The Doric

[skauwt]

That hurts my head just trying to read. I can manage to make out most of it if I take my time, but a some of it is just beyond me. I'm sure it'd make more sense if I'd been to/lived in Scotland at some point.

-Elliott

well your not the only one reading Doric and listening to Doric is completely different id imagine most Scots have bother reading Scots for example ,its a shame kids are taught mostly English these days if you'd have said "wan" at school instead of "one" you would either get a wrap on the knuckles or essay to write out anyone who tries to correct my native tongue gets a earful and a statement of which country i actually live in

[heilanner]

well your not the only one reading Doric and listening to Doric is completely different id imagine most Scots have bother reading Scots for example ,its a shame kids are taught mostly English these days if you'd have said "wan" at school instead of "one" you would either get a wrap on the knuckles or essay to write out anyone who tries to correct my native tongue gets a earful and a statement of which country i actually live in

that's so true. we were told off for speaking Doric in class. we had to speak and write in English at all times (unless we were in German class).

[skauwt]

cheers for the link ,
a few years ago my misses was asked directions from a Doric speaker (shes from Ireland ) and the look on her face was priceless she thought the guy was Norwegian or from some Nordic country, when i interrupted and started chatting away with the old guy and told him what he wanted to know she just looked at me as if id kept some secret that i could speak a foreign language from her
a day ill never forget

[Phil]

It always take me a little while to tune into "the Doric" although it is principally an accent and pronunciation thing. Going in Scots is "Gan" down in Dumfries-shire and Newcastle, in Aberdeen it is "gang" in Glasgow it is "gaun" - all variations in accent. There are always regional words specific to an area but, generally, the language is the same. Ulster Scots, for instance has the word "kaleeried" meaning scatter-brained which doesn't exist in Scots but it also has many other Scots words that are the same. If you ask an Aberdonian the way to somewhere he may well say "gang stracht on" (go straight on) which is pure Scots just pronounced differently from other areas.

[heilanner]

...If you ask an Aberdonian the way to somewhere he may well say "gang stracht on" (go straight on) which is pure Scots just pronounced differently from other areas.

really? hmm, i always thought we said, "haud gaan", but i guess "ging straicht on" would do just as well. "Ging straicht on" really is just "go straight on" in an accent though. "Haud gaan", which is the real answer you'd get from a Doric speaker, is not.

[gilmore]

Thanks for the article link! I went to school in Aberdeen and there was one particular coffee shop I loved to go to because the two ladies who worked there would converse loudly in Doric and I could eavesdrop and try to figure out what they were saying. I think a lot of folks here aren't aware of teh difference between Doric and the Lowland Scots dialects (though several of my linguistics professors disputed that they were actually not mutually intelligible with English and therefore could be classed as seperate languges). Anyway, it's always nice to have a native dialect-speaker to set 'em straight.

Diane

It is said that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy.

[heilanner]

the dialect/language debate rages on. personally, although i say it's a dialect in the description, i did just copy that from a book, i fall on the side of language. dialect to me means variations on pronuciation which Doric does have (eg: There's no way = 'ers nae wye) but Doric also has words and phrases which don't appear in other languages (eg: I'm very tired = Am fair forfochen).

[Rob Wright]

So Doric is a dialect of Scots, My grammar professor and I had some good discussions about language versus dialect when I took my Practicum of Grammar course.

Rob

[heilanner]

i'd say Doric and Scots are both languages in their own right. similar, but distinct.

[unaspenser]

I'd actually say that Doric and Scots are either

1) Dialects of English

or

2) Pidgin languages derived from English, Gaelic, Norse languages, etc.

The definition I'd always been given was that dialects are mutually intelligible (i.e. an American can go to Scotland and understand what Scots are saying)... I think it's pretty convincingly a seperate language with Doric... I know there are Doric words I wouldn't get at all if I hadn't been told what they mean.