A pioneering project looking into why Scottish people speak the way they do is being expanded into both Ireland and Wales.

The Speak for Yerself Scotland project has been ongoing since 2022 and some of the discoveries emerging from it are helping to expand the understanding of how Scots is spoken today.

It has captures more than 7000 Scots speakers voices and how they talk to their friends and family and it has helped researchers understand why people in Scotland say words such as “youse” and why people in Glasgow don’t say “ken”.

The project uses interactive online surveys to map words, sounds and sentence structures. Speak for Yerself Scotland questions explore variations such as whether people say they “knock” on a door or “chap”, say “out” or “oot”, “those trainers” or “they trainers”.

Now it’s set to expand across the Irish Sea to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as down to Wales as part of a partnership with Newcastle University and Cardiff University.

It marks a major milestone in mapping language variation across the regions.

Professor Jennifer Smith, Director of the Speak for Yersel project at the University of Glasgow, said: “Language is incredibly dynamic – it’s constantly changing – so Speak for Yersel captures that change in the here and now.

“We’re particularly interested in how people speak with friends and family, rather than in formal settings. This gives us the most authentic picture of how language is being used, as Speak for Yersel for Scots has demonstrated.

“And now we’re excited to expand those findings to other areas –  from Strabane or Swansea, Dublin or Dundee, your voice matters. The more people who join in, the better picture we get of how we’re all speaking right now.”

In the Welsh project, researchers are keen to discover if people say “daps” or “plimsols” for sports shoes, or whether you can tell a Cardiff accent from a Pontypridd one. In Northern Ireland, participants will be asked whether they’re “pure ragin” or if they wear “gutties”.

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For the Republic of Ireland project, people will be asked about phrases such as “actin’ the maggot” or if people can tell the difference between how people from Kerry speak and how those from Kildare do.

Professor Smith added that the Scots findings have been fascinating and she is eager to see what comes of the three new Speak for Yersel sites.

She continued: “In Scotland we’ve found that distinctly Scottish phrases like ‘I’m going to my bed’ are used widely across Scotland, often without speakers realising it’s a uniquely Scottish expression.

“And despite concerns about Americanisation, our Halloween traditions remain firmly Scottish – we still go ‘guising’ rather than ‘trick or treating’. It will be great to see what Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales brings to our understanding of language use in the 21st century.”

Karen Corrigan, Professor of Linguistics and English Language and Research Associate Dr Mary Robinson, of the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University, are leading the Northern Irish survey. They are collaborating with Dr Louis Strange from the University of Glasgow who is leading the Republic of Ireland one.

Professor Corrigan said: “Even as a child growing up in Armagh City, I was fascinated by the languages and dialects that surrounded me.

“The resources will also allow us for the first time ever to document the major differences between all the Celtic Englishes of these islands. We should find out whether ‘gutties’ as a word for ‘gym shoes’ really is confined to Northern Ireland. Does anyone north of the border recognise ‘tackies’ and where on these islands does ‘daps’ also mean some type of running shoe?”

Dr Robinson added: “We created these resources to showcase and celebrate the rich linguistic diversity that can be found all across the island of Ireland.

The University of GlasgowThe University of Glasgow (Image: (Image: University of Glasgow))

“By taking a descriptive point of view - focussing on how things are - rather than how some authority suggests they should be, we hope that these resources will empower people to use their unique varieties proudly, as they are part of the cultural heritage of the island of Ireland. Ultimately though, we hope people will have fun taking the surveys and thinking about the way they use language.”

Dr Louis Strange, Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the University of Glasgow said: “Ireland has such a rich linguistic history, including influences from Dutch, Scots, French and many other languages as well as those home-grown, distinctively Irish turns of phrase in English like ‘through-other’, which is a direct borrowing from Irish trína chéile, also meaning ‘disordered’.

“This makes Ireland a real treasure trove for linguists, but what’s unique is that people have such an interest, this real passion and love – this grá – for language in all its forms across the island…why one place has that particular accent, why we use that one word but you say something completely different.”

Professor Mercedes Durham and Dr Jonathan Morris at Cardiff University are leading the Wales extension of the project.

Professor Durham, based at the University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy, said: “Although you can find lots of online lists of Welsh English words and expressions, it’s not completely clear where, and by who, they’re used. This project will allow us to uncover what differences there are in English as it is spoken across Wales, as well as confirming which aspects of ‘Wenglish’ are still regularly used today.”

The project's expansion to Ireland and Wales launches on Thursday 31 October 2024.