Scottish Words

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graham56

Guru
When I was 15 we moved to Newcastle. At school, a kid looked out of the window of the Portakabin classroom and said to me: "Howway fer the gaffer gannin doon the clarty lonnen!"

If you read Eric Newby's The Last Grain Race, he reports some of the speech of his Scandinavian shipmates, which sounds remarkably like Geordie to someone like me who lived in the NE for several years.


That doesn't make sense.
 

PaulB

Legendary Member
Location
Colne
A lady with somewhat loose morals is oft referred to as a 'wee hing oot', which I love the sound of.
 

soulful dog

Veteran
Location
Glasgow
I'm Scottish and don't know half of these words/phrases...

My favourite is numpty (idiot) which gets used a lot in conversation :rolleyes:

Words I like but don't really use are fankle (mess or confusion, 'don't get yerself in a fankle') and haver (talk nonsense, 'ach yer havering').
 
There is a Scottish habit in the West Coast (Ayr) of asking "Is that you?" meaning "Are you finished"


When talking to a female this becomes "Is that you, Hen?"

A friend of ours has a french girlfriend who hates this expression as in the French vernacular a Hen is a lady of negotiable virtue... not something yoi want to be called regularly
 
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