Highland English - Definition and Overview

The Variety of Gaelic influenced Scottish English spoken in the highlands of Scotland. Island English is the variety spoken as a second language by native Gaelic speakers in the Outer Hebrides.

This variety of English shows the influence of Gaelic most clearly in pronounciation, but also in grammar. For example, medial and final consonants tend to be de-voiced (as is standard in Gaelic), so that "whatever" becomes pronounced as "whateffer". Similarly, the "parasitic vowel" that is used in some consonant combinations in Gaelic is used, so that "film" is pronounced "fillum".

The grammatical effect is most apparent with verbs, as Gaelic uses the verb to be with the active participle of the verb to indicate a continuous action as in English, but also uses this construction for iterative meanings; therefore "I go to Stornoway on Mondays" becomes "I am going to Stornoway on Mondays". The past tense in Highland English may use the verb to be followed by "after" followed by the participle: "I am after buying a newspaper" to mean "I have [just] bought a newspaper".