Fit like

[MargeB]

Can anyone provide a rough pocket guide to Dorich for any of us anglophones wanting to travel north east? Min.

[Quizmonster]

'Doric'...there's no 'h', Marge. It'd take you a lifetime to get to grips with it in any meaningful way. Two of the key features that have always fascinated me - a speaker of the dialect from birth...well, from a year and a half old, say...are the pronunciation of the 'wh' of words such as what, why, when etc which become 'f' and the total alteration of accompanying vowel sounds.

Thus, who = faa, when = fan, why =foo, where = faar.

Right...there's lesson 1. Test: translate 'what'. (I'll bet you don't get it right!)

[Quizmonster]

Oops! I've just noticed you have the answer to the test in the rubric of your own question, Marge. So here's another test: Translate 'whistle'.

[MargeB]

lol.

1) Fit.

2) Fasle

That's a guess, no googling honest.

My very first exposure? Bar in Inverurie. Barman: 'Fit like?'. Me: 'Pint of Guinness please'. That's the honest truth.

[Quizmonster]

Fustle, Marge. Maybe the barman actually said: "Fit'd ye like?" (What would you like?) In that case, your request for Guinness would have been perfectly acceptable. As it was, however, you might have been better advised to say: "Nae bad. Fit like yersel, min?"

[MargeB]

or 'chabbin awa'.

[THECORBYLOON]

QM I would write "when" and "where" as "fan" and "far" but as they're said wi a long "a" I can see why you write wi two a's. There's been many a time when ma mum has said something to an English person and he or she has smiled politely not having a clue what's been said until I translate. 

A test then MargeB - if someone who had feet of differing sizes were trying on a pair of shoes, how would you ask which foot was more comfortable?

[Quizmonster]

There's a book I have called "A Doric Dictionary" (ISBN 1 898218-86-2) with an accompanying tape containing stories in Doric. It's by Douglas Kynoch, whom I know, and costs �12.99. In addition, he has published "Teach Yourself Doric", which I've never actually seen. Its ISBN is 1 898218 14 5 but I don't know the price.

Perhaps these would help, if you're really serious, Marge.

TCL, re your shoe-fitting sentence, the second word will have a vowel-sound in it which simply doesn't exist in standard English. It's halfway between an 'e' and an 'i'. It'd be hard, therefore, for Marge - or even I who can speak the lingo! - to set it down in print. I get the point you're trying to put across, though.

[THECORBYLOON]

QM it was "Fit fit fits?" I was thinking on but I know what you mean about the pronunciation which isn't obvious to everyone but we both know how it's said. I've found that other book you mentioned here for �5.99 plus p & p.