Some Hints About Scots Language Pronunciation

Scots has a distinct vocabularybut has been heavily influenced by the French, Gaelic and Norse. The following notes will help with general pronunciation and grammar.

  • In Scots, there is no 'ing' verb ending.There are several different endings, '-in', '-an' being most common.
  • 'ou' is always pronounced 'oo' without exception. This is a common mistake made by English speakers. Therefore, 'flouer' is pronounced as 'floo-er', 'out' as 'oot' etc.
  • But what about the 'oo' particle? It is pronounced as 'in'; thus 'moon'is pronounced 'min' and 'aboon' (above) is pronounced 'a-bin'.
  • The first personal pronoun ('I' in English) in Scots is 'A' and is pronounced 'ah'.
  • There is no 'all' sound in Scots. Where words have a common root with English, the Scots equivalent of the English 'all' is 'ah' as in 'fall' / 'fah'; 'call' / 'cah'; 'all' / 'ah' etc. In Lothian Scots, this 'ah' is a broad, open sound, like the 'aw' in 'yawn'. In other dialects it's pronounced like the 'a' in 'car' but a little longer and broader, closer to the German 'a' as in 'ja'.
  • Few Scots verbs end in the classic English vowel-consonent-'e' . Where the word is common to Scots and English, the Scots will not have an 'e' on the end - 'make' / 'mak'; 'came' / 'cam' etc

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