>>>>My dialect of English doesn't have that x sound.
>>>
>>>No dialect of English has that sound.
>>>
>>
>>I'm no linguist, but I thought Scots used it (as in "loch").
>
>
> Point. I'm no linguist either, but I thought that was an isolated
> borrowing, like "Bach". Do Scots have any *other* words with that
> sound?
Good question. I haven't a clue.
But my instincts tell me that if it were really an isolated
word, it would have gone to the "lock" pronunciation long, long ago.
Scotland has three languages: Scots Gaelic (a Celtic cousin of Irish
Gaelic), Scots or Scots English (a cousin of England English), and
England English. Scots is a separate language because it didn't undergo
the melding of Anglo-Saxon tongues that occurred in England (7th - 14th
c.). When England & Scotland merged in 1707, England English became
the standard up north. Anyway, "loch" is a Scots word, and Scots has
~/nixt/ for "night" and others. But the England English with a thick
Scottish accent still doesn't seem to have the /x/ sound. -- I lived in
the capital for a little while & didn't hear much Scots & no
Gaelic. They broadcast in Gaelic, but Scots I dunno. Google knows, as
does the BBC.