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So, from time to time you see a Scots/Scottish word written down you'd never seen written down before, or suddenly hear a Scots word on radio or TV that you'd never heard broadcast before, your realise you'd only ever heard it word of mouth.

So it can feel strange out of context (which may have been a specific time and place).

And did you ever think it was spelt not how you thought it should, or pronounced not as you remembered?

Or when you look it up in the dictionary, the definition doesn't do it justice?

I'm thinking of words like footery, which (to me) somehow doesn't look as if it should be spelt that way. (Then there's fouterie, futtering, etc.)

Also "Complicated or awkward to do or use." seems not to capture it adequately, plus there's an element of negativity (as in "Stop fouttering!") 

Or bahookie, which I always assumed should be properly spelt bahoochie (like loch as opposed to lock). (Seems both spelling exist but the first seems more common?)

Or "redd up" which  I never even heard of till an adult then heard someone using it. To hear it suddenly on the radio was a surprise. Funnily the first popular dictionary entry I came across says it's chiefly Pennsylvania (!) but derived from Scottish settlers (and before that, Middle English).

Or the word wee-er (weeer?) so commonly spoken but I don't remember ever seeing it written down.

And what about Ah amn'tAh umnae, Um ur or Um urnae?

 

 

Edited by exile
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40 minutes ago, exile said:

.

Or the word wee-er (weeer?) so commonly spoken but I don't remember ever seeing it written down.

 

 

 

I was in a meeting once pondering this very thing, when the Manager asked what I was thinking, so I told him, and he just looked at me for like 5 seconds then went back to saying whatever it was before as if the whole exchange never happened.

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And in answer to exile.... the confusion you describe in your post annoys me. The fact that Scots isn't properly codified or taught as 'correct' means it ends up being relegated to 'slang'.

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43 minutes ago, Dave78 said:

And in answer to exile.... the confusion you describe in your post annoys me. The fact that Scots isn't properly codified or taught as 'correct' means it ends up being relegated to 'slang'.

Have a look at Norn Irn, Ulster Scots government docs great reading. http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/about-the-assembly/general-information/information-leaflets/ulster-scots/

As someone who hated 'English' as a subject at school and a monoglot  I'm fascinated by words.

Edited by Eisegerwind
Aditional.
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6 hours ago, Dave78 said:

Every language is just a dialect, with an army.

Just thought i'd throw that in there to preempt any Scots-haters.

I like that quote!

5 hours ago, Dave78 said:

And in answer to exile.... the confusion you describe in your post annoys me. The fact that Scots isn't properly codified or taught as 'correct' means it ends up being relegated to 'slang'.

This is interesting - teachers are being told (at least where I am) that there's an expectation on them to "model correct spoken English" at all times. I probably agree with this to a fair degree as my school has a massively high number of kids who either don't speak English regularly at home or have come to the town as migrants, refugees, etc. So we get a lot of missed determiners (a, the) & poor word choices. But the rest of it is things like using "in'tit", shun't it, dropping the 'h'; which I'd say easily 95% of the local population will routinely say/do. But we're told Ofsted would pick us up on it (I don't know if they would, but I know teachers, me included, have been picked up in observations for, in effect, speaking with too strong a Yorkshire accent).

I did have a bit of an issue with correcting a girl the other day, who said to me (in a strong Polish accent): "those boys were being horrible, they called us little ships".

Edited by Huddersfield
typo
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6 hours ago, Dave78 said:

And in answer to exile.... the confusion you describe in your post annoys me. The fact that Scots isn't properly codified or taught as 'correct' means it ends up being relegated to 'slang'.

There's a certain romanticism to the idea of some of those words and usages running wild and free, not pinned down by dictionaries and grammar police.

But then there's a danger that people who use language in a way not codified or recognised are looked down on a sort of linguistic second class citizens.

And that's apart from any political angle (it could apply to usage and dialects within Scotland for example).

Still it's amusing to think of somewhere a certain kind of Scots being taught officially, imagine your Polish or Japanese being asked to repeat after the teacher the correct form of "Um ur / Um urnae"   

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  • 3 weeks later...
13 minutes ago, exile said:

scoosh - that's another word - so you scoosh your plants with water in the hot weather... but have never seen it written down

And what about a scoosh case?

"scoosh" was a bottle of juice when I grew up..

 

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9 hours ago, antidote said:

Gutties. 

Trainers of their day. The other option were baseball boots. 

We would call them sannys. It was generic for all sports shoes, much like ginger was what you called any flavour of fizzy water. 

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3 minutes ago, bonzo said:

We would call them sannys. It was generic for all sports shoes, much like ginger was what you called any flavour of fizzy water. 

In multilingual Paisley they were called both.

But never plimsoles 🙂

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  • 2 years later...
On 6/30/2018 at 1:18 AM, exile said:

So, from time to time you see a Scots/Scottish word written down you'd never seen written down before, or suddenly hear a Scots word on radio or TV that you'd never heard broadcast before, your realise you'd only ever heard it word of mouth.

So it can feel strange out of context (which may have been a specific time and place).

And did you ever think it was spelt not how you thought it should, or pronounced not as you remembered?

Or when you look it up in the dictionary, the definition doesn't do it justice?

I'm thinking of words like footery, which (to me) somehow doesn't look as if it should be spelt that way. (Then there's fouterie, futtering, etc.)

Also "Complicated or awkward to do or use." seems not to capture it adequately, plus there's an element of negativity (as in "Stop fouttering!") 

Or bahookie, which I always assumed should be properly spelt bahoochie (like loch as opposed to lock). (Seems both spelling exist but the first seems more common?)

Or "redd up" which  I never even heard of till an adult then heard someone using it. To hear it suddenly on the radio was a surprise. Funnily the first popular dictionary entry I came across says it's chiefly Pennsylvania (!) but derived from Scottish settlers (and before that, Middle English).

Or the word wee-er (weeer?) so commonly spoken but I don't remember ever seeing it written down.

And what about Ah amn'tAh umnae, Um ur or Um urnae?

 

 

I was in a meeting last week and one of the guys said something was footery, our American colleagues were so confused. We struggled to define it but footery accurately described what we were discussing 😂

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17 minutes ago, wee_pammy_87 said:

I was in a meeting last week and one of the guys said something was footery, our American colleagues were so confused. We struggled to define it but footery accurately described what we were discussing 😂

I guess there are different angles on it. A footery job is one that may be intircate or demand patience and maybe skill, maybe disproportionate effort. But footering [about] implies something more definitely negative, like frittering energy/time disproportionately on some finnicky but possibly fruitless activity, maybe generating more heat than light. Or could mean fannying around?

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Home-schooling at the start of the week was all Scots words (Burns week). The wee man had to spell the Scots words then write in English what he thought they meant. 
40 words but there was two that I hadn’t heard of in my puff - ‘gleg’, meaning quick/fast and ‘blithe’ meaning glad/cheerful 🤷🏻‍♂️

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22 minutes ago, McTeeko said:

Home-schooling at the start of the week was all Scots words (Burns week). The wee man had to spell the Scots words then write in English what he thought they meant. 
40 words but there was two that I hadn’t heard of in my puff - ‘gleg’, meaning quick/fast and ‘blithe’ meaning glad/cheerful 🤷🏻‍♂️

Blithe may be best known from this nursery rhyme(?)

Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
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17 minutes ago, exile said:

Blithe may be best known from this nursery rhyme(?)

Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

Aye probably 👍🏼

No doubt that’s banned now for that last word, or the last line has been changed.

I think folk will say a homosexual baby being born on God’s day isn’t the right thing to say these days 😏

Edited by McTeeko
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2 hours ago, McTeeko said:

Aye probably 👍🏼

No doubt that’s banned now for that last word, or the last line has been changed.

I think folk will say a homosexual baby being born on God’s day isn’t the right thing to say these days 😏

That baby looks a bit River Tay is probably fine. 

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