Loch
- perhaps the most characteristically Scottish word of all, loch is used throughout the country as the regular term equivalent to English 'lake'. The last two letters in loch are usually and traditionally pronounced like the -ch in Bach, but in parts of Scotland where the accent is becoming increasingly anglicised, the word sometimes sounds more like 'lock'. The term is Gaelic in origin, and travellers to Scotland will find lochs all over the countryside, from the famous Loch Ness with its legendary monster in the north, to the picturesque Loch Doon and Loch Dee in the south-west.