Hmm... I think that to continue this conversation profitably we'd need to to use the linguistic symbols..

When I write "kurstee" as a pronunciation note - I mean the "u" to be like the "u" in mud, bud, dud, that is: short "u" - not "meurd" meud, mood ANd as for "kearstie" being standard scots pronunciation - I can only assure you that we don't hear it that way, altho' maybe that's what you hear when we speak.

This is fun in't it? Or not as the case may be

Cheers

Steven