Doric

A dialect of Scots spoken in the North-East of Scotland.

The name of "Doric" was given to this dialect of Scots as a jocular reference to the Dorian dialect of Greek. The Greek Dorians lived in Sparta, and were supposed by the ancient Greeks to have spoken laconically, and spoke a language that was thought harsher in tone and more phonetically conservative than the Attic spoken in Athens. Doric Greek was used for the verses spoken by the chorus in Greek tragedy.

The main phonetic differences between Doric and other Scots dialects are the replacement of 'wh' sounds by 'f' sounds -- fit meaning what instead of whit, fa meaning who instead of wha --; the replacement of 'aw' sounds by 'aa' sounds -- a' meaning all instead of aw --; and the replacement of 'oo' sounds by 'ee' sounds -- abeen meaning above instead of aboon.