I have been wrestling with the Doric Tongue for well over a year now. There are times when I
feel comfortable hearing people speaking it; but there are still times that I don't understand any-
thing that a person has just told me. It is a challenging language to understand, even for people
from other parts of Scotland. Words and ways of speaking from Flemish, Danish, Dutch, Ger-
man, Old Scots, and perhaps even Gaelic languages seem to be woven together to form the Dor-
ic Tongue that is spoken today.
I am finding out there is not one Doric Tongue, but many. The people in St Fergus speak a Dor-
ic that has much in common with other dialects of Doric, yet also its own distinctive words, pro-
nunciation, and idioms. Being in a farming village, St Fergus people speak a more rural dialect
that is different from the variations of Doric spoken in the fishing villages along the coast. The
dialects are different from village to village. The Doric that people who live in Fraserburgh, Pe-
terhead, and Ellon, the major towns in NE Scotland, are different from the Doric spoken in vil-
lages around them. Many Scottish people from other parts of Scotland have told me that the
Doric Tongue has the reputation for being the most challenging and difficult dialect in Scot-
land to understand.
But I have been making headway in understanding the Doric Tongue used in St Fergus and in
the surrounding areas, including Peterhead, the major town in the area. For over a year now, my
next door neighbours, Agnes and Jim, have been my patient tutors of the Doric Tongue. Agnes
is much more verbal than Jim, and talks to me a lot, almost every day. When I first moved in be-
side them, she used to switch to a more common English, yet slowly introduced Doric ways of
saying things. She's been a great teacher. But I still have a long way to go.
I used to have trouble picking out individual words in a conversation. Now I am starting to pick
out specific words and ask what they mean. I'd like to share some of the words I've learned. The
first word I have heard a lot is ken, to know. I have heard it used in other parts of Scotland, but
not anywhere as often as I've heard it used here in the North East. I hear it sprinkled through con-
versations as an interjection. Ken? (you know?). Some people I talk to on the street or in church
use ken? in every sentence. Ken? It is also frequently used as a verb of knowledge of something
or someone. I am often asked if I ken so and so, or if I ken what time the church service is. I fre-
quently hear the word. Ken?
I wrestle whether to use the word, the word ken, myself when I am talking to someone. There
have been a few times when I have been brave enough to use the word ken as an interjection,
but it doesn't quite come out right. It seems that it has to do with the pitch or timing of my say-
ing it. I nae ken. I ken that I can write it, but it I still feel uncomfortable using it in speech. I am
reluctant to use ken as I talk to people. I sense that my ability to rightly use the Doric word is
welling up inside me and that one day it will spill forth naturally and in the right way. I don't
want to have to think about it coming out in my speech; I just want it to spring forth uncon-
sciously. More about my adventures of speaking the Doric Tongue in future postings.
Blessings to you and yours, ken?
