Scots.

A word sounding like /s3:r/ or similar is common in Scottish songs,
and seems to be an emphasising adjective. I wonder if any of our
knowledgeable listmembers could identify it for me?

It's such a struggle to identify a vowel from those IPA or Sampa
lists. I guess you need years of training to do it passably.

BTW, Scots seems to have escaped the diphthongisation that tore
gashes and slashes through the English vowels some time during the
last centuries. I do hear diphthongs, but it seems to be largely the
traditional Indoeuropean ones.

(I have been euphoric for a couple of weeks, since I found Ewan
MacColl's Classic Scots Ballads on iTunes.)

LEF

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