TABLE OF COMMON SCOTTISH VOWEL SOUNDS ae } ae } = open A as in rare. a' } au } = AW as in law aw } ea = open E as in mere, but this with exceptions, as heather = heather, wean=wain, lear=lair. ee } ei } = open E as in mere. ie } oa = open O as in more. ou = doubled O as in poor. ow = OW as in bower. u = doubled O as in poor. ui or u-umlaut before R = (say roughly) open A as in rare. ui or u-umlaut before any other consonant = (say roughly) close I as in grin. y = open I as in kite. i = pretty nearly what you please, much as in English, Heaven guide the reader through that labyrinth! But in Scots it dodges usually from the short I, as in grin, to the open E, as in mere. Find the blind, I may remark, are prounced to rhyme with the preterite of grin.
Far `yont amang the years to be When a' we think, an' a' we see, An' a' we luve, `s been dung ajee By time's rouch shouther, An' what was richt and wrang for me Lies mangled throu'ther, It's possible - it's hardly mair -
That some ane, ripin' after lear -
Some auld professor or young heir, If still there's either -
May find an' read me, an' be sair Perplexed, puir brither!
"What tongue does your auld bookie speak?"
He'll spier; an' I, his mou to steik:
"No bein' fit to write in Greek, I write in Lallan, Dear to my heart as the peat reek, Auld as Tantallon.
"Few spak it then, an' noo there's nane.
My puir auld sangs lie a' their lane, Their sense, that aince was braw an' plain, Tint a'thegether, Like runes upon a standin' stane Amang the heather.
"But think not you the brae to speel;
You, tae, maun chow the bitter peel;
For a' your lear, for a' your skeel, Ye're nane sae lucky;
An' things are mebbe waur than weel For you, my buckie.
"The hale concern (baith hens an' eggs, Baith books an' writers, stars an' clegs)
Noo stachers upon lowsent legs An' wears awa';
The tack o' mankind, near the dregs, Rins unco law.
"Your book, that in some braw new tongue, Ye wrote or prentit, preached or sung, Will still be just a bairn, an' young In fame an' years, Whan the hale planet's guts are dung About your ears;
"An' you, sair gruppin' to a spar Or whammled wi' some bleezin' star, Cryin' to ken whaur deil ye are, Hame, France, or Flanders -
Whang sindry like a railway car An' flie in danders."