Can you hear the difference between surfer and server?

In Glasgow one of the recent best selling books over the last few years was William Laughton Lorimer’s ‘The New Testament in Scots’. Here is his description of John the Baptist from Mark’s Gospel:-

• "John wis cleadit in a raploch coat o caumel's hair an hed a lethern girth about his weyst, an locusts an foggie-bees' hinnie wis aa his fairin."

The Long and the Short of It

Really clever linguists can draw maps. They join points on a map which separate the way language is used.

One such line runs through Warwickshire not far from Stratford upon Avon. Below the line most people will use a long ‘a’ sound and above it most will prefer a shorter vowel sound.