Читать книгу Collins Scottish Words: A wee guide to the Scottish language - John Abernethy - Страница 10

Sometimes people come to Scotland expecting everyone to speak exclusively in broad Scots, rolling their r’s as if their lives depended on it and havering on about ‘a braw bricht moonlicht nicht’. Many Scots do have distinctive accents, and there are many local variations in both pronunciation and vocabulary. However, there are plenty of Scottish natives who don’t speak broad Scots – indeed it used to be said that well-educated citizens of Inverness spoke the clearest form of English in Britain! – but many of them might be surprised to learn that when they think they are speaking standard English their vocabulary may be peppered with Scotticisms that would puzzle an English speaker from elsewhere. Take, for example, the following sentence, which might conceivably be spoken by a Scot: If we can’t uplift the brambles outwith office hours, I doubt they’ll spoil.

This doesn’t fit in with the general idea of broad Scots, and yet there are several words here that could confuse an English person, who, attempting to convey the same meaning, would be more likely to say: If we can’t pick up the blackberries outside office hours, I believe they’ll spoil.

Similarly, a Scot being inoculated will have a jag, not a jab; go for the messages, not do the shopping; eat jeely pieces, not jam sandwiches; and wait for a bus or taxi at a stance, not a stand.

bumfle noun a wrinkle, crease, or fold in something: Wait till I press the bumfles oot that shirt. | verb to put wrinkles or creases in something: My skirt had got all bumfled up at the back. [from earlier Scots bumph meaning a lump or bump]

burn noun a stream or brook: Is there fish in that burn?

burny adjective extremely hot: Use a cloth tae hold that dish; it’s burny.

buroo (pronounced buh-roo or broo) or broo noun the dole, or the office where people sign on for their dole money: Has your buroo money come through yet?; He’s been on the broo for years. [from Employment Bureau, a former name for a Jobcentre]

but-and-ben (pronounced but-and-ben) noun an old-fashioned rural cottage consisting of two rooms, usually a kitchen and living room: They’re renting out the but-and-ben as a holiday cottage.

buttery or buttery rowie noun spoken in Aberdeen a type of crumbly, butter-rich, bread roll: Two cups of coffee and a couple of butteries, please.

byke or bike (pronounced bike) noun a wasps’ nest: We had a wasps’ byke in the attic last autumn.

byordinar (pronounced bie-or-dinar) adjective, adverb unusual or exceptionally: a maist byordinar day; It’s byordinar cauld for May. [from by in the sense beyond, plus ordinar ordinary]

byre (pronounced bire) noun a shed or stable where cows are kept: The kye are in the byre.

cailleach (pronounced kayl-yaCH or kal-yaCH) noun spoken in North & West an old woman: My memory of her is of a vague chain-smoking cailleach in eccentric garb and heavy henna. [Gaelic]

caller (pronounced kal-er) adjective fresh, especially referring to fish, fruit, or vegetables: caller herring

camstairy (pronounced kam-stair-ee) or camsteerie (pronounced kam-stee-ree) adjective quarrelsome, stubborn, or unruly: Let the camstairy auld deil dae whit he likes.

cantrip noun 1 a spell or magic charm: By some devilish cantrip slight, each in its cold hand held a light. (BURNS) 2 a playful trick: The bairns wouldnae be playin such cantrips if their faither was in the hoose.

carnaptious (pronounced kar-nap-shuss) adjective grumpy, bad-tempered, or irritable: She’s a carnaptious auld biddy! [from knap bite]

caul (pronounced kawl) noun spoken in South a weir or a dam: A broken branch was stuck at the caul.

causey (pronounced kaw-zi) noun 1 a cobbled street, road, or way: That causey’s awful slippy when it’s rainin. 2 a cobble or paving stone: She’s a lump on her heid the size o’ a causey.

ceud míle fáilte (pronounced kee-ut mee-luh fah-il-tya) interjection a hundred thousand welcomes: He couldnae spell ‘ceud míle fáilte’ so he just wrote ‘Hiya!’ [Gaelic]

This greeting is often seen on place-name signs for towns, as if one, genuinely warm, welcome were not enough for anybody.

champit tatties plural noun mashed potatoes, one of the traditional accompaniments to haggis, along with bashit neeps, in a Burns Supper

chauve or tyauve (pronounced chawv) spoken in Northeast verb to struggle, strive, or work hard, often with little to show for one’s exertions: Still chauvin awa? | noun a struggle: It’s a sair chauve for a half loaf.

chookie or chookie birdie noun a bird: Hear that wee chookie singin? That’s a blackbird.

chuckie or chuckie stane noun a stone or pebble of throwable size: throwing chuckies in the water

clabber or glabber noun spoken in Southwest mud, earth, or clay: Ma trainers are still aw clabber fae T in the Park. [Gaelic clàbar meaning mud or a puddle]

clachan (pronounced klaCH-an) noun a small village or hamlet: He was born in a wee clachan in Argyll. [Gaelic, meaning stone]

This word was originally used only of Highland villages, but its use is now more widespread.

clack (pronounced klak) or claick (pronounced klayk) spoken in Northeast noun gossip or chat: Never heed their daft clack. | verb to gossip or chat: How about some graftin, instead of clackin away like a pair o’ sweetiewives? [probably from one of its original meanings: the clattering sound of a mill in operation]

claes (pronounced klayz) plural noun clothes: Hing on till Ah get some claes on. The saying back to auld claes and porridge means a return to normality after a period of jollity, celebration, or indulgence: After Hogmanay it’s back to auld claes and porridge for us.

clanjamfrie (pronounced klan-jam-free) or clamjamfrie (pronounced klam-jam-free) noun 1 a group of people, usually used to dismiss them as a rabble: There’s naebody wi’ any sense in the hale clanjamfrie! 2 a varied assortment of things; a mixed bag: the clamjamfrie of tenements, courtyards and closes which forms Edinburgh’s Old Town

clapshot noun a dish of boiled potatoes and turnips which have been mashed together in roughly equal quantities: Lunch is fillets of cod served with clapshot, roasted peppers, and chilli oil.

cleg or clegg noun a horse-fly with a painful bite: Once ye’ve been but wi’ a cleg, ye’re no feart o’ midgies. [Old Norse klegge]

clipshears or clipshear noun an earwig: There was hundreds of clipshears and slaters under the flowerpot when she lifted it. [from the resemblance of the pincers at the tip of the creature’s abdomen to shears]

clishmaclaver (pronounced klish-ma-clay-ver) noun gossip or incessant chatter: Ye should be ashamed o’yersel, repeatin clishmaclaver like yon! [a combination of two Scots words, clish to repeat gossip, and claver to talk idly]

cloot noun a piece of cloth or a cloth used as a duster, etc: Dicht roon the sink wi’ a cloot.

clootie dumpling (pronounced kloo-ti) noun a rich dark fruitcake served as a dessert, like a Christmas pudding. It is boiled or steamed in a cloot or cloth: Ma grannie used tae pit a sixpenny bit in the clootie dumplin for some lucky soul tae find.

cludgie (pronounced kluj-i) noun spoken in Central a toilet: A wee boy’s got locked in the cludgie. [perhaps a mixture of closet and ludge, a Scots form of lodge]

clype or clipe noun a person who tells tales or informs on his or her friends, colleagues, or schoolmates: Just you keep your mouth shut, ya wee clype! | verb to tell tales or inform on: We’d have been all right if she hadnae cliped on us tae the heidie. [related to Old English cleopian to call or name]

coggle verb to wobble, rock, or be unsteady: Tiger Woods’ ball coggled for a minute on the lip of the eighteenth hole.

coggly adjective shaky or unsteady: Find another table; this yin’s a wee bit coggly.

collieshangie (pronounced kol-ee-shang-gee) noun a loud and disorderly commotion or quarrel: What’s all this collieshangie out in the street? [the word used to mean a dogfight, so perhaps it comes from collie the breed of dog and shangie a chain or leash connecting two dogs]

connach (pronounced kon-naCH) verb spoken in Northeast 1 to spoil, in various different ways: The crop was clean connached by the weather; He connacht the fairm wi his drinkin; The thunder connacht the milk; It wis his mither at aye connacht him. 2 to tire out: The wee lad wis fair connached wi the lang walk. [perhaps from the old Gaelic conach, meaning a disease of cattle]

coorie or courie verb to nestle or snuggle: He cooried in to his mother’s side. [from the Scots coor meaning cower]

corbie noun a crow: twa corbies sittin on a wa’ [from Old French corbin]