Two things: first, I was shocked when they made the Dennis the Menace cartoons for TV and he didn't have a Dundee accent. It was never stated where he was from; I just assumed. But still. It was like Superman opening his mouth and he was Australian or something.
Secondly, I am only just learning now that "this needs done" isn't Standard English. Does that follow for other constructs? Would you not say "that floor needs washed"? Or "that door needs closed"? And so on?
This is interesting. I'll have to investigate. There's so many things I didn't know were Scottish English only. Like "outwith". I think my first wordprocessor alerted me to the fact that that wasn't Standard English.
Until I met Mrs La Rouge (she's English) I had no idea real live people said "shall". I thought it was a fossil word only found in "you shall go to the ball, Cinderella!" I still struggle with the distinction between shall and will, though I've had it explained several times. In Scotland people only say "will".
Conversely Mrs la Rouge in everyday speech uses "bought" and "brought" interchangeably (she's from the Stoke on Trent area). She says she knows the difference, but I don't see the evidence.
