Category: Scots (Scots leid)

Shoogle

By Simon

One interesting word I’ve heard people using in Shetland is shoogle [ʃogl; ʃugl; ʃʌgl; ʃʌugl], which means;

– to sway, move unsteadily, to rock, wobble, swing;
– to shake, joggle, to cause to totter or rock, to swing backwards and forwards;
– to jog along, move with little unsteady jerks; to shuffle in walking

It is also written shogle, schogle, shooggle, shougle, shuggle and shochle, and comes from the word shog (jolt, shake), from the Middle English shoggen, shaggen [source].

A related word is shoogly, which means wobbly.

Here are a few examples of usage (from the Dictionary of the Scots Language):

– It’s a bit rusty but it still works – you just have to give the key a bit of a shoogle in the lock.

– Gie the salad dressin a shoogle tae mix it right.

– It was gey shoggly and sometimes I fell off.

– Will I hae to shoogle hands wi’ a’ that crood?

I just like the sound of this word.

Staying, stopping and living

By Simon

I noticed recently that in Scottish English and Scots people use the word stay to mean that you live in a place, i.e. that you live there on a permanent or long-term basis.

When I hear this I usually know what is meant from the context, but it can be ambiguous at times, as to me a stay usually a short-term thing, such as holiday. I would use live to indicate a long-term stay – e.g. I live in Bangor, but am currently staying with a friend in Lerwick in Shetland.

According to the Online Scots Dictionary, stey [stəi] means “To stay, to remain, tarry. To dwell, reside permanently, to make one’s home.”

Related words include:
– bide [bəid] = to dwell, reside, wait, stay, await, stay for, remain
– stap [stap] = to live or stay at an address (among many other meanings)
– wone [wɔn, wɪn] = to dwell, live, stay habitually. To accustom oneself to, be reconciled to.

I can’t find an equivalent Scots words for a short-term stay, though I think bide is used in this context, particularly in Shetland.

In other varieties of English and in other languages is there a distinction between a short-term stay and a long-term one?

Cromarty fisher dialect

By Simon

According to a report I found today in the Herald Scotland, the last fluent speaker of the Cromarty fisher dialect of Scots, Bobby Hogg, died recently. It was a dialect spoken by fisherfolk in the northeast of Scotland. According to experts, it was “the first ever linguistic demise to be so exactly recorded in Scotland.” While there are still a few people who know bits of the dialect, nobody speaks it anymore.

There are some recordings and examples of the dialect on Am Baile an interview from 2007 with Bobby Hogg and his brother Gordon.

There is a book, The Cromarty Fisherfolk Dialect, which contains words and phrases in and information about the dialect.

Here are a few examples:
– At wid be scekan tiln ken? = What do you want to know?
– Am fair sconfished wi hayreen; gie’s fur brakwast lashins o am and heggs. = I’m so fed up with herring, give me plenty of ham and eggs for breakfast.
– Foamin for want = Desperate for tea
– Theer nae tae big fi a sclaffert yet! = You’re not too big for a slap!

The dialect appears to include a number of words from Scottish Gaelic, though the spelling disguises them.

Cuddies

By Simon

An interesting Scots word I came across this week was cuddy which means coalfish or donkey and featured in the English translation of a Gaelic song. From the context I knew it was some kind of creature, but which one I wasn’t sure.

According to the Scots Language Centre website cuddy is a Scots word meaning donkey, a foolish person, a saw horse or a vaulting horse. A Scotch cuddy is a pedlar.

Another word that came up that was new to me was gaberlunzie /ɡæbərˈlʌnji/, an old Scots word for a licensed beggar who would seek fees to pray for the souls of other people [source].

Have you come across these words before?

Scottish adventures

By Simon

I’ve been in Scotland since last Saturday, mainly at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye. I’m doing a course in Gaelic mouth music (puirt à beul) and waulking songs (òrain luaidh) with Christine Primrose, and am having a wonderful time.

There are eight of us in the singing class – some from Scotland, some from England, one from Japan and one from Sardinia. The ones from Japan and Sardinia are both professional singers, and earlier today we were treated to some lovely songs from Okinawa, which sound quite similar to Irish traditional songs.

I’ve been speaking quite a bit of Scottish Gaelic, and find that I can now understand most of what I hear in Gaelic and have relatively complex conversations – so my Gaelic has improved a lot since I was last here four years ago. When I don’t know how to say something in Scottish Gaelic I try saying it in Irish and it’s usually understood, though not always.

I’ve also spoken some French, German, Czech and Welsh here, and quite a bit of Japanese. My Japanese is very rusty, but it’s starting to come back. It’s great to have opportunities to speak so many languages 🙂

Stookies, stucco and stalks

By Simon

I heard the word stookie on the radio the other day as was mystyfied as the it’s meaning – the context didn’t help. Forunately the person who mentioned it explained that it’s a Scottish word for plaster cast – the kind of thing you might have on a limb if you facture a bone. It’s also mention in this story on the BBC News site.

The Urban Dictionary provides this example of usage, Gonnae let me right a menshie oan yer stookie? (Are you going to let me write graffiti on your plaster cast?).

Wikitionary defines stookie as: plaster of Paris; plaster cast; (dialect) idiot; (dialect) shy person, and it apparently comes from stucco plus the diminutive suffix -ie.

Stucco comes from Italian, and means “stucco or plaster”, which comes from the Lombardic *stucki (crust, fragment, piece), from the Proto-Germanic *stukjan, *stukjaz, *stukō, *stūkō (stick, beam, stump), from the Proto-Indo-European *stAug- (stalk).

To me a stookie sounds like a more friendly thing to have on your arm or leg than a plaster cast, which is also known as a orthopedic or surgical cast. What do you think?

Stooshie

By Simon

Stooshie [ˈstɑʃi, ˈstɪʃi, ˈstʌʃi] is a Scots word I came across recently that means an uproar, a commotion, a fuss, a row, a brawl, a fight, a fuss, commotion or to-do. It is often crops up in relation to protests and complaints – people might create a stooshie about something they don’t like or which displeases them.

The Online Scots Dictionary spells this word stishie [‘stɪʃi, ‘stʌʃi, ‘staʃi] or strushie [‘strʌʃi, ‘struʃi] and defines it as “an uproar, hubbub, disturbance, commotion, turmoil, quarrel, brawl, row. A frolic, banter.” When used as a verb it means “to engage in a frolic, to banter, bandy words.” and the past participle is stishit or stishied.

The Dictionary of the Scots Language / Dictionar o the Scots Leid spells this word stashie, stashy, stachie; stushie, steeshie, steishie and stishie and defines it as “an uproar, hubbub, disturbance, commotion, turmoil, quarrel, brawl, row”.

Some examples include:

– Mony an aukward stashie was he in. (Many an awkward stashie was he in)
– The hail toun’s been in a stushie about it. (The whole town’s been in a stushie about it)
– There was a great stishie gaen on ower the road. (There was a great stishie going on over the road)
– Michty me, sic a muckle stushie at the clamjamphry in Embra! (Good heavens, such a mighty fuss at the gathering in Edinburgh!)

The origins of this word are uncertain, though it has been suggested that it might be a version of the English word ecstasy. Then again it might be related to the word stoush, which is used on Australia and New Zealand to mean fight or quarrel and is of uncertain origin.

Related words include:
– stramash [strɑˈmɑʃ] – an uproar, commotion, hubbub, disturbance, a broil, squabble, row; to shatter, to smash to pieces.
– collieshangie [kɔlɪ̜ˈʃɑŋi] – a noisy dispute, an uproar, row, disturbance

Sources
http://heritage.caledonianmercury.com/2011/03/04/useful-scots-word-stooshie/001942
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/stooshie/
http://www.scots-online.org/dictionary/search.asp
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/
http://www.newstatesman.com/200104160022

Come-all-ye

By Simon

Last night I went to a fascinating talk by Cass Meurig about the history of the crwth (a type of medieval bowed lyre) and its place in Welsh music and tradition, which included songs in Welsh.

After the talk there was a very enjoyable ‘Come-all-ye’ singing session lead by Clare Kilgallon and members of Cliogaree Twoaie (‘Northern Croakers’), a Ramsey-based choir who sing in Manx and English. There were songs in Manx, English, Welsh and Cornish, and I did a Scots lullaby (Hush, Hush, Time to be sleeping).

I think the phrase ‘come-all-ye’ refers to the type of songs known as “Come all ye’s”, which tend to begin with “Come all ye (sons of liberty/ good people/ tramps and hawkers etc) and listen to my song”. That’s according to Dick Gougan anyway. We didn’t actually sing any such songs last night though.

Mawdelit

By Simon

Mawdelit is one of the Scots words discussed in a programme I watched last night called Blethering Scots. It was described as an illness you pretend to have to get time off work, and comes from the French mal de lit, which is related to the medieval Latin malum lecti – an illness that confines one to bed or a bed-sickness.

Other words mentioned in the programme include:

– fankle – to catch in a snare, to trap; to tangle, ravel, mix up; confused, tangled, and the related words fankled and fanglet

Example: It was jist the ither day I got fankled wi’ some o’ ma accoonts.

– stramash – an uproar, commotion, hubbub, disturbance, a broil, squabble, row; to shatter, to smash to pieces

Example: There arose a stramash doon stairs fiercer than ordinary.

– glaikit – stupid, foolish; thoughtless, irresponsible, flighty; playful, full of pranks; wanton; sportive, roguish (of the eyes); deceitful, shifty.

Example: There rest him weel; for eith [also] can we Spare mony glakit gouks [fools] like he.

One contributor to the programme mentioned that it was unusual to see such words written down when he was young and that children were told that these words were wrong when they used them in school. Nowadays, however, some schools are teaching Scots and encourage its use. It is also used to a limited extent in the media.

Source: Dictionary of the Scot Language / Dictionar o the Scots Leid

Word of the day – spurtle

By Simon

Spurtle

I came across today’s word, spurtle, in a book I’m reading at the moment. It’s described as “a wooden utensil for stirring porridge” in the book, while according to Wikipedia it is:

a Scots kitchen tool, dating from at least the fifteenth century. It was originally a flat, wooden, spatula-like utensil, used for flipping oatcakes on a hot griddle. This terminology is now confined to Angus and Perthshire.

Over time, the original implement changed shape and began being used specifically for stirring oatmeal and soups. The rod-like shape is designed for constant stirring which prevents the porridge from congealing and so becoming lumpy and unappetising. It looks like a fat wooden dowel, often with a contoured end to give the user a better grip.

A Golden Spurtle is the first prize at the World Porridge Making Championships, which take place in Carrbridge in Scotland.

The Spurtle is also the name of a Scottish Country dance.

The etymology of spurtle is uncertain, however while searching for it, I found a possibly related word in A etymological dictionary of the Scottish language:

SPURKLE, A sort of spattle. “Scutching spurkle, a stick to beat flax.” “Thacking spurkle, a broad-mouth’d stick for thatching with”. […] perhaps Spurkle is merely a variety of Spurtle.