Nouns

Nouns are words used as the name of a person, animal, object, place or quality, or a collection of these.

1. The gender of nouns is not indicated by their sound but by their meaning. Nouns are either male, female, common or neutral depending on whether they denote a male, female, either sex or an inanimate object.

2. Singular nouns.

   Some nouns have different forms for male and female.

   Male		Female
   boar	boar	sou
   brither	brother	sister	sister
   bull	bull	cou	cow
   cowt	colt	filly	filly
   drake	drake	deuk	duck
   dug	dog	bick	bitch
   eme*/uncle	uncle	auntie	aunt
   faither	father	mither	mother
   guidman	husband	guidwife	wife
   guid-sir	grandfather	auld-dame	grandmother
   keeng	king	queen	queen
   lad	boy	lass	girl
   loun**	boy	quean	girl
   man	man	wumman	woman
   neffae	nephew	niece	niece
   staig	stallion	meir	mare
   tuip	ram	yowe	ewe

   *eme is the maternal uncle.
   **loun and quean [kwəin] are typical of northern Scots varieties.

   Machines, ships and boats etc., countries and the like often take the feminine and are addressed by the pronoun she.

   She's late the day. (The bus) The bus is late today.

   

3. Regular plurals are formed by adding s.

   haund - haunds hand - hands

   kirn - kirns churn - churns

   pirn - pirns bobbin - bobbins

   Note that in words like knife, laif, life, thief, wife the Scots plural is regular.

   knifes knives

   laifs loaves

   lifes lives

   thiefs thieves

   wifes wives

   If the singular noun ends in a sibilant (hissing) sound it takes the ending es, or where the noun ends with an e, s, to form the plural.

   hoose - hooses house - houses

   rash - rashes rush - rushes

   catch - catches catch - catches

   A few plurals are formed by adding se, especially where used in a collective sense.

   oo	oose	woolen fluff, dust
   taw	tawse	a leather strap with thongs
   you	youse	you

   Some nouns are usually or only used in the plural, or they have a special meaning when used in the plural.

   ess	ash(es)	parritch	porridge
   bellaes	bellows	plainstanes	pavement
   breeks	trousers	severals*	several
   brose	soup	shears	scissors
   broth	soup	tangs	tongs
   duds	rags	tawse	leather strap
   lichts	lungs

   *Severals refers to several persons or things.

   Some nouns are only used in the plural. Accompanying verbs are used as if to denote their constituent parts.

   The parritch! The're real guid the day. The porridge! It is really good today.

   Thir kail will be ower cauld. This broth will be too cold.

4. Scots contains a number of irregular plurals. Some of the more common ones are:

   Singular		Plural
   cauf	calf	caur	calves
   cou	cow	kye	cattle
   ee	eye	een	eyes
   fit	foot	feet	feet
   guiss	goose	geese	geese
   loose	louse	lice	lice
   man	man	men	men
   moose	mouse	mice	mice
   owse	ox	owsen	oxen
   shae	shoe	shuin	shoes
   tuith	tooth	teeth	teeth
   wumman	woman	weemen	women

   Older forms brither (brother) - brether(en) (brothers) and Tree (tree) - Treen (trees) existed.

5. Some nouns have the same form in singular and plural.

   Singular		Plural
   birse	bristle	birse	bristles
   cod	cod	cod	cod
   deer	deer	deer	deer
   dizzen	dozen	dizzen	dozens
   fish	fish	fish*	fish
   gait	goat	gait	goats
   groose	grouse	groose	grouse
   gryce	pig	gryce	pigs
   herrin	herring	herrin	herring
   horse	horse	horse	horses
   nowt	bullock	nowt	cattle
   pease	pea	pease	peas
   saumon	salmon	saumon	salmon
   sheep	sheep	sheep	sheep
   swine	pig	swine	pigs
   troot	trout	troot	trout

   The plural fish represents a mass of fish. The plural fishes represents a quantity of individual 'fishes'.
   Note: A scissor. (A pair of scissors.)

   Leuk at aw thae fish. Look at all those fish.

   A hae five fishes. I have five fish(es).

6. Many nouns take the same form as the verb with which they are connected.

   Verb	Noun
   blame	blame	fault
   lauch	lauch	laugh
   stap	stap	step
   stap	stop	stop

   It's no ma blame. It's not my fault.

   That's an ill lauch. That's an evil laugh.

   Tak tent o the stap. Mind the step.

7. Tae is often used in conjunction with nouns and verbs to form compounds implying addition, attraction, attachment and motion towards.

   Ye shoud stap, the tae-brig is gaun up. You ought to stop, the draw-bridge is being raised.
   The dealer selt the gear for the tae-come. The dealer sold the equipment for profit.
   The tae-draucht o the swaw is takkin the boat wi't. The attractive force of the waves is carrying the boat along.
   The man bocht sae muckle he wis gien a bit tae-breid. The man bought so much that he was given more by way of a discount.
   He keeps his dug in a tae-faw. He keeps his dog in a lean-to.	That's juist his tae-name. That's only his nickname.

8. Diminutives.

   Diminutives expressing smallness, endearment or contempt are formed by adding ie, ock or even ockie to the noun (ies for plurals) and are often preceded by wee.

   The wee lassie. The little girl.	A wee duggie. A little dog.
   The wee beastie. The little beast.	A wee bittock mair. A little bit more.
   Ye wee saftie. You little soft headed person.	A hooseockie. A little house.
   The wifeockie. The little woman.	The muckle feardie. The big coward.
   The pleuchie. The ploughman.	He's a daftie. He's mad.
   Ma wee dearies. My little darlings.

9. Nouns of measure and quantity.

   Number and quantity are sometimes designated by nouns and sometimes by adjectives.

   After cardinal numbers, nouns of measure, usually remain unchanged in the plural. The noun is usually followed by the preposition o before a pronoun, but o is often omitted before a following noun.

   Twa poke o tatties. Two bags of potatoes.	Fower acre o grund. Four acres of land.
   Three fit lang. Three feet long.	Fower mile awa. Four miles away.
   Five hunderwecht. Five hundredweight.	Sax pund.(weight) Six pounds.
   A gied him twa poond. I gave him two pounds.(Sterling)	Twa gless o beer. Two glasses of beer.
   A guid wheen months. A good many months.	Ten stane o hay. Ten stones of hay.
   She's twal year auld. She is twelve years old.	aicht score o sheep. Eight score sheep.
   seiven dizzen o eggs. Seven dozen eggs.	A wee drap ile. A little drop of oil.
   A wee bit breid. A little bit of bread.

   Nouns of quantity.

   A small quantity may be expressed by:

   A wee, a bit. A small, a little.	Juist a wee bit wean. Only a little child.
   Gie's a wee thing(ie) ile. Give me a little (bit of) oil.
   Gie's a wee drap kail. Give me a small drop of (cabbage) soup.
   A tait o oo. A (little) lock of wool.	A wee thocht whisky. A small whisky.
   A hair o aits. A small portion of oats.	A grain soordouk. A little buttermilk.
   A wee titch saut. A little salt.

   A few may be expressed by:

   A wheen neeps. A few turnips.

   Twa-three weets. A few drinks.

   A pickle nits. A few nuts.

   A somewhat larger quantity may be expressed by:

   A curn o fowk. A few people.

   A guid wheen auld wifes. A good few old women.

   A guid pickle fishes. A good few fish.

   A considerable quantity may be expressed by:

   A hantle stanes. A large amount of stones.	A great deal mair. A great deal more.
   A muckle hott muck. Very much dung.	A daud o kebbock. A chunk of cheese.
   A nievefu bere. A fistful of barley.	A rowth o pouts. An abundance of young game birds.
   A gowpanfu o grosets. Two (cupped) hands full of gooseberries.

   Other expressions of measurement and quantity are:

   She's the wale o thaim aw. She's the pick of them all.	The feck o fowk thinks that. Most people think so.
   The hail clamjamfrie. The whole mob. All the odds and ends.
   Gie's the tither hauf. Give me the other half.	That wis juist the tae hauf o't. That was the one half of it.
   A niver seen the likes o thae. I never saw anything like those.
   The lave can bide here. The remainder may remain here.
   He'd taen the tane an she'd taen the tither. He'd taken one and she'd taken the other.

10. Case.

    Nouns have three cases; nominative, objective and possessive. The nominative names the subject. The objective denotes the object.The possessive denotes possession.

    The nominative and the objective are the same.

    The possessive singular is formed by adding 's to the nominative (insert apostrophe).

    The bairn's fit. The child's foot.	The wife's ring. The wife's ring.
    The dug's bane. The dog's bone.	The horse's heid. The horse's head.

    Note the subtle difference in meaning of:

    He said he seen a cou's heid at the door. He said he saw a cow's head at the door. (the head of a living cow looking in).

    She said she seen a cou-heid at the door. She said she saw a cow's head at the door. (the severed head of a dead cow).

    The possessive plural is formed by adding s' to the nominative.

    Yowes' horns. Ewes' horns.

    Wifes' rings. Wives' rings.

    Dugs' banes. Dogs' bones.

    Hooses' windaes. Houses' windows.

    Where the plural is not formed by adding s' or es' to the singular, 's is added to the nominative plural.

    Men's buits. Men's boots.

    weemen's clash. Woman's gossip.

    Kye's milk. Cow's milk.

11. Nouns denoting inanimate objects do not usually take the possessive. In such cases a sense of belonging to, being connected with or being used for is expressed:

    By placing the governing noun before the governed noun with the preposition o (of) in between them.

    The heid o the toun. The upper end of town.

    The fit o the toun. The lower end of town.

    By simply forming a compound noun by placing the governed noun in front of the governing noun.

    Guidman. Husband.

    Heidsheet. Sheet for the top of a bed.

    Hausebane. Collarbone.

    By sometimes inserting a hyphen is between the nouns.

    Toun-heid. The town centre.

    Brig-end. The end of the bridge.

    Lum-tap. The top of the chimney.

    The use or non use of a hyphen depends on word stress and morphological behaviour.

12. The verbal noun (a verb functioning as a noun) is formed by adding in to the verb root. As in Standard English the final e of the verb is dropped.

    The beirin o praisents is furthie. The bearing of presents is pleasant.

    The batin o dugs is ill-kyndit. The beating of dogs is cruel.

    Spak o lowpin ower a linn. Spoke of jumping over a deep pool.

    He's fond o speakin til his feres. He's fond of speaking to his comrades.

    Bitin an scartin's Scots fowk's wooin. Biting and scratching is Scotch peoples' way of wooing.

13. Most nouns describing occupations or the person carrying out the action implied by the verb were formed by adding ar to the verb in middle Scots. That pronunciation has become /ər/, now usually spelled er. Some older forms spelled ar still exist.

    bak	baxter	baker	mak	makar	poet (maker)
    cot	cottar	cottager	pent	penter	painter
    ferm	fermer	farmer	saidle	saidler	saddler
    flesh	flesher	butcher	shear	shearer	reaper
    jyne	jyner	joiner	shew	shewster	sempster
    lee	leear	liar	(suere)*	souter	cobbler
    lowp	lowper	jumper	wab	wabster	weaver

    *From Latin Sutor - suere to sew.

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