Wir Ain Leed — Nouns
Nouns are words used as the name of a person, animal, object, place or quality, or a collection of those.
The gender of nouns is not gramatical, but is indicated 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.
Singular and plural
Some nouns have different forms for male and female.
*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.
The bus is late today.
Regular plurals are formed by adding s.
hand - hands
churn - churns
bobbin - bobbins
Note that in words like knife, laif, life, thief, wife the Scots plural is regular.
knives
loaves
lives
thieves
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.
house - houses
rush - rushes
catch - catches
A few plurals are formed by adding se, especially where the sense is collective.
Some nouns are usually or only used in the plural, or they have a special meaning when used in the plural.
*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 porridge! It is really good today.
This broth will be too cold.
Scots contains a number of irregular plurals. Some of the more common ones are:
Older forms brither (brother) - brether(en) (brothers) and tree (tree) - treen (trees) existed.
Some nouns, mainly referring to animals or foodstuffs, have the same form in singular and plural.
The plural fish represents a mass of fish. The plural fishes represents a quantity of individual 'fishes'.
Note: A scissor (a pair of scissors).
Look at all those fish.
I have five fish(es).
Many nouns take the same form as the verb with which they are connected.
It's not my fault.
That's an evil laugh.
Mind the step.
Tae is often used in conjunction with nouns and verbs to form compounds implying addition, attraction, attachment and motion towards.
You ought to stop, the draw-bridge is being raised.
The dealer sold the equipment for profit.
The attractive force of the waves is carrying the boat along.
The man bought so much that he was given more by way of a discount.
He keeps his dog in a lean-to.
That's only his nickname.
Glamis, AngusDiminutives
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.
A little dog.
You little soft headed person.
The little girl.
The little beast.
A little bit more.
My little darlings.
A little house.
The little woman.
The big coward.
The ploughman.
He's mad.
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.
Two bags of potatoes.
Four acres of land.
Three feet long.
Four miles away.
Five hundredweight.
A little bit of bread.
Two glasses of beer.
The woman bought six pounds of potatoes. (Weight)
I gave him two pounds.(Money)
A good many months.
She is twelve years old.
Eight score sheep.
Seven dozen eggs.
A little drop of oil.
Ten stones of hay.
Nouns of quantity
A small quantity may be expressed by:
A small, a little.
A little salt.
Give me a little (bit of) oil.
Give me a small drop of (cabbage) soup.
A (little) lock of wool.
A small whisky.
A small portion of oats.
A little buttermilk.
A few may be expressed by:
A few turnips.
A few drinks.
A few nuts.
A somewhat larger quantity may be expressed by:
A few people.
A good few old women.
A good few fish.
A considerable quantity may be expressed by:
A large amount of stones.
A great deal more.
A chunk of cheese.
Very much dung.
An abundance of young game birds.
A fistful of barley.
Two (cupped) hands full of gooseberries.
Other expressions of measurement and quantity are:
She's the pick of them all.
Most people think so.
Only a little child.
The whole mob. All the odds and ends.
Give me the other half.
That was the one half of it.
I never saw anything like those.
The remainder may remain here.
He'd taken one and she'd taken the other.
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.
Banchory, AberdeenshireThe possessive singular is formed by adding 's to the nominative (insert apostrophe).
The child's foot.
The wife's ring.
The dog's bone.
The horse's head.
Note the subtle difference in meaning of:
He said he saw a cow's head at the door.
(the head of a living cow looking in).
She said she saw a cow's head at the door.
(the severed head of a slaughtered cow).
Coupar Angus, Perth and KinrossThe possessive plural is formed by adding s' to the nominative.
The ewes' twisted horns.
the wives' soiled washing.
The dogs' chewed bones.
The houses' broken windows.
Where the plural is not formed by adding s' or es' to the singular, 's is added to the nominative plural.
The men's buckled boots.
The old women's gossip.
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 upper end of town.
The lower end of town.
By simply forming a compound noun by placing the governed noun in front of the governing noun.
The husband.
A sheet for the top of a bed.
The collarbone.
By sometimes inserting a hyphen is between the nouns.
The town centre.
The end of the bridge.
The top of the chimney.
The use or non-use of a hyphen depends on word stress and morphological behaviour as well as individual practice.
Verbal nouns
Portlethen, AberdeenshireThe gerund is a verb functioning as a noun and is formed by adding in to the verb root. As in Standard English the final e of the verb is dropped.
The bearing of presents is pleasant.
The beating of dogs is cruel.
He's fond of speaking to his comrades.
Biting and scratching is Scotch peoples' way of wooing.
Agent nouns
Perth, Perth and KinrossMost 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.
Note souter, a cobbler or shoemaker, ultimately from Latin sutor.
LondonderryThe names of some occupations or the person carrying out the action implied by the verb, adjective or noun are formed by adding ster, which does not necessarily indicate a female agent.
Note the irregular form bak, baxter baker.