Blether means to talk in a sort of gossiping way. If you are blethering it is never serious communication, it tends towards being unimportant and light-hearted chatting.
However, a lot of time can be spent having a blether with friends and neighbours and it all adds to the spice of life.
Skelf is the Scottish word for a splinter of wood, usually stuck in your finger but I suppose it could be anywhere on your body. I have noticed that this word is not used nearly as often as it used to be and people tend to be using splinter – which drives me nuts. Use it or lose it.
I was watching a T.V. programme about language a few years back and it mentioned that words beginning with ‘sk’ nearly always derive from Scandinavian words originally. So I suppose we have the Vikings to thank for this one.
It makes sense to me as my own surname begins with sk and although you won’t usually find my name in a list of Scottish surnames, it does appear in a list of ancient Scottish surnames deriving from Scandinavia.
Stravaig means to wander about the place with no particular destination or reason. Just an aimless meander around.
It would originally have been on foot but I suppose nowadays you could be described as stravaiging if you took a trip in your car, mystery tour style, with no set plans, just happy to be out and about.
Dreich (dreech) has been popping up fairly regularly recently on the BBC weather reports and I’m sure by now it must be quite well understood by people in England. It means really grey, dull and dismal weather but I suppose you can use it to describe anything grey and depressing.
I’ve been quite impressed by the pronunciation of the forecasters, they are managing the ‘ch’ sound well, as in loch. It would be terrible if they said dreek.
Here are a couple of dreich photographs of the coast at Kirkcaldy. As it is like this and even worse most of the time, it is a mystery to me why anyone would want a sea view.
Kirkcaldy rollers
More Kirkcaldy dreich
There are always a few ships about but to me the most interesting thing is that this is the exact piece of the coast which the famous economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) looked out on from his home. Then the area was packed with sailing ships and it was the coming and going of the ships which set him thinking about economics, and led him to write The Wealth of Nations.
I heard that Alex Salmond had been talking about the teaching of the Scots language in schools. I think that it is about time that something was done to stop the rot where Scots is concerned. Too many words are being lost to us, and once they are gone – they’re gone.
I know that there is no spare money around at the moment, but I really don’t see why such an initiative should cost much – if anything at all. We don’t need teachers to be sent off on courses or anything expensive. Ten minutes towards the end of each primary school day would be all that was needed to teach children a couple of Scots words or phrases each lesson.
It could be a very informal winding down of each day and the only tools necessary would be an English-Scots dictionary and a black/whiteboard. There’s no need to make a big production number of it as there are so many other things vying for space and time within the school day.
When I was at school, in the west, a good few moons ago, we were all bi-lingual. At school we spoke the Queen’s English to the teachers and then when it was playtime we reverted to Scots.
Some adults used to complain about us speaking slang, but it wasn’t – it was just Scots. Likewise – when we grew up it was natural to speak plain English to people in authority as a matter of courtesy, after all the person that you are speaking to may not speak Scots, and I suppose to show that you could speak good English. However, at home and with friends the less formal Scots was used.
I’m not sure if that practice is carried out in the whole of Scotland as a matter of course though. I well remember being in a bank in Fife and when I asked the bank teller a question – his answer to me was -: Ah dinnae ken, but Ah’ll fund oot fur yee.
I have to say that I was dumfoonert. There is no way that you would get a job in a bank in the west of Scotland if you spoke to customers like that. And although I’m all for the promotion of the Scots language, I still think that there is a time and a place for it.
Even Rab C Nesbit was bi-lingual. There was always a time in each programme when his best English came out – usually when he was incensed about something and just had to let off steam.
As he got angrier, so he became ‘posher’.
I know quite a lot of people that that happens to and it’s always funny to observe, whether it’s Rab C. or yer mammy.
The word eejit is still used a lot in Scotland. It means idiot, and I think it is just a corruption of the English word. People are usually described as being a complete or a total eejit.
Terry Wogan claims it’s Irish but Collins English Dictionary says it is Scots and Irish.
You don’t hear the word fantoosh all that often nowadays but I think it is a great word and I use it whenever I can.
If something or someone is being described as being fantoosh it means that they, or it, is overdressed, ultra fashionable, over-ornamented, too fancy. Just downright over the top.
I always think that this word should be of French derivation as quite a lot of Scottish words are, due to the influence of the French people who came to Edinburgh when Mary, Queen of Scots came back from France as a young widow. There is a part of Edinburgh which is still called Little France, however I can’t find any evidence that it derives from French.
I do think that fantoosh is quite presbyterian though as I’ve always heard it used in a slightly disapproving way. It’s the feeling that anything too fancy must be sinful. It’s the influence of Calvinism I suppose.
Anyway, I really like fantoosh and I’d hate it to die out, although I suppose if you were in America it might sound a bit rude to some people as it’s almost like two words for bum (butt) spliced together.
That might make it all the more desirable to use though, just for a laugh.
Frozen fountain in Beveridge Park
As you can see from this photograph it has been so cold here that everything has frozen up. It has been colder than Norway, Finland and the South Pole.
So we have all been chittering, which is the Scottish word for shivering. You might think it strange when I say that my worst attacks of chittering have always been in the summertime. The reason for this is that when you are wee, you seem to have a thing for paddling in water, and before you know it, you’re up to your neck in it. I’ve noticed that this happens to dogs too.
There’s no sense to it whatsoever because you know that you are either in the North Sea or a loch full of snow melt from the mountains. So it can’t be anything other than freezing and you’re going to end up chittering within about 10 seconds of hitting the water.
Luckily your mum will have come prepared with a chittery-bite. This is something nice for you to eat – a sandwich or a cake or maybe chocolate. Anything for you to get your teeth wrapped around and before long, you will have stopped chittering and your mum has saved you from hypothermia – again.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
I don’t do resolutions. I’m just hoping that this year will be a better one for everyone and the world in general.
If you want to see some Scottish cliches look here.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
I don’t do resolutions. I’m just hoping that everything begins to look up this year and that the country starts to get out of the recession.
If you’re interested in things Scottish, have a look here.