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Doric dialect (Scotland)
 
 
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Doric was formerly used to refer to all dialects of Lowland Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
  but is now usually used as a name for the dialect spoken in the north-east of Scotland.

Pronunciation and lexis
The main phonetic differences between Doric and other Lowland Scots dialects are as follows:



Doric contains a number of words not found in other dialects of Lowland Scots. Also, because it expanded into areas where Scottish Gaelic was formerly spoken, and the Eastern Highlands, it contains a few loanwords from that language, as well as Norse.






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Encyclopedia


Doric was formerly used to refer to all dialects of Lowland Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
  but is now usually used as a name for the dialect spoken in the north-east of Scotland.

Pronunciation and lexis


The main phonetic differences between Doric and other Lowland Scots dialects are as follows:

  • wh is pronounced instead of (ie, and have merged) — meaning "what" instead of , meaning "who" instead of or . In more anglicised areas such as Inverurie
    Inverurie

    Inverurie is a Royal Burgh in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately 16 miles north west of Aberdeen on the A96 road and lies on the Northern Express Railway Route from Aberdeen to Inverness....
     and Aberdeen
    Aberdeen

    Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous City status in the United Kingdom and one of Scotland's 32 Local government in Scotland Council areas of Scotland....
    , wh is often used .
  • aw, au and aa are pronounced instead of , — aw, a' or aa meaning "all".
  • An a before , , and may be or .
  • ui (often anglicised oo or dialectialised ee) is pronounced and after and e.g. abeen meaning above instead of abuin, gweed and qheet instead of guid ("good") and cuit ("ankle").
  • The cluster ane is pronounced , e.g. in ane and a(i)nce.
  • Initial and as in gnap and knowe are pronounced.
  • "Y" sounds often occur after certain initial consonants, e.g. "tyauve" for taw.


Doric contains a number of words not found in other dialects of Lowland Scots. Also, because it expanded into areas where Scottish Gaelic was formerly spoken, and the Eastern Highlands, it contains a few loanwords from that language, as well as Norse. Loanwords from Pictish
Pictish language

Pictish is a term used for the extinct language or languages thought to have been spoken by the Picts, the people of northern and central Scotland in the Early Middle Ages....
 are curiously absent, except within placenames, notably those beginning with "Pit-".

As with other parts of Scotland, the travelling folk maintained a distinct lexis of Doric, much of which is recorded in Stanley Robertson's stories.

Origin of the name

As The Oxford Companion to English Literature
The Oxford Companion to English Literature

The Oxford Companion to English Literature first published in 1932, edited by the retired diplomat Paul Harvey , was the earliest of the Oxford Companions to appear....
 explains:

"Since the Dorians were regarded as uncivilised by the Athenians
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, 'Doric' came to mean 'rustic' in English, and was applied particularly to the language of Northumbria
Northumbria

Northumbria is primarily the name of both a medieval petty kingdom of the Angles people, in what is now north east England and southern Scotland, and of the earldom which succeeded it when a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom became England....
 and the Lowlands of Scotland
Scottish Lowlands

The Scottish Lowlands , although not officially a geographical area of the country, in normal usage is generally meant to include those parts of Scotland not referred to as the Scottish Highlands , that is, everywhere due south and east of a line between Stonehaven and Helensburgh ....
 and also to the simplest of the three orders in architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
."


The term "Doric" was used to refer to all dialects of Lowland Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
 as a jocular
Joke

A joke is a short story or ironic depiction of a situation communicated with the intent of being humour. These jokes will normally have a punch line that will end the sentence to make it humorous....
 reference to the Doric
Doric Greek

Doric or Dorian was a ancient Greek dialects of ancient Greek Greek language. Its variants were spoken in the southern and eastern Peloponnese, Crete, Rhodes, some islands in the southern Aegean Sea, some cities on the coasts of Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, Epirus and Macedon....
 dialect of the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 language. Greek
Greeks

The Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in Greek diaspora communities around the world....
 Dorians lived in Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
 amongst other places, a more rural area, and were supposed by the ancient Greeks to have spoken laconically and in a language that was thought harsher in tone and more phonetically conservative than the Attic
Attic Greek

Attic Greek is the prestige dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Attica, which includes Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek, and is the standard form of the language studied in courses of "Ancient Greek"....
 spoken in Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
. Doric Greek was used for the verses spoken by the chorus
Greek chorus

The Greek chorus is a group of twelve or fifteen minor actors in tragedy and twenty-four in Ancient Greek comedy plays of classical Athens....
 in Greek tragedy
Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
.

Use of the term Doric in this context may also arise out of a contrast with the anglicised speech of the Scottish capital, because at one point, Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Edinburgh ; is the Capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish City status in the United Kingdom after Glasgow....
 was nicknamed 'Athens of the North'. The upper/middle class speech of Edinburgh would thus be 'Attic', making the rural areas' speech 'Doric'.

Doric literature


North east Scots has an extensive body of literature, mostly poetry, ballads and songs. During the Middle Scots
Middle Scots

Middle Scots describes the English languages of Scottish Lowlands in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 13th century its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English....
 period writing from the North-East of Scotland adhered to the literary conventions of the time. Indications of particular "Doric" pronunciations were very rare. The 18th century literary revival also brought forth writers from the North–East. Local dialect features were rare in the eighteenth century, the extant literary Scots conventions being preferred. In later times a more deliberately regional literature began to emerge.

In contemporary prose writing Doric occurs usually as quoted speech, although this is less and less the case. As is usually the case with marginalised languages, local loyalties prevail in the written form, showing how the variety "deviates" from standard ("British") English as opposed to a general literary Scots "norm". This shows itself in the local media presentation of the language e.g. Grampian Television
Grampian Television

Grampian Television is the ITV franchisee for the North and North East of Scotland. Its coverage area includes the Scottish Highlands , Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee and parts of north Fife....
 & The Aberdeen Press and Journal
Press and Journal (Scotland)

The Press and Journal, often called the P&J, is a daily regional newspaper serving the northern areas of Scotland including the cities of Aberdeen and Inverness....
. These local loyalties, waning knowledge of the older literary tradition, and relative distance from the Central Lowlands, ensure that the Doric scene has a degree of semi-autonomy.

Doric was used in a lot of so called, 'Kailyard' literature
Kailyard school

The Kailyard school of Scottish literature came into being at the end of the nineteenth century as a reaction against what was seen as increasingly coarse writing representing Scotland life complete with all its blemishes....
, a genre which paints a sentimental, melodramatic picture of the old rural life, and is currently very unfashionable. This negative association still plagues Doric literature to a degree, as well as Scottish literature in general.

The most famous novelist to use Doric in his novels was George MacDonald
George MacDonald

George MacDonald was a Scotland author, poet, and Christian minister.Though no longer well known, his works have inspired admiration in such notables as W....
 from Huntly, who is commonly considered one of the fathers of the Fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
 genre, an influence on C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist....
 and Tolkien, and a friend of Mark Twain
Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an United Statesmerican author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer....
.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon

Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell , a Scotland writer.Born and raised in Arbuthnott, Aberdeenshire, Mitchell started working as a journalist for the Aberdeen Journal and the Scottish Farmer at age 16....
's Scots Quair trilogy is set in the Mearns, and has been the basis of a successful play and television series. It is very popular throughout Scotland, and tells the story of Chrissie, an independent-minded woman, mainly in a form of English strongly influenced by the rhythms of local speech.

A version of Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop , a Slavery and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, especially beast fables involving Anthropomorphism animals....
 has been published in Doric, as well as some sections of the Bible.

The North East has been claimed as the "real home of the ballad" , and according to Les Wheeler, "91 out of a grand total of (Child's) 305 ballads came from the North East - in fact from Aberdeenshire", which makes the usual name of "Border Ballad" a misnomer put about by Sir Walter Scott.

Contemporary writers in Doric include Sheena Blackhall, a poet who writes in Doric and Scottish Gaelic, Mo Simpson, who writes in the Aberdeen Evening Express, and peppers her humour column with "Doricisms" and Doric words. The Doric has also featured on stage and television, notably in the sketches and songs of the Aberdeen-based comedy trio Scotland the What?
Scotland the What?

Scotland the What? were a Scotland comedy revue act comprising William "Buff" Hardie, Stephen Robertson and George Donald. The trio played to sell-out audiences from Bangkok to London and, of course, in their home city of Aberdeen where the members had first met as students at the University of Aberdeen....
.

For an example of Doric literature, see the poetry of Charles Murray
Charles Murray (poet)

Charles Murray was a poet who wrote in the Doric dialect of Scots language. He was born and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire in north east Scotland....
. Here is his short poem, Gin I was God:

Doric
GIN I was God, sittin' up there abeen,
Weariet nae doot noo a' my darg was deen,
Deaved wi' the harps an' hymns oonendin' ringin',
Tired o' the flockin' angels hairse wi' singin',
To some clood-edge I'd daunder furth an', feth,
Look ower an' watch hoo things were gyaun aneth.
Syne, gin I saw hoo men I'd made mysel'
Had startit in to pooshan, sheet an' fell,
To reive an' rape, an' fairly mak' a hell
O' my braw birlin' Earth,--a hale week's wark--
I'd cast my coat again, rowe up my sark,
An' or they'd time to lench a second ark,
Tak' back my word an' sen' anither spate,
Droon oot the hale hypothec, dicht the sklate,
Own my mistak', an, aince I cleared the brod,
Start a'thing ower again, gin I was God.
Translation
IF I were God, sitting up there above,
Wearied no doubt, now all my work was done,
Deafened by the harps and hymns unending ringing,
Tired of the flocking angels hoarse with singing,
To some cloud edge I'd saunter forth and, faith,
Look over and watch how things were going beneath.
Then if I saw how men, I'd made myself
Had started out to poison, shoot and fell,
To steal and rape and fairly make a hell
Of my fine spinning Earth -- a whole week's work --
I'd drop my coat again, roll up my shirt,
And, ere they'd time to launch a second ark,
Take back my word and send another flood,
Drown out the whole shebang, wipe the slate,
Admit my mistake, and once I'd cleared the board,
Start everything over again, if I were God.


Recent developments

2006 saw some interesting developments on the Doric front. Firstly, an Aberdeen hotel decided to use a Doric voice for their lift
Elevator

An elevator or lift is a vertical transport vehicle that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building. They are generally powered by electric motors that either drive traction cables and counterweight systems, or pump hydraulic fluid to raise a cylindrical piston....
. Phrases said by the lift include "Gyaun Up" [g??:n ?p] (Going up), "Gyaun Doun" [g??:n dun] (Going down), "atween fleers een an fower" [?'twin fli:rz in ?n 'f?ur] (between floors one and four) . Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Maureen Watt
Maureen Watt

Maureen Watt is a Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland since 2006.Born in Aberdeen to a farming family, she was a secondary school teacher in Social Studies in England and moved back to Scotland to work in the oil sector....
 of the SNP
Scottish National Party

The Scottish National Party is a centre-left List of Scottish political parties which campaigns for Scottish independence. In the last few decades, the SNP has normally polled the second highest number of votes for a Scottish political parties in Scotland....
 took her Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the Devolution national, Unicameralism legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh area of the capital Edinburgh....
ary oath in Doric. She said "I want to advance the cause of Doric and show there's a strong and important culture in the North East." . She was required to take an oath in English beforehand. There was some debate as to whether the oath was "gweed Doric" [gwid 'do:r?k] or not, and notably it is, to a certain extent, written phonetically and contains certain anglicised forms such as "I" rather than "A", and "and" instead of "an":

"I depone aat I wull be leal and bear ae full alleadgance tae her majesty Queen Elizabeth her airs an ony fa come aifter her anent the law. Sae help me God"


There is also some controversy over the use of "majesty" for a Scottish monarch.

Select vocabulary

The most distinctive, and common Doric phrase is - "Ay ay, fit like?" (Ay Ay, whit like? - "ay" is sometimes spelt aye) - "Hello, how are you?"

  • "Caumie doun!" - Calm down
  • "Causey Mounth" – the road over the "Mounth
    Mounth

    The Mounth is the range of hills on the southern edge of River Dee, Aberdeenshire in northeast Scotland. It was usually referred to with the article, i.e....
    " or Grampians
    Grampian Mountains

    Grampians or Grampian Mountains can mean:* The Grampian Mountains of Scotland* A common designation for the Grampian of Scotland* Grampians National Park, Australia...
  • "Claik" – the Doric dialect of Buchan
    Buchan

    Buchan is one of the six committee areas and administrative areas of Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. These areas were created by the council in 1996, when the Aberdeenshire Council areas of Scotland was created under the Local Government etc Act 1994....
     fishing villages
  • "Foggy bummer" – Bumblebee
    Bumblebee

    A bumblebee is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae; there are over 250 known species primarily occurring in the Northern Hemisphere....
  • "Fa? (wha?) Fit? (whit?) Fit wey? (whit wey?) Faur? (whaur) Fan?" (whan) - "Who? What? What way? Why? Where? When?"
  • "Far aboots?" (Whaur aboots?) – Whereabouts? (Aberdeen is nicknamed "Furry Boots City" from a humorous spelling of far aboots – furry boots.)
  • "Futret" (Whitrat) – Weasel
    Weasel

    Weasels are mammals in the genus Mustela of the Mustelidae family .Originally, the name "weasel" was applied to one species of the genus, the European form of the Least Weasel ....
     or other Mustelid, but commonly used for ferret
    Ferret

    The ferret is a Domestication mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually Sexual dimorphism predators with males being substantially larger than females....
     now
  • "Louns an quines" (louns an queans) – Lads and lassies, boys and girls. (NB "loun" or "loon" has no derogatory connotation in Doric)
  • "Min" – Man, as in "Ay ay, min".
  • "fou lang" (hou lang) - how long
  • "for a filie" (for a whilie) - for a long time
  • "gealt" - cold


  • "Fit like?" (Whit like): A greeting, essentially, "How are you doing?", to which the response is "Aye... tyauvin on." (Aye tawin on) "Fine, thanks"
  • "Fit?" (Whit): "What?"
  • "Fit ye deein?" (Whit ye daein?): "What are you doing?"
  • "Far div ye bide?" (Whaur div ye bide?): "Where do you live?"
  • "Fou's yer doos?" (Hou's yer dous?): Literally "How are your pigeons?", now used as "How are you?" A stock phrase, not so often used in speech as to send up Doric.
  • "Aye peckin" or "peckin awa": Literally "Always pecking." This is the reply to "Fou's yer doos?"
  • "Fit's adee?" (Whit's adae?): "What's wrong?"
  • "Gie's a bosie!": "Give me a hug!"
  • "A'm fair forfochen": "I am very tired."
  • The Broch - Fraserburgh
    Fraserburgh

    Fraserburgh is a town in Aberdeenshire , Scotland with a population recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2001 at 12,454. It lies at the extreme northeast corner of Aberdeenshire, around north of Aberdeen, and north of Peterhead....
     also Burghead
    Burghead

    Burghead is a small town in Moray, Scotland, United Kingdom about 8 miles.North-West of Elgin, Moray. The town is mainly built on a Peninsula which projects north-westward into the Moray Firth, meaning that most of the town has sea on 3 sides....
     near Elgin.
  • "A'm fair dancin mad" - I am in a towering rage.
  • "A'll hae an ingan ane an aw." - I'll have an onion one as well.


See also

  • Ulster Scots language
    Ulster Scots language

    Ulster Scots, also known as :Wiktionary:Ullans, generally refers to the varieties of Lowland Scots language spoken in parts of the province of Ulster in the north of Ireland....
    .
  • Shetlandic
    Shetlandic

    Shetlandic is a dialect of Insular Scots spoken in the Shetland Islands, north of mainland Scotland. It is derived from Northern Scots language with a degree of Scandinavian influence from the Norn language, which is an extinct North Germanic language....


External links

, and compare with other accents from the UK and around the World.