Ay've groon op aroond Scots when Aye was a wee bairn. Me Da rude me tae toon tae get a ginger on occasion.
American words are nothing more than English words. So many, have no idea where it comes from. When someone is called a big galoot, they have no idea it's a Scottish slang term for idiot.
Or I hear someone say, "smashing" (really old term, rarely heard except from someone over the age of 60. Comes from the Scottish Gaelic word 's math sinn which means terrific. Everyone knows, that's been in the Navy, that the scullery is the kitchen. None know it's a scottish word.
My kids always used to laugh because when I got angry, they claimed I sounded like a pirate.
Come hither tae yer mither cause yer fayther disney want ye.
When I first moved here, I thought most Americans were hard of hearing, because I'd say something, and they'd say, "What?"
Then again, I remember being at a hotel during a military conference, and as the elevator doors were closing, he's screaming,
"'old da vada. old da vada!"
I had no idea what he was talking about, until later. The guy was from Boston and he was telling me to hold the elevator.
It took me forever to stop calling the bubbler, a bubbler, and call it a water fountain. To stop saying donnae and dinnae. To stop yelling at my boyfriend to stop "hooning aboot". To shoogle the coffee cannister. To whine about being drookit after being in the rain. And to tell my girlfriends to stop blethering aboot.
After a few months, they ended up talking like me anyways.
Now, I rarely have an accent unless I'm drinking, angry, or around another accent. But most Scots say I don't sound like a Scot anymore.
P.S. I still spell honour and humour the same way I did before. Aluminum is my American spelling though.
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