What Sort of Patter's that?

Glasgow

I think when you come to Glasgow, you get a strong sense of its hard working roots and industrial back ground- the people have a bit of grit and one hell of a sense of humour. People in Glasgow are happy. Life might be shite, but at least they’re happy. With this, comes patter. Patter is a harsher, personalised version of banter that typically involves the critique of friends. For example: ‘awrite ya bawbag’ is actually quite a friendly greeting in Glasgow, despite referring to one another as the case of a scrotum. This friendly attitude, moreover, is particularly familiar with the people of Glasgow. Whether you're speaking to a taxi driver or a jakey, you'll always be treated as a mate- the only thing that changes in these scenarios is who is picking who up.

What you have to get is that everything is taken with a pinch of salt in Scotland's biggest city. Some of the most serious ‘slaggings’ are actually signs of affection to close friends and therefore you have to know to be involved. If you know-you know. Yet, difficulty is faced when people are unfamiliar with the humorous concept of patter. For example, if a weegie was to call an International student a 'muppet' they might take it to heart. This is understandable though - you do get blokes that go all Frankie Boyle on poor wee guys.

I always feel slightly awkward using the phrase 'weegie'. People from Glasgow don't typically refer to themselves as weegies.

As I have done previously, here are some of the words or phrases commonly used in Glasgow:

lit at
The pace of the Glaswegian tongue forces many to transform ‘like that’ into ‘lit at’ when they’re referring to a previous conversation. This is often overused and you here ‘lit at’ at the start of every sentence.

but
the use of but at the end of a sentence. i.e. I only had 3 pints BUT. Sometimes this isn’t even used as a conjunction word as it has become so frequent to the native tongue that many use it to verbalize punctuation.

waen
a child. Most commonly used in the phrase 'she's turned the waens against us'.

wan
how a Glaswegian pronounces 1

using no instead of not
i.e he's no happy

mad wae it
to be drunk

wee hawf
A vodka or spirit. Going for a 'wee hawf' usually ends up in 6 or 7 full pints and a half bottle.


do you want some ginger?
I have never heard anyone say this. Irn Bru is Ginger, yes,  but it is more commonly called Irn Bru. I think this question would be more likely used by a red haired geezer on a Saturday night.


I think social media contributes largely to the patter ideology. People like doing and seeing things that are funny. Having a laugh is what Scottish people, particularly in Glasgow, strive for and this is an excellent mind set to have. There are numerous funny videos involving Glaswegian patter but this has to be my favourite.




The next post will be my final one in the Capital.