Scots film producer to create Dundee phrasebook

Shauna Rothery, 28, who was born in South Africa and moved to the city at the age of three, is collecting a collaboration of words and phrases exclusive to Dundee, with an explanation of their derivation and putting them together in a dictionary.

Shauna, who went to school and studied in Dundee, took a trip back to South Africa a few years ago to make her appreciate her love for the city.

She said: “There are some amazing sayings, totally unique to Dundee and I would like to put them together in a book with background on how they came about.

“It’s going to take a bit of work to pull it all together but already people from throughout the city have been getting in touch with me with their ideas.

A couple of weeks ago, in a bid to encourage city people to share their Dundee words with her, Shauna began her own page on Facebook - I love Dundee.

She said: “I had a few hundred people look at it but after I said I was looking for Dundee words for a dictionary the number of people who commented shot up by around 600 in only a couple of hours.

“People were joining in, saying what a great idea and wanting to give me their own words to include in the dictionary.”

Shauna said she hopes to be able to include some words and phrases not previously explained in other books.

Shauna added: “Dundee has words and phrases totally unique to this city that you don’t hear anywhere else in Scotland.

“It would be a shame if they were forgotten.

“The one thing that is coming across loud and clear is the sense of humour that exists in Dundee.

“People in this city are happy to laugh at themselves and each other but heaven help anyone else who laughs at our expense.

“There are lots of words that are obviously synonymous with Dundee.

“Peh, for example.

“Everyone in Dundee and beyond knows about Peh’s but people may well look on quizzically if we ask for a “plen ane and an ingin ane and ah”, when ordering that local delicacy, the bridie.”

And Shauna shouldn’t be short of words to include if the contributions from Dundonians are anything to go by.

Words people have been coming up with on the Facebook page include “Gidane”, “Gadgie”, and “Kriby”.