Dialects

[Top-of-the-hill]

  There was a link on the Lost Cousins newsletter to a British Library collection of recordings made of POWs in Germany in WW1. It includes 2 recordings of Kentish men and was very interesting to me. They were both from West Kent, much the same age as my grandfather, but with much stronger accents.
   I was particularly interested in something said to be Kent dialect, but which seemed to be well gone by my time - pronunciation of "th" as "d". Also mixing "v" and "w", which there was still a ghost of in my grandfather.
   I recommend a listen.  Berliner Lautarchiv British & Commonwealth recordings

[KGarrad]

When I moved to the Isle of Man in 1994, there was a discernible difference between a Southern Manx accent and a Northern Manx accent.
Largely disappeared today.

[pharmaT]

I find at work that the older patients have stronger accents relatively speaking.  I also find my accent gets stronger when I am speaking with them. I remember a fellow student (back when I was about 20) commenting that my accent was stronger when I spoke with locals than when I spoke with her.  I did it subconsciously.

We have the added aspect here of speaking Scots.  People my generation and older are more likely to still be able to speak it.  My children's generation less so.  Although they use some words I'd say that my children are receptively bilingual than fully bilingual.

[Treetotal]

I thought that being Bilingual indicated that the person spoke two languages
Carol

[arthurk]

Indeed - PharmaT has introduced the added complication in her part of the world of a different (but related) language:

https://www.gov.scot/policies/languages/scots/#scots

(English version at the top of the page (ie https://www.gov.scot/policies/languages/scots/)

Most of us English speakers would probably understand a lot of it, but we wouldn't have a clue how to speak it.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Re Scots language - "Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland."

[Treetotal]

Well you learn something every day.
Carol

[pharmaT]

Yes and receptively bilingual means you understand a second language without speaking it.  For example if I asked my children something in Scots they'd understand me but would reply in English and couldn't answer the kind of question "how do you say........ in Scots"

Scots is a Germanic language like English but in many ways is closer to the original root germanic language that they grew from, eg we still use gutteral gh and ch.

[Treetotal]

That's not the definition that I got when I googled it.
Carol