GLASGOW The largest city in Scotland and third largest in the UK. Like that of other Scottish regions, Glasgow speech is a continuum from the local accent of SCOTTISH ENGLISH to the working-class VERNACULAR. In origin a dialect of West Central SCOTS, the Glasgow vernacular has been modified by the mixing of population since the early 19c, resulting in particular in the introduction of several features from Ireland. Like other urban Scots dialects, it has suffered some erosion of traditional vocabulary. Partly as a result of this, working-class speech, known variously as Glasgow English, Glasgow Scots, Glaswegian, Glesca, Glasgow, Gutter Glasgow, has since the 19c been the archetypal stigmatized Scots speech, commonly described as ‘debased’, ‘hopelessly corrupt’, or ‘the language of the gutter’. In addition to the more or less localized features below, Glaswegian shares stigmatized features of working-class Scots generally, such as glottal-stop realizations of non-initial voiceless stops, use of past participles of verbs for past tenses and conversely, and multiple NEGATION: see GUTTER SCOTS. For features shared with other Central Scots dialects, see EDINBURGH.

Pronunciation

The first three items are well-known SHIBBOLETHS. (1) Some speakers merge /er/ air with /ɛr/ err, as in Merry Mary, ferr fair. (2) Some speakers realize voiced th as /r/, as in ra for the (ra polis the police, ramorra tomorrow), brurra brother, murra mother. (3) In such words as want, water, wash the vowel is /a/, so that patter and water rhyme. (4) The words away, two, who, whose, where have an ‘aw’ sound: awaw, twaw, whaw, whause, whaur. (5) The /u/ of blue, room has a front, lowered realization, sometimes unrounded. (6) Unstressed final /ʌ/ appears in such words as barra barrow, fella fellow, Glesca Glasgow, morra morrow, awfa awful, yisfa useful.(7) As in Edinburgh, the enclitic negative is -nae, -ny, as in cannae can't, dinnae don't, whereas other dialects have -na. (8) /d/ is lost after /I/ and /n/: caul cold, staun stand, roon round, grun ground, win wind. (9) The form wan one, and the adding of a /t/ to once and twice may be from Ireland. (10) Except in shibboleths like It's a braw bricht munelicht nicht traditional Scots forms in /x/ are rare, although the usual ScoE velar fricative prevails in such words as clarsach, loch, pibroch.(11) Intonation is characterized by a predominant pattern of a markedly lowered pitch on the final prominence of the tone group, followed by a low rise, and in this position the final stressed vowel may be prolonged:ahm thaht depehhhhndint
hingoanti ma vowwwwulz
hingoanti ma maaaammi
( Tom Leonard , ‘Tea Time’, Intimate Voices, Newcastle: Galloping Dog Press, 1984)

Grammar

Well-known Glaswegianisms, some of which are spreading or have spread to Edinburgh, are: (1) See as a topic-defining word, as in See me, see ma man, see kippers, we hate them. (2) Of ULSTER origin, plural-marked forms of the second-person plural pronoun: youse, yese, yiz you, also youse-yins you ones. (3) A stressed form Ah'm ur I am, Ah'm ur gaun I am going, Naw, Ah'm urnae No, I am not. (4) Certain reinforcing sentence tags: Ye're drunk, so ye ur; Ah'm right fed up, so Ah am/so Ah'm ur; Ah felt terrible, so Ah did; Ah didnae touch nuthin, neither Ah did. (5) Other tags: annat, as in Aw thae (all those) punters wi the wings an haloes annat (and that); terminal but, as in Ah dinnae waant it but.

Vocabulary

(1) Localisms include: traditional dunny a basement, ginger a soft drink of any kind, sherrickin a public dressing down, stank a grating over a drain, wallie close the tiled entrance hall of a better-class tenement; more recent slang usages bam, bampot, bamstick idiot, boggin,bowfin smelly, heidbanger/heidcase a lunatic, malky a weapon. (2) Glasgow Scots is also receptive to slang expressions of wider currency like chib a weapon, nooky sexual intercourse, stocious drunk.

Written dialect

From the 1960s writings in and about Glaswegian have included, as well as caricature by stage comics and by authors of joke and cartoon collections, much poetry, drama, and prose fiction that treats the variety seriously and with concern or indignation at its status. Part of this writing, in poetry or prose, consists of representations of local speech, some of this in an ostentatiously untraditional ‘phonetic’ and quasi-illiterate orthography, intended to emphasize the demotic character of the speech. An exaggerated variant of this orthography has been favoured by or for the comedians Stanley Baxter and Billy Connolly. Both variants sometimes run words together to achieve an exotic or comically grotesque effect. In Scottish writing, this style, which apparently originated c.1960, is all but unique to Glasgow:
Another interesting word heard in the discotheque is jiwanni. To a young lady a gentleman will make the request—Jiwanni dance? Should she find that he is over-anxious to ply her with refreshments she will regard him with suspicion and inquire —Jiwanniget mebevvid? (

Stanley Baxter

Glasgow, an ancient burgh (1175–8), first developed as an ecclesiastical centre on a hill near the cathedral. Having a grammar school from the early 14th cent., in 1451 the burgh acquired its university by papal bull and became an archbishopric in 1492. An attractive residential market town with its annual summer fair, Glasgow, little affected by the Reformation, was remarkable for its amenities.

From the mid-17th cent. Glasgow began to develop its overseas trade with Europe and the American colonies. By 1668 Port Glasgow had been established by Glasgow merchants. After the Union of 1707 Glasgow dominated the tobacco trade because of natural advantages reinforced by superior organization, and the city with about 12,000 inhabitants in 1700 began to grow as a manufacturing centre with its merchants controlling fine linen production over a wide area and developing other industries.

By 1776 Glasgow merchants imported more than half of Britain's tobacco and had lucrative re-export markets in Europe. The improvement of Glasgow harbour and the development of a diversified industrial economy had also progressed; the problems posed by the American War led to the formation of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (1783) and the growth of the West Indies trade. Cotton imports became significant, and Glasgow by 1850 had become a manufacturing city with a population of 345,000.

The importance of cotton diminished in the late 19th cent., but this was offset by the rise of heavy industry. Situated in a region rich in coal and iron, Glasgow became a major shipbuilding and engineering centre, the Clyde leading the world for tonnage launched and railway rolling stock and machinery produced. These industries were supplied by engineering firms which competed in world markets. By 1911 Glasgow had become the second city of the empire with a population of just over 1 million. A city with massive housing and other social problems, Glasgow was economically successful up to 1920.

The 20th cent. witnessed the decline of heavy industries. They were vulnerable to the vagaries of world markets, lacked adequate capital investment, and their record in labour relations was poor. Glasgow acquired the reputation of a politically radical city, Labour taking more and more political control, and the corporation embarking upon a public housing programme from the 1920s. Service industries gradually provided more employment, and consumer industries became more significant. Glasgow has gone full circle, important for its amenities—education, leisure, entertainment—and white-collar employment.

John Butt

Glasgow. Like Edinburgh, with which it shared theatrical managements until the early years of the 19th century, Glasgow had a long struggle to achieve a permanent playhouse. The first, erected in 1753, was soon dismantled in the face of religious criticism; a fire was started in the second on the eve of the opening performance in 1764. Damage was slight, and the theatre survived until burnt down in 1780. The famous Dunlop Street Theatre was opened in 1782, but was eclipsed when the Queen Street Theatre Royal was built in 1805, where Edmund and Charles Kean first played together. The Dunlop Street Theatre became a warehouse. Part of the building was, however, used for miscellaneous entertainments and in 1824 it was all brought into use again, as the Caledonian Theatre. It became the Theatre Royal in 1829, after the Queen Street theatre was burnt down. In 1849 a false alarm of fire caused a disastrous panic in which at least 65 lost their lives. Burnt down in 1863, the theatre was rebuilt, but demolished in 1869. Other theatres in Glasgow were the Adelphi, opened in 1842 and destroyed by fire in 1848, the City, opened and burnt down in 1845, the Prince's (1849), and the Royalty (1879). In 1867 a music-hall was built which in 1869 became the Theatre Royal, and was rebuilt on the same site after its destruction by fire in 1879 and again in 1895. The Glasgow Repertory Theatre, 1909–14, was succeeded by the Scottish National Players, whose work was taken over in the 1930s by the amateur Curtain Theatre company. The last became the main vehicle for the production of new plays in the vernacular, among them those of Paul Vincent Carroll, its co-founder, then living in Glasgow. It was disbanded in 1940. The Unity Theatre, founded in 1941, was active in the 1940s. Present Glasgow theatres include the King's Theatre, the Theatre Royal, now a touring theatre and the home of Scottish Opera, the Citizens' Theatre, and the Tron Theatre. In 1988 a former tram depot was converted into a large performance space, the Tramway, which opened with Peter Brook's production of the Mahabharata.

Glasgow, an ancient burgh (1175–8), first developed as an ecclesiastical centre on a hill near the cathedral. Having a grammar school from the early 14th cent., in 1451 the burgh acquired its university by papal bull and became an archbishopric in 1492. From the mid‐17th cent. Glasgow began to develop its overseas trade with Europe and the American colonies. After the Union of 1707 Glasgow dominated the tobacco trade and the city with about 12,000 inhabitants in 1700 began to grow as a manufacturing centre.

By 1776 Glasgow merchants imported more than half of Britain's tobacco and had lucrative re‐export markets in Europe. The improvement of Glasgow harbour and the development of a diversified industrial economy had also progressed; the problems posed by the American War led to the formation of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce (1783) and the growth of the West Indies trade. Cotton imports became significant, and Glasgow by 1850 had become a manufacturing city with a population of 345,000. Situated in a region rich in coal and iron, Glasgow became a major shipbuilding and engineering centre, the Clyde leading the world for tonnage launched and railway rolling stock and machinery produced. The 20th cent. witnessed the decline of heavy industries. Service industries gradually provided more employment, and consumer industries became more significant.

Glasgow Largest city and port in Scotland on the River Clyde, Strathclyde Region. Founded in the 6th century, it developed commercially with the American tobacco trade in the 18th century and the cotton trade in the 19th century. Nearby coalfields and the Clyde estuary promoted the growth of heavy industry, chiefly iron, steel and shipbuilding. Glasgow is a cultural centre, with three universities, the Glasgow School of Art, and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Industries: shipbuilding, heavy engineering, flour milling, brewing, textiles, tobacco, chemicals, textiles, printing. Pop. (2000) 609,370.

Glasgow city (1990 pop. 12,351), seat of Barren co., S central Ky.; inc. 1799. It is an agricultural trade center that relies on dairy, livestock, tobacco, timber, and light manufactured products. The area's oil and gas fields add to Glasgow's economy. The Spotswood home, built there in 1795 under the direction of George Washington for his niece, is still occupied. A state fish hatchery is nearby.

Glasgow, Jamaica, UK, USA UK (Scotland): originally Glasgu, the Gaelic name is Glaschu or Glascho ‘Green Hollow’ from glas ‘green’ and cau ‘hollow’.

Glasgow Glas. Glasgu 1136. ‘Green hollow’. British *glas- + *cau.

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