The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127559   Message #2847071
Posted By: BobKnight
22-Feb-10 - 05:45 PM
Thread Name: scots dialect/phrases
Subject: RE: scots dialect/phrases
Gowan - a daisy, same as cow, with "an" added.
Braid - same as raid, but with added "b."
Thocht - ch is soft like loch. A velar fricative if I remember correctly.
Heugh - gh is soft like loch. So, it's Hugh with a soft ch sound.
Fause - false ommiting the "L"
Wa's - just wall leaving out the "L." Watch the vowel - English people are inclined to make the "a" sound like an "o." More like "a" for apple.
Fa's - pronounced like wa's, but could mean falls, or in Aberdeen/shire "who is."
Shaws - could be a couple of things - a place, or the stalks of the potato plant.
Flowers, etc - pronounced floors, they all rhyme with floors.
Birks - birch trees
Die - dee
Cry - cry, but the old Scots word is "greet."
Riving - usually drop the "g." again a couple of things - pulling, tugging, or it could mean gnawing, or "worrying" at something.
Maun - depends, accents vary from place to place. Lowlanders would say "mawn." but in Aberdeen/shire we would say "mun."

The trick with Scots is not to RRRROll the r's. It's the vowel sounds. Scots use a lot more vowel sounds than the English, and less diphthongs = sliding vowels.