Scotland is a multilingual country and our colourful vocabularies affirm that - from Scottish Gaelic to the Scots language and their dialects, any formal English speaker is sure to think “what is going on here” at least once.
If that’s you then dinnae get yersel in a fankle (don’t worry) because we asked our Scotsman readers ‘what’s your favourite Scottish word’ and they gave some fantastic answers so you’ll ken just fine in future.
Tying in with ‘A Year of Conversation and the International Year of Indigenous Languages’ in 2019 the Scottish Book Trust organised a vote for ‘iconic Scots words’ as the dictionary differs that much to standard English.
That said, rest assured that Scots words like “ken” are not beyond your ken. Here are 40 of the nation’s favourite Scottish words (and sayings) as voted by our Scotsman readers - gie it a swatch (check it out!)
37. Bullet Staines
This refers to hailstones but it can literally be taken like “bullet stones” and to be fair, given how hard those wee pellets of ice hit, it's an apt description. Photo: Janice Wiseman via Canva Pro
38. Bampot
Another word used to describe an obnoxious, foolish or unpleasant person - you’ll also often hear the abbreviated term “bam” being thrown about. Photo: ajr_images via Canva Pro
39. Cannae
“You cannae be serious!” If you remember any word from this list then hold onto “cannae” which means “cannot”, it features in a lot of phrases like “ah cannae dae this” (I can’t do this) which makes it very useful. Photo: Greg McHugh via Wikimedia Commons