Few Scots words have a single ‘correct’ spelling. Essential Scots-English Dictionary lists the most common spelling or spellings in use.
For a more complete list, visit the online Dictionaries of the Scots Language Online.
Essential Scots-English Dictionary includes almost 1,100 audio pronunciation guides. Most are representative of Central Scots, although we include some North-Eastern pronunciations too.
The following is a general guide to the pronunciation of many other Scots words.
Consonant spellings
- For most Scots speakers, wh is pronounced as in wheech. In Northern and North-Eastern Scots, however, wh sounds like f, for example whit.
- Scots ng is usually pronounced as in Scottish English ‘sing’ or ‘singer’, not as in ‘single’, e.g. dinger, ingan.
- In the middle or at the end of a word, Scots ch and gh usually represent the same sound. You can hear this sound in aicht and in haugh.
Vowel spellings
- Scots ei and ie are mostly pronounced as ‘ee’, for example dreich and bien. At the end of a word ie is pronounced as in gillie.
- Scots ey usually sounds like the vowel in Scottish English ‘mine’, e.g. eyntment and wey.
- Scots ou is usually pronounced ‘oo’ as in drouth
- The pronunciation of ui depends partly on word and partly on dialect. In North-Eastern Scots, ui is usually pronounced ‘ee’, as in spuin, but in Central Scots spuin has the same vowel as ‘spit’ while puir has the same vowel as ‘spare’. In some other dialects, including Shetland Scots and Orkney Scots, ui sounds like the vowel of French ‘peu’ or German ‘schön’.