Fisher, Farmer, Teuchter, Chav: hyperlocal perceptions of North-East Scottish speech

From the outside, the North-East of Scotland may be perceived broadly as the home of ‘the Doric’. However, speak to those from within the region, and a complex picture of intraregional identities emerges. Inevitably, the ideologies surrounding these often go hand in hand with perceptions of linguistic variation. This chapter presents findings from a perceptual dialectology study of the region, with a focus on the importance of considering hyperlocality when interpreting results. Surveying 320 informants from across the region, the study uses an adapted version of Preston’s (1999) five-step methodology which includes mapping, place ranking, and speaker identification/evaluation tasks. The results of this process reveal several common ideas about linguistic variation in the region; however, when perceptions are examined at a more hyperlocal level, there is a considerable level of heterogeneity in the responses. This is interpreted through a lens of shifting local identity constructions and possible dialect attrition.