Glasgow patter

All you want to know about Glasgow patter

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Please improve this article if you can. (December 2006)

Glasgow patter or Glaswegian is a dialect spoken in and around Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow patter has evolved among 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, and even occasionally in broadcasting and print. It is constantly evolving and being updated with new euphemisms as well as nicknames for well-known local figures and buildings.

Contents

In the Media

Michael Munro wrote a guide to Glasgow Patter entitled The Patter, first published in 1985. With illustrations by David Neilson, and later by the Paisley-born artist and playwright John Byrne, the book became very popular in Glasgow. It was followed 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 the Glasgow-born comedian Stanley Baxter parodied the patter on his television sketch show. "Parliamo Glasgow" was a spoof programme in which 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 biblical tales in the Glaswegian vernacular.

Popular Scottish television comedies such as Rab C. Nesbitt, Chewin' the Fat and Still Game also provide reference material, and have themselves contributed popular new expressions to The Patter.

Examples

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Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)
  • Bawbag – Literally "ball bag", scrotum, also a fool
  • Buckie/Bucky – Buckfast Tonic Wine, a cheap, strong, fortified wine popular with many teenagers and others with limited disposable income
  • Cleek – Picking up a sexual partner, "cleek" being the Scots word for a hook or a crook
  • Dreepie – Hanging from the edge of a roof so that your feet are as close as possible to the ground
  • Electric soup – Another name for Buckfast Tonic Wine, also a Scottish comic book, or, in general, anything that is more alcoholic than tasty. To be "on the electric soup" is to have lost normal control of one's faculties.
  • 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 – Breasts
  • Pure dead brilliant – Outstandingly good.
  • Scooby – Clue, rhyming slang from Scooby Doo.

Nicknames for Glasgow, Glasgow buildings, suburbs/new towns and well-known figures include:

  • No Mean City – A novel by A. McArthur and H. Kingsley Long which sold over 500,000 copies. First published in 1935, it depicts the life of Johnnie Stark, a "Razor-King", in the slums of Glasgow. The theme tune to the detective series Taggart, sung by Maggie Bell. and a 1979 album by the band Nazareth both take their titles from this book.
  • Polomint City – The new town of East Kilbride on the outskirts of Glasgow, so called because of its high concentration of roundabouts.
  • Lazarus Lally – Pat Lally, a former Lord Provost of Glasgow and Councillor, so called because of the repeated resurrection of his political career.

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_patter"

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