gordi – trying to work out what I’ve said to evoke that response (I’m from Aberdeen and am not a big man).

dd – fair comment but stop getting personal twit

I am seriously worried though. I have to spend from Wednesday evening till Sunday in Scotland. Nobody told me I was going to need a phrasebook. Has the Department for Development of the Scots (accented English) Language produced a dictionary? Is it in google translations? Babelfish?

Haud yer whisht
Awa an bile yer heid

(well thats an assimilated scots ( nglishmans 🙂 ) attempt at a bit of lallans

DD – there is a translator here under scots online dictionary
http://www.scots-online.org/

Found the following ‘translations’ for fool:
“bawheid, bletherskite, cuif, daftie, fuil, gaupus, gawk, glaik, gomerel, gowk, gumf, gype, ouf

I love the way it comes up as “javascript : openwindae()

DD – there is a translator here under scots online dictionary

That’s a massive relief TeeJ. Thanks for that

Sorry to hijack, when you up Steve? I’m up myself one weekend in October, unsure which yet. Going to do a little exploratory riding around Kerrysdale if it’s not too soft.

We’re up the week of the 18th. Not sure which bike I’m taking yet – might just take the roadrat and do some cycling on the roads out to Melvaig, Red-Point and along the side of Loch Ewe. SWMBO and my son are coming, as well as one of my sons friends so not sure how much option there will be for proper off-roading. Last time we used some of the tracks inland from Poolewe.

If I do get time for a bit of MTBing by myself where would you recommend?

As a linguist once said – “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy” – and the Scots have neither.

user removed ah am feeling glaikit

As a linguist once said – “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy” – and the Scots have neither.

That linguist was a choob! Gaelic is a language as is Welsh. Besides, countries only get themselves an army when they can’t sort things out themselves with some shootin, sweerin, fechtin an a wee Glesgae kiss for good measure.

Nobody told me I was going to need a phrasebook.

Its available in all good tea towel shops

During my time working in Scandinavia, I noticed that a lot of words in their language are similar to old Scots words and phrases but different from the proper English eg Doo – pidgeon, Barn – Bairn etc there’s quite a lot. I always put it down to the sea trading and Viking influence.
Of course, I could just be talking sh*te

Loads of Swedish words are like English words but obscurely related. For instance, fire = brand. Think brand as in cattle, or a flaming branch used as a torch etc. Lots more examples but I forget.

It’s Viking influence but also remember that Vikings and Danes are similar, and whilst they were spreading into the British Isles they were also spreading around Scandinavia and Northern Germany to later come to the UK – so some stuff came here second hand via Sweden, Denmark and Germany etc.

Scots is a resilient language which endures in the way people speak and write, all over Scotland, to this day. it has avoided being subsumed completely by a culturally more powerful neighbour. It co-exists with English. Its rhythms and pronunciations are more akin to the northern European languages of Germany and Scandinavia than standard English-English. It doesn’t need any official recognition and it doesn’t need to be placed on life-support by the state in the way that Gaelic (and possibly Welsh?) have been because the number of speakers of it hasn’t fallen below critical mass. There are different words for common, everyday things, in constant use.

It’s probably as distinct from English as Gallego or Catalan are from Castillian Spanish – it just doesn’t have the road signs and letterheads to prove it.

I feel the same way about Gaelic … even though it’s never been the language used in my part of the country.

Er – I suspect that it was before our Anglo-Saxon friends arrived on these shores!

Loads of examples of Scandinavian languages having words similar to English, and also I half remember something about a counting system used by Lake District shepherds which is based on 20’s, same as Danish numbers.

Just watched those youtube links – pretty funny. 😆

Still not convinced it’s a real language though. 😀

DrJ – ‘yan tan tethera’ etc

Loads of the names of places in the Lakes have norse routes – stuff like mere, gyll, fell etc

<i>Not really “Scots”, but an illustration of the dangers of English editors failing to grasp the nuances of accent and dialect (Weegie content…NSFW)</i>

I wondered whether I’d heard that right when it was on air. I had.

Andy

http://www.scotslanguage.com/

There are different words for common, everyday things, in constant use.

That’s nothing special tho. Same in Yorkshire, the West Country, and pretty much everywhere else. Especially before say the 50s.

My Dad tells an anecdote about his first day at a colliery in Yorkshire. “A tha lakin bladders?” he was asked one lunch break.

DrJ – ‘yan tan tethera’ etc

Ade Edmonson and the Bad Shepherd’s album name. They are awesome by the way. Go see them if you like punk done in a folk stylee.