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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand why some people write 'kin' instead of 'can', 'wan' instead of 'one' etc?

98 replies

FiveSugarsPlease · 04/01/2013 19:07

Not sure if it's just a Scottish thing (since i don't know many people who aren't Scottish), but why on earth wouldn't you just write the correct spelling when it has the same amount of letters as the wrong spelling?

I'm Scottish too, but i don't thing i've ever wrote in 'Scots' before. Lately, I've noticed a lot of my friends texting me in this way, or people's comments on FB.

Here's an excerpt of the latest convo on my newsfeed between my friend and someone he knows:

Yae doin anyhin tonight babez?
Naw, nuhin dawl. U uptae anyhin?
Naw kin a jist cum roon tae yours en?
Aye nae bother. Pm me.

WHY? I realise this is a very trivial thing, but i just don't get it. Surely it would be quicker to write 'No' than 'Naw'?

OP posts:
Salmotrutta · 04/01/2013 19:30

Obviously "babes" isn't Scots BUT its the only word out of 20 odd that isn't.

The OP was referring to the Scots vocabulary specifically surely?

Salmotrutta · 04/01/2013 19:31

X-post with MrsKeith!!Grin

MrsBungleBear · 04/01/2013 19:32

I'm Scottish but live in England now. I like when my fb friends write like this, reminds me of home!

werewolvesdidit · 04/01/2013 19:33

The Scots dialect is rich and beautiful. I am not Scottish (ok then a quarter) but I bloody love Scotland/the Scottish people/their culture.

werewolvesdidit · 04/01/2013 19:33

Oh and Oban/Irn Bru/ Scotch pies and The Sunday Post!

squoosh · 04/01/2013 19:34

Hmmm, sounds more specifically Glaswegian than Scots to me.

ErikNorseman · 04/01/2013 19:34

Scots is a dialect, it isn't just wrong spelling. Nothing at all wrong with writing in it to someone else who uses it. Thick Hmm

roughtyping · 04/01/2013 19:37

I have a friend from Peterhead and it's like reading a different language!

I love reading Scots :)

MrsKeithRichards · 04/01/2013 19:37

Ah perfect timing, text from sister

meet me aifter work we'll tak a daunner ower the brig an go fur a swally

I'm meeting my sister after work,going for a walk over the bridge then for an alcoholic beverage.

Translated for the thick of hearing! Grin

squoosh · 04/01/2013 19:39

Thanks MrsRichards, but after having lived here for 12 years I've absolutely no problem in deciphering it for myself!

LindyHemming · 04/01/2013 19:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LineRunner · 04/01/2013 19:44

My DD laughs at the way I say Irn Bru.

TerraNotSoFirma · 04/01/2013 19:44

Yes I've noticed a lot of my friends in Dundee doing this via Facebook, I can barely understand a bloody thing and I'm from Dundee.

I can understand the usual eh, peh, ken twa.....but this one had me stumped....ye sasij!

You sausage, apparently.

Lorelilee · 04/01/2013 19:51

Away ye go ya bampot, it's pure dead brilliant, so it is!

Original poster
FiveSugarsPlease · 04/01/2013 19:57

Yep, Sqoosh, i'm Glaswegian Grin

Maybe it's because i'm new to Fb then that i'm noticing more people writing like this?

I don't mind it at all, just don't understand. No is shorter than naw; dug is the same as dog. I think it would take longer to write in Scots than in the 'Oxford Dictionary' (not sure what it's called) way. A lot more concentration would be have to be involved actually.

OP posts:
MrsReiver · 04/01/2013 20:00

I still get a Broons from my Mum at Christmas - or was it Oor Willie this year?

LindyHemming · 04/01/2013 20:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bluer · 04/01/2013 20:03

As part of the new curriculum I need to make pupils aware of the various language of Scotland...including teaching and exploring Scots. Unfortunately I work in a fairly posh school and have already had complaints for endorsing slang. It's not slang...it's part of our heritage and I can fully explain the historical significance.

KatoPotatoHoHo · 04/01/2013 20:06

Whitye, whitye, whit yupty the night?

MrsKeithRichards · 04/01/2013 20:08

But they aren't trying to shorten what they have to type, they are writing as they speak.

Original poster
FiveSugarsPlease · 04/01/2013 20:08

Bluer, that's really interesting.

Probably a stupid question, but if a pupil answered an exam in Scots, would his/her answers be just as viable as a pupil who wrote with 'proper' spellings?
What about in an English exam?

(I feel really silly now thinking my friends were just writing in slang, and not realising Scots is another accepted form of writing Blush)

OP posts:
badguider · 04/01/2013 20:10

I like it. my gran spoke in strong scots (dundee), my parents a lot less and after going to a very english-dominated university and then living in london i've pretty much weeded out all my scots words except when there's no english equivalent (dreich, peely-wally).
I wish i still had proper scots... love love love the aberdonian dialect (but not full doric, i don't understand that!)
it's not shorter, because that's not the aim, the aim is to reflect pride in the local dialect.

MrsKeithRichards · 04/01/2013 20:10

bluer I've felt that myself in the past, that it's slang, lazy and all that but over the years I've embraced it for what it is, oor mither tongue!

MrsReiver · 04/01/2013 20:11

Does he still have Jeemy and his wee dug - Hamish isn't it? I've not got round to reading yet.

My DS just started a sentence with "ken whit?" while I was typing this - so proud Grin

MrsKeithRichards · 04/01/2013 20:12

I love the fact the schools are embracing it now as well.