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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