Scottish pronounciation help

[Keepit]

I’m Scottish myself so should know this for sure! Dc have a song to learn for burns night.

Two words causing confusion are butter ba (I think is pronounced baw) and too sma which I read as (smaw) dc think I’m wrong can anyone confirm?

Ha! Upper Bearsden 😂

I'm an East Ender.

I agree with cookiemonster3

I was reading it thinking surely it's like baa but I'm not a native scot but have lived in Scotland (more north) for more than 30 years.

Also agree with cookiemonster3 and we’re in the North East!

We’d say bah and smah too, but we’re north Scot, and Burns probably said baw and smaw I guess?

'Posh' Glasgow accents, traditionally, are quite similar to 'Highland English', similar vowels and intonation and without as much of the Scots and Hiberno-English vocab and idiom. 'Posh' Edinburgh accents used to be similar, but are increasingly indistinguishable from English accents, the 'posher' the more English. The 'upper class' Scottish accent is virtually dead among people under 50.

It’s been interesting reading these replies the song in question was a version of Coulter’s candy but with the words changed, I’m from Edinburgh myself so would say ‘baw’ well I wouldn’t because my English dp would correct me to ‘ball’ 😜

If it's coulters candy then it is definitely baw bee

But it wasn’t baw bee op was asking about :) I’ve tried watching recordings online since your update, but none of them include that verse! Very annoying 😂

Yes I tried googling it too but nothing. The new version is called crisps and cola but to the same tune as coulters candy, confusing!

According to the Scots wikipedia, the vowel is ɔ (i.e. aw) in Lanarkshire, æ (the way Americans say 'cat') in Berwickshire, ɑ: (the way Americans and RP English say 'thought') in Buchan, and either ɒ: or æ in Galloway; couldn't find any other regional guidance so don't know what Burns in Ayrshire would have said, assuming it was even the same back then.

Aly Bain version of Coulter's Candy

If the song in question is “Coulters Candy” then the correct pronounciation, and indeed spelling, is baw (as in saw). It refers to bawbee or ha’penny (half penny).
The child is greetin’ (crying) for a wee bawbee to buy some Coulters Candy.
And my vote is definitely for the Southside every time. Wouldn’t con sider anywhere north of the Clyde.

Wiki tells me that it originated in Melrose, so I would be inclined to go with whatever the local pronunciation there is.

But left to my own devices, I would go with ba rather than baw. I'm an east coaster.

Oh bugger. Just read that it's different words to the original. In that case, ah huvnae a scooby!

That link doesn’t have the verse that OP was asking about though @cdtaylornats (and I don’t think it’s aly Bain singing is it?). It’s weird how there’s no versions of it online! (That I can find anyway)