HAPPY HOGMANAY!

In Scotland New year is probably a more important celebration than christmas.

As well as Christmas presents there is a tradition of ‘first-footing’, which means being the first person round to someones house after 12 on the 1st of January - you should also bring a gift when you do this.

We even have a separate word for December 31st - ‘Hogmanay’, and the 1st and 2nd of January are national holidays in Scotland rather than just the 1st. This is probably hangover recovery time because, as the old line goes, the parties don’t stop till about March.

This particular clip doesn’t have a great deal to do with Hogmanay but it is funny and well done though I think some of my American readers may have a bit of difficulty with the accents. However, they can just try harder because we have learned to understand their accents so I am sure with a bit work they can understand ours. Some of the words we use are different but I am sure from the context it is not that difficult.

Scottish language lesson A1

Yes = Aye - pronounced like (i)

No = Naw (like ‘o’ in the word ‘not’)

The negative N apostrophe T ending (isN’T, wouldN’T, didN’T) becomes ‘ae’, pronounced like the capital A. Therefore isn’t=isnae, didn’t=didnae etc etc

Double letters also tend to be deemphasized so ‘Scottish’ is said almost without the T’s at all. The word -all- is -a’- (the same sound as ‘Naw’ for ‘No’. Same with -Ba’- for ‘Ball’)

‘oo’ sounds also generally change to ‘ae’ sounds. For example, ‘What are you doing?’ is ‘Whit ye daein?’

I could write at length about this but is not the current issue, enjoy yourselves.