Town Of Tain In The Scottish Highlands?

Question

Hi i recently met a man from Tain in the scottish highlands and i noticed he had a Geordie sounding accent why is this? do the population of Tain have a geordie sounding accent? and if so why?

thanks

Answer 1

People from this area do indeed have a very unique accent which has no relation to the "Scots tongue" spoken in the rest of Scotland outside the Highlands.
Traditionally the Gaelic language would have been spoken here, but that was before 1746. With the defeat of the Jacobite's that year the population was forced to speak English by the British authorities. Sadly failure to do so often resulted in their deaths.
Hence speaking English in the Highlands is still relatively new and it has consistently been muted that the the people who speak the purest form of English in the U.K. are from the Inverness area.
However the accent is not a familiar one to the majority of people in the UK unless they have visited the area. Many have likened it to an Irish accent, but I have never heard of it been mistaken for a Geordie one.
Please visit this stunningly scenic area and find out for yourselves.

Answer 2

Tain is in the Scottish Highlands north of Inverness. People born and raised in this area will have a very pronounced Scottish accent. Perhaps your friend was originally from Tyneside, home of the Geordie accent, or maybe that's where his parents are from and he's developed his accent from them.