Ponderings from Vanessa in quality control

Dealing with Scottish Words and Phrases when Transcribing and in Quality Control

As an English speaker, I always thought I was good at deciphering accents when I was transcribing and proofing documents. That was until I started to work for a Scottish company.

It isn’t only the Scottish accent that you have to contend with, and the different dialects from the many different regions of Scotland, but it is also the odd words and phrases that you just don’t get in England. I was alright with words like wee (little), bairn (baby), and no’ (not), but when one day I came across the word ‘bahookie’, I realised I had a lot to learn. Mind you, when my colleagues told me that it meant ‘bottom’, I was beside myself with laughter and it quickly became my favourite Scottish word. That was until today when I came across the word ‘wabbit’ which I now understand to mean tired or slightly unwell, and just makes me think of Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny!!

Google is certainly my new best friend for finding out what these strange Scottish words and phrases mean, and I have now discovered that I hope something new will come up as I find I quite like these alternative ways of saying things. It certainly makes my day more interesting.

Another challenge is when a client asks for a transcript to be done in a verbatim style or in the dialect of the person speaking. It’s one thing hearing the words ‘cannae’, ‘wouldnae’ and ‘oot’, but quite another thing to know how to spell them correctly! So Google came to my rescue again when I found a good website that shows me exactly how to do that. But it does sometimes still catch me out when some dialects will say ‘wasnae’ and another will say ‘wisnae’!

And if you'd like to have a deeper drive into the written Scots language, check out the Dictionaries of the Scots Language - some really interesting words and their meanings.

It's all a very good learning curve and one that I thoroughly enjoy. So, I will leave my ponderings there for now, I’m off to get my messages! That’s shopping for those not in the know!!!

If we can help you decipher strong regional accents, not just Scots, then please get in touch here.

Photo by Craig Thomas on Unsplash