Glasgow patter
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Glasgow patter or Glaswegian is a dialect spoken in and around Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow patter has evolved over the centuries amongst the working classes, Irish immigrants and passing seamen in the dockyards. The dialect is anglicised west central lowland Scots or Scottish English depending on viewpoint, and features a varied mix of typical Scots expressions and vocabulary, as well as some examples of rhyming slang, local cultural references and street slang.
The Patter is used widely in everyday speech in Glasgow, even occasionally in broadcasting and print. 'The Patter', as with all dialects, is constantly evolving and updating itself, forever generating new euphemisms, as well as nicknames for well-known local figures and buildings.
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[edit] In media
Michael Munro wrote a guide to Glasgow Patter entitled The Patter, first published in 1985. With random illustrations by David Neilson, and later by Paisley-born artist and playwright John Byrne, the book became very popular in Glasgow, and was followed up by The Patter - Another Blast in 1988, with The Complete Patter, an updated compendium of the first and second books, being published in 1996.
In the 1970s, Glasgow-born comedian Stanley Baxter parodied the patter on his television sketch show. "Parliamo Glasgow" was a spoof language teaching programme where Baxter played a language coach, and various scenarios using Glaswegian dialogue were played out for money.
In 1997, Jamie Stuart, a Church of Scotland elder from the High Carntyne Church, produced "A Glasgow Bible", relating some of the biblical tales in the Glaswegian vernacular.
Popular Scottish television comedies like Rab C. Nesbitt, Chewin' the Fat and Still Game also provide reference material, as well as having contributed popular new expressions to 'The Patter' themselves.
[edit] Examples
Many more examples in the The Complete Patter (1996) by Michael Munro:
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- Bawbag — Literally ball bag, a slang term for scrotum, also a fool.
- Buckie/Bucky — Buckfast Tonic Wine - cheap, strong, fortified wine popular with many teenagers.
- Cleek — To refer to picking up a partner of the opposite sex, cleek being the Scots word for a hook or crook referring to the linking of arms. A more colourful theory is that it originates from late night kissing couples on tenement doorsteps and knocking milk bottles to make a clinking sound[citation needed].
- Daftie - A foolish person.
- Dreepie - hanging from the edge of a roof so that your feet are as close as possible to the ground.
- Electric soup — see buckie, also a Scottish comic book. Anything more alcoholic than tasty. To 'be on the electric soup' has an implication of loss of faculty.
- Ginger — Any carbonated soft drink, though particularly Irn-Bru.
- Hauners — A helping hand in a playground fight.
- Jeg — Any carbonated soft drink.
- Mad wi it — Drunk or intoxicated.
- Mental — Tough.
- Mintit - Cool/amazing.
- Particks — A term for breasts which came about through a number of slang words, an area of the city and a pub (The Partick Smiddy).
- Pure dead brilliant - rather good.
- Scooby — Clue, rhyming slang from Scooby Doo.
Also, some nicknames for Glasgow, Glasgow buildings, suburbs/new towns and well-known figures:
- No Mean City — A novel by A. McArthur and H. Kingsley Long which sold over 500,000 copies. First published in 1935, 'No Mean City' depicted the life of Johnnie Stark, a "Razor-King", in the pre-war slums of Glasgow. The theme tune to the detective series Taggart, sung by Maggie Bell and the 1979 album by the band Nazareth were named after this book.
- Polomint City — a nickname for the new town of East Kilbride on the outskirts of Glasgow — so called for its high concentration of roundabouts.
- Lazarus Lally — Lord Provost and councillor, Pat Lally.
[edit] External links
- Glasgow Patter Adverts
- Firstfoot's dictionary of Scots slang
- Glesca Glossary, fairly thorough online dictionary
- Glasgow Dialect
- Lexicon Planet, featuring excerpts from The Patter
- The Online Scots Dictionary
