Although English is spoken, in many parts of Scotland accents and local dialects can seem confusing to visitors, even native English speakers.
The local Aberdeen dialect is Doric, which is very different from what is heard in other parts of Scotland. Upon first hearing it, the distinctive accent may seem utterly impenetrable, even to other Scots. It has its origins in the farming communities nearby and is not spoken as widely as it used to be. Gaelic is not widely spoken at all.
However, there is still a good chance you will encounter the dialect on your travels, so here are a few commonly used words with translations:
"Fit like?" - A greeting, essentially, "How are you doing?".
"Nae bad yersel?" - A reply, essentially, "Not bad, yourself?".
"Fit?" - "What?".
"Fa?" - "Who?".
"Far?" - "Where?".
"Fan?"- "When?".
"Aye" - "Yes".
"Na'" - "No" (usually, an n sound followed by a vowel constitutes "no".
"Wee" - "Little", though this famous Doric word has become common in other areas worldwide nowadays.
"Dinnae ken/Da ken" - "Don't know".
"H'min" - "Excuse me good sir?"
"far aboot ye fae?" where are you from?
"ben a/eh hoose" - "Through the house/in the other room"
"gie" - "give"
"guy" - "very"
If you politely suggest you don't understand, almost all Doric speakers will be able to regulate their dialect and adopt more standard English to converse with you. It should be noted that only a very few actually talk in broad Doric (which is almost unintelligible, even to most Scots), but the accent and dialect will influence the language of many more local people to some degree or another. A good number will have no traces of it whatsoever in their speech, particularly in the middle and upper social classes.
In most of the north east, meals are named differently from other areas.
The first meal of the day is breakfast. The second meal of the dayis dinner, sometimes pronounced "daenner", but, however it is said, it is usually very easy to recognise.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Aberdeen
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Aberdeen - updated Apr 2024
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Aberdeen Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
