Page "Hawick" Paragraph 15

Many Hawick residents speak the local dialect of Border Scots which is informally known as " Teri Talk ".

It is similar ( but not identical by any means ) to the dialects spoken in surrounding towns, especially Jedburgh, Langholm and Selkirk.

The speech of this general area was described in Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland ( 1873 ) by James Murray, considered the first systematic study of any dialect.

The Hawick tongue retains many elements of Old English, together with particular vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

Its distinctiveness arose from the relative isolation of the town.