Once you have done this I would suggest a Saturday trip to one of the town's two football stadia, which are both located in the same street so it should not make any difference, which Saturday you choose you will find a game. There are those who will argue you will only truly find a game at Tannadice and therefore a visitor would be well advised to choose his Saturday after reference to a fixture list. However the purpose of the visit is to listen to the spectators not to watch the football match so the fact that the other team are crap should not deter you. You will need with you a tape recorder with multi directional microphone to collect the sounds from around you and if you are at Dens Park, take along a good book to pass the time.
The purpose of this article is only to whet the appetite. As with any language it is well to remember that it is the spoken word which gives the true meaning and learning, whereas learning from the language as it is written often leads to errors in pronunciation.
Indeed the spelling of words in Dundonian is continually the subject of heated debate. Take for example the word “game” which in Dundonian is, depending on your preferred spelling, either gehm, gehme, gemm or gemme. Now to be accurate the spelling “gehm” is correct because in Dundonian the word has three sounds being “g”, “eh” & “m” and most Dundee words are constructed using this basic principle.
EH
Spelling of the sound “eh” is based on the English “Eh…….” expression sometimes sounding more like “ehhhhmmm” used to prolong a sentence and give the speaker time to consider what he will say next. One great exponent of this technique was the legendary Tommy Burns who… ehhhhmmm….was manager of ..ehhhmmmm.. Celtic Football Club a few…ehhhmmm… years ago.
The most important sounds in any language are the vowels and Dundonian is no different. The most often used is the sound “EH”. (pronounced the same as the English “e” as in pen, men, hen)
This replaces sound of “i” as in pie, eye and also the pronoun I.
The “eh” sound also replaces the “y” (in words such as my, by,cry,fly ) and also “igh” ( as in high or thigh) and also “uy” as in buy or guy.
Eh is also the vowel sound in words with the English “ay” such as way ( although this rule rarely extends to other ay words such as hay, bay, day).
The “eh” sound can also be used to replace the “a” in words like any or many ( although there are other ways to pronounce these words, which will be covered later)
Thus a statement such as “I am sorry referee, I knew my boot was high in the tackle and that is how I came to injure the opposition player in the upper leg, but by the time I realised, I was five seconds too late to do anything about it. I was completely unable to avoid him.” becomes :-
Ehm sorry ref, Eh kent meh bait wiz heh an Eh hurt thi geh in thi theh buh Eh didna reeulehz tul it wuz fehv sekinds ower lait ti dae ehnyhin aboo' it. Eh jist coodna git oot ees weh.
Quite a lot for a beginner to take in I know, but it does show the importance and frequency of “eh”.
For further practise I would suggest that the learner should read this list of three letter English words ending in en, several times, getting progressively faster. Then, after a few readings start dropping the n. You will then be speaking true Dundonian.
Ben
Den
Gen
Hen
Len
Men
Pen
Ten
Yen
Now that you have mastered the “eh” here is a translation exercise. The scenario is, two young men in a public house sometime around lunch on a Saturday.
Tam Geeza lehn oh a fehvir aff yi.
Yin Fur?
Tam Behn a roond.
Yin Fur?
Tam Jist wursells an thi weemin
Yin Furafehvir??
Tam Nah. Ehv got ain arridee.
Yin Well. Jist git yoorz an mine an dinna bahthir wi thi weemin.
Tam Eh. Arrite.
Yin Dinna be lang ciz Ehm wah'in ti thi gehm ains ehv hid this ain.
Tam Arite. Ehll bee as quik is eh kin.
I will give the proper translation next week and in the meantime keep practising, and here are the first 10 words for your Buld it Yersel Dundee Dikshunary.
English Dundonian
Abandon laiv
Abattoir Slah'irhoos
Abbreviate Shohrt'in
Abdicate chappin
Abdomen guts
Aberdeen Aiberdeen
Aberdonian sheep shaggir
Ablution a guid wahsh
Abnormal weeurd
Abode hoos
Ehll be seein yiz.
Next Week: More vowels sounds and the next 10 words in your “Buld it yirsel Dundee Dikshunary”