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Using a locally different sentence structure isn't a lack of fluency, it's just a different dialect. Here in the UK every region speaks English differently. Su

Using a locally different sentence structure isn't a lack of fluency, it's just a different dialect. Here in the UK every region speaks English differently. Sure, there's a kind of "standard" English spoken on TV, but the further you get from London the less it's spoken. It's not just a question of accents and local words for things, but of sentence structure too - for instance the Scots dialect has quite radically different ways of saying things than "standard" English. The people who speak Scots are completely fluent in their local dialect. Just because the language they speak doesn't happen to correspond with the culturally dominant variant doesn't make them wrong.

tsm 3y ago
Scotland is particularly interesting to me since language occurs on a continuum between Scottish Standard English (SSE) and the Scots language. SSE features unique words ("The word 'outwith' is not used outwith Scotland") and constructions (a waiter will ask "What are you wanting?" instead of "What would you like?", and after receiving the first order they'll ask the next person "And for yourself?" instead of, e.g., "And for you?"). Scots at its Scotsiest can look like this: > What ken ye what may cast up the morn? For whatlike is your life? Ye ar but a waff o rouk at kythes a weeock, an syne eelies awa. Ye war better tae say, "Gin it's God's will, we'll be ey tae the fore, an we s' dae this or that." But no ye, na: ye blaw an blowst o what ye'r tae dae. And speakers will choose a point somewhere between SSE and broad Scots depending on who they're speaking with, the formality, etc. It's quite common to get Scots words like "wee", "dreich", "swither", etc. The next step up is cannae/dinnae/widnae/etc for couldn't/don't/wouldn't/etc. I recently had a Shetlander say I was "glinderin ida sun". And then at some point it switches from "SSE with a Scots influence" to "Scots".

tsm 3y ago

Scotland is particularly interesting to me since language occurs on a continuum between Scottish Standard English (SSE) and the Scots language. SSE features unique words ("The word 'outwith' is not used outwith Scotland") and constructions (a waiter will ask "What are you wanting?" instead of "What would you like?", and after receiving the first order they'll ask the next person "And for yourself?" instead of, e.g., "And for you?"). Scots at its Scotsiest can look like this: > What ken ye what may cast up the morn? For whatlike is your life? Ye ar but a waff o rouk at kythes a weeock, an syne eelies awa. Ye war better tae say, "Gin it's God's will, we'll be ey tae the fore, an we s' dae this or that." But no ye, na: ye blaw an blowst o what ye'r tae dae. And speakers will choose a point somewhere between SSE and broad Scots depending on who they're speaking with, the formality, etc. It's quite common to get Scots words like "wee", "dreich", "swither", etc. The next step up is cannae/dinnae/widnae/etc for couldn't/don't/wouldn't/etc. I recently had a Shetlander say I was "glinderin ida sun". And then at some point it switches from "SSE with a Scots influence" to "Scots".