Is it me or are diverse accents and dialects dying out?
I was in the library the other day and overheard a woman with a really strong Fife accent. She must have covered two octaves every second word and she kept going on about catching a bus at half past twoh (rhyming with craw). Made me smile and get nostalgic about my youth when accents were a lot broader than they are these days.

Dinnae ken

Other forgotten Fifeisms:

Pippirs: (n) Daily or weekly publications available from the newsagent.

Ordinary: (n) Dark beer of minimal alcoholic strength.

Pishing oot of one's erse: (v) (col.) To talk nonsense. To make no sense at all.

Dialects not going...merely changing from regional and class to, for example, youth dialects. This is because we travel more and don't necessarily stay where we were born unlike two generations ago.

eg the word 'gay' has changed its meaning at least twice in two decades. And the current derogatory version is part of a youth dialect.

I ould be even more boring..but I wont!

mon the Fife

I'm not sure that the accent is changing but the dialect may well be dying out though not many people would agree there is such a thing as a Fife dialect.

Dialects are versions of another language (in this case English) which nevertheless have significant differences in vocabulary("lexis" for the purists)and grammar).

Accents are simply to do with the sound of the words.

There does seem to be a trend in changing language, e.g. the use of textspeak use, but this has always happened.

Local accents are still around but will become more general and less local as more and more people move from where they were born and brought up. Just compare how many people move away from their home area in adulthood nowadays compared with 30 or 40 years ago.

Shahoorsur! What's thon Eugene lawdy bletherin' aboot?

Following the trend of fife dialect, 'ya hoor sir yi kin that Eugene seems like a boring hoor and bleathers some pish'. Nae offence son, neebz,big man

Fife dialect? -

Neebs aye, Big Man no!!

Looks like the Dundee dialect is alive and kicking.







Any Fife poets out there?

it's aw dis txt spk innit lolz

txt bk

I'd say Fife is still fairly good for the sound. And judging by her from Big Brother it's still around with the younger ones. I'm stronger than her.

But having a dig through the books and Scots dictionaries circa 1800s, the Fife way is sadly no where near where it should really be.

There's literally hundreds of words for Fife alone and likely no longer used. You can likely take out most of what is used here today and replace it.

I only recognise a handful of Fife words I've heard of, or have used, like of...

plout (pron: 'ploot') = idiot
tollie = shit
yatter = chat

Here's some Fife gold from the history books I've never heard of...

sclent = to fib
slerp = a slut
tathil = a table (from the German)

Slerp is excellent. If people are interested in re-starting our words then leave a reply.

GTF......ya sclentin` slerp!!!

I heard someone say to their mate the other day,

"Ah've telt ye, shree 'imes!"

Loved it. Why drop the 't' and turn 'th' into 'sh'

This dictionary guy in the 1800s wrote the Fifers would say 'oo' for many things. Probably why we have hoor.

Anyway, as an example he said in Fife the word avoid would be said as the rather nifty "avood". Use today!

Another is Cellardyke. It means silver wall. In Scots, the word silver was pronounced as 'siller'.

But in Fife where things were said different, then this Scots 'siller' was instead pronounced as 'sellar'!

"Avood yon hoor fae Cellardyke"

ahll rap yer jaw ye wast byer

and where wid ye be withot yer baffies and yer press.and kin ye mind yer mum's store number?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbcuELchk1Q&feature=PlayList&p=F7882CA7FD6BE43D&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=8

Dinnae bring an arab hame to me..........

Saw this on the news and loved it

Heard that on Radio Scotland coming home from work - the mental picture I conjured up of this guy was perfect!

Tam wis aw begrutten when he came back fi the fitba last week so I gave him a skite so he'd sumfin ti greet aboot.(Thomas had a tear stained face when he returned from last weeks match so I slapped him to give him a reason to cry)

Chippy dialect, sling a pickled ingin in an au

Begrutten. Brilliant word.
. . and I think it suits Tam's face just perfectly!!

All this talk about auld scots words has got me thinking aboot what words best describe the posters on this forum. Who can you match up? Richt, ah'll start.

Jim P = Glaikit

A few years ago I got my alternator fixed by an old boy up in Ladybank, when I went to pick it up his wife answered the door, she got me to sign the paperwork and as I started writing she said "yer carrie wheechit"

Didn't have a clue what she was on about like, but later found out it was cos I was left handed

Ma brither had a face like a torn scone the day.He's a Celtic supporter.

My wife and I were having supper ( tea time ) in a Las Vegas down town casino recently, when she said to me ( my wife is from Canada originaly ) I think the people at the next table are Scottish.

Upon them leaving I said to the woman Hi missus ye talk awfy funny, she replied we are from Aberdeen retired and now live in Spain, they were on holiday.

In a weeks time we are going back to Las Vegas a 4 1/2 hour drive from where we live, the locals will not understand a word when my friends from Saltcoats and I get talking in our different dialects.

Good result today lets do the same the next three weeks.
Mon the Fife.

Face like a skelpit erse = Tam (and a'body fae parkheed )

John McGlyn = Begrutten

"yer carrie wheechit"

Oddly enough, heard that very one last week. It comes from the Gaelic "cearr" for left-handed.

Here's another. A "kippie" is a left-handed man.

Now I had someone called that as school in the 1990s who was also left handed. Don't know if it was by chance or not.

You fukkin driller = Alistair Darling

We are struggling = Billy Brown

Dont talk alot of lies and then ye gonna be = Former Chairman of EFFC