The Rumour by Andy Stewart

I was watching the Scottish news earlier tonight and there was a report about some men who had tried to lure children into their car using a glove puppet. The incident happened in Glasgow and luckily no children were daft enough to get into the car.

Apparently in no time flat there were reports of the incident on the internet but the action had moved to Dundee, Aberdeen,Edinburgh and Fife – where no such thing actually took place according to the police. It’s amazing how things get out of hand so quickly, even without the help of computers. It reminded me of the ancient monologue by Andy Stewart called The Rumour which was really a vehicle for him to show off his skill at different Scottish accents.

The question is: Can anyone understand him because I had some difficulty with parts of it?!

9 thoughts on “The Rumour by Andy Stewart

  1. Katrina,
    I chuckled over this rendition, and was actually proud of myself that I could understand bits of it.

    You would laugh, but there are people from various parts of New York City and Long Island that I sometimes have trouble understanding (my own state!). Not only that, but there are local people here in the Adirondacks who have lived here all their lives and they, too, have a dialect that I have to tune my ears closely to get it all.

    Happy September Reading!

    Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)

    • Judith,
      When we first moved from east to west Scotland I thought that some women who were behind me were speaking a foreign language, they weren’t but I still have difficulty at times even after 30 odd years here. It’s easy to ‘ lose the place’ and then you don’t know when one word ends and another begins! I’m glad it’s the same where you are, it would be horrible if everybody spoke the same way. It all adds to the spice of life!

  2. Just love it! Unfortunately accents are not what they were! So many kids adopting American accents (for why, I don’t know!) and the increasing amounts of English accents being heard in local schools around the country, along with city accents found in Lewis and Barra accents in the Borders….

    • Evee,
      I noticed that a lot of kids do that up inflection of the voice at the end of a sentence. It sounds like they’re asking a question when they aren’t. I blame all those Australian soaps. Sometimes people from places like Inverness just sound like well spoken Glaswegians nowadays, when they used to have a definite Teuchter accent. But then you get white kids in England with black American accents – I wonder if they ever grow out of it!

      • Yes, the Aussie question mark! It so annoys me! I almost heard myself go up at the end of that sentence as I wrote it! Aaaagh!

        Funnily enough, Dr Fred played The Rumour as part of our Scots Language course on Tuesday!!

    • You are so right. I left Aberdeen in 1989, unfortunetly I have been unable to return as yet. I was on a cruise ship recently and there was a young woman from Scotland. I asked Fa aboots ye fae? she had no idea what I had said, when I asked her a 2nd time she said Aberdeen. I said bitecha wha, fa ye bide? again she was clueless, I was dissapointed that the younger generation has lost what wee bit of Gaelic was left. Actually, she sounded more english.

      • Marcus,
        It is sad that a lot of Scots are losing their unique dialects. When I was wee we were all bilingual, speaking ‘proper’ in school and to anyone in authority, but in the playground and at home we spoke Scots, using words like fearty, mocket, loupin’ and scunnered. In Dumbarton, where I grew up there was no Gaelic around, you had to travel a handful (hantle) of miles to Luss to hear Gaelic. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.

        Regards,
        Katrina

  3. Aye, I cun unnerstaun the hail lot o’ it! Beein frae the North o’ Scotland, ave heard monny a different accent an’ dialect. Needin ony o this translatit?

    • Callum,
      Thanks for dropping by and commenting. Ah’ve got nae problems at a’ wi’ thone dialect. Ah wis jist thinking though that ye niver hear a right good hielan accent any mair, no’ even in the hielans!

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