether they’re ‘pure ragin’ or if they wear ‘gutties’. Meanwhile, in the Republic of Ireland, the team is curious about phrases like ‘actin’ the maggot’ and whether Kerry speakers sound like those from Kildare.
Professor Jennifer Smith, Director of the Speak for Yersel project at the University of Glasgow, said: “Language is incredibly dynamic – it’s constantly changing – so Speak for Yersel captures that change in the here and now. We’re particularly interested in how people speak with friends and family, rather than in formal settings. This gives us the most authentic picture of how language is being used, as Speak for Yersel for Scots has demonstrated. And now we’re excited to expand those findings to other areas – from Strabane or Swansea, Dublin or Dundee, your voice matters. The more people who join in, the better picture we get of how we’re all speaking right now.”
Professor Smith added that the Scots findings have been fascinating and she is eager to see what comes of the three new Speak for Yersel sites.
“In Scotland we’ve found that distinctly Scottish phrases like ‘I’m going to my bed’ are used widely across Scotland, often without speakers realising it’s a uniquely Scottish expression. And despite concerns about Americanisation, our Halloween traditions remain firmly Scottish – we still go ‘guising’ rather than ‘trick or treating’. It will be great to see what Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales brings to our understanding of language use in the 21st century.”
Karen Corrigan, Professor of Linguistics and English Language and Research Associate Dr Mary Robinson, of the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University, are leading the Northern Irish survey. They are collaborating with Dr Louis Strange from the University of Glasgow who is leading the Republic of Ireland one.
“Even as a child growing up in Armagh City, I was fascinated by the languages and dialects that surrounded me, explains Professor Karen Corrigan. “The resources will also allow us for the first time ever to document the major differences between all the Celtic Englishes of these islands. We should find out whether ‘gutties’ as a word for ‘gym shoes’ really is confined to Northern Ireland. Does anyone north of the border recognise ‘tackies’ and where on these islands does ‘daps’ also mean some type of running shoe?”
Dr Robinson added: “We created these resources to showcase and celebrate the rich linguistic diversity that can be found all across the island of Ireland. By taking a descriptive point of view - focussing on how things are - rather than how some authority suggests they should be, we hope that these resources will empower people to use their unique varieties proudly, as they are part of the cultural heritage of the island of Ireland. Ultimately though, we hope people will have fun taking the surveys and thinking about the way they use language.”
Dr Louis Strange, Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the University of Glasgow said: “Ireland has such a rich linguistic history, including influences from Dutch, Scots, French and many other languages as well as those home-grown, distinctively Irish turns of phrase in English like ‘through-other’, which is a direct borrowing from Irish trína chéile, also meaning ‘disordered’. This makes Ireland a real treasure trove for linguists, but what’s unique is that people have such an interest, this real passion and love – this grá – for language in all its forms across the island…why one place has that particular accent, why we use that one word but you say something completely different.”
Professor Mercedes Durham and Dr Jonathan Morris at Cardiff University are leading the Wales extension of the project.
Professor Durham, based at the University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy, said: “Although you can find lots of online lists of Welsh English words and expressions, it’s not completely clear where, and by who, they’re used. This project will allow us to uncover what differences there are in English as it is spoken across Wales, as well as confirming which aspects of ‘Wenglish’ are still regularly used today.”
Speak for Yerself
Speak for Yerself is an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project. Speak for Yersel is a digital resource which uses user input to map the different varieties of Scots spoken across Scotland and people’s attitudes towards these different varieties. Speak for Yersel Scotland crowdsources the words, sounds and sentence structures used in present day Scots through a series of online surveys
The Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Wales Speak for Yersel extensions will work in the same way as the Scots version. The expansion to the island of Ireland and to Wales is in collaboration with Newcastle University and Cardiff University.
The project's expansion to Ireland and Wales launches on Thursday 31 October 2024, with dedicated survey portals:
• Speak For Yersel: Northern Ireland
• Speak For Yersel: Republic of Ireland
• Speak for Yersel: Wales
The Arts and Humanities Research Council
The Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, funds world-class, independent research in subjects from philosophy and the creative industries, to art conservation and product design. Our research addresses some of society’s biggest challenges, such as tackling modern slavery, exploring the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, and understanding what it is to be human.
First published: 31 October 2024