Rhoticity

The retention of underlying post-vocalic /r/ means that in comparison to many other English accents, Scottish English in general does not show phonemic centring diphthongs in words such as near, hair. However, the selection and realization of vowels before /r/ varies considerably. In Scottish Standard English, in words such as fir, fern and fur, some speakers will show one vowel /I/ or , others two , and still others all three . It is also possible to hear the realization [ə] in some types of ScStE (Johnston 1997: 470). There are also differences in the back vowel used before /r/ in NORTH and FORCE. In Scots it is common to find vowel breaking in the form of epenthetic schwa emerging before /r/ (and /n, l/) after most high vowels (e.g. MEET, MATE, COAT).