A few weeks back, Today presenter Amol Rajan sprung a surprise last question in an interview with Pat McFadden. He asked why McFadden was put up to speak so often for Labour. “I’m genuinely interested," said Rajan, sounding genuinely interested. “Is that based on research that suggests voters find your Glaswegian burr reassuring?”
No, no, replied a startled, bashful McFadden, it’s just because my job is national campaign coordinator, and it’s in the terms and conditions.
Ach away, Pat, we all know the truth. Folk love a Scottish accent. There have been all those surveys showing it. Most attractive and trusted. Most appealing in the UK. There was one back in 2008 that found Scottish was indeed the most reassuring accent.
Visitors do seem to love it, when they’re not complaining about how incomprehensible Glasgow taxi drivers are.
Labour's Pat McFadden (Image: free)
It has global reach. It’s part of Scotland’s soft power. It has been remarkably resilient in the face of homogenising influences like Netflix. It’s also a rare example of something that many people in Scotland share in spite of numerous other things dividing them and is precious for that reason alone.
But its main impact is how it is perceived outside of Scotland. To visitors, Scotland’s wealth of varied languages, accents and dialects are less apparent and the focus is on the features they tend to share, like the rolling “r” and the so-called lilting intonation. A Scottish accent turns actors, singers and sportspeople into national ambassadors, and that helps showcase........