Scottish Culture/scottish words

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Expert: Kaye McAlpine - 7/8/2008


Question
QUESTION: hello Kaye looking to find the word dye(grandfather)on net or in a dictionary to prove the meaning of the word can you help please,the word is used often in fife but i can find no reference to it.Regards Peter.

ANSWER: Hi Peter

I've been all over the place web wise too, to help with this one. Not being a Fifer it's not a word I use. The best place for word searches (usually) is www.dsl.ac.uk - the dictionary of the scottish tongue, and no joy.

So I'm trying to come at this from a different angle - is this a variant of 'da', used as an affectionate form for father (transported to grandfather?), altered by dialect vowel forms?

I'm aware that this is less than helpful so far - and I apologise for this - but have you seen the word written down anywhere? Or is it only in oral use as far as you're aware?

I'll keep a weather eye (or ear) out for it, though/

Kind regards

Kaye







---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hello again Kaye the only places i have seen the word written is on an article on the web on Kelty (fife)on a site named THE FIFE POST and also on one or two head stones in local cemetery.
My family and others i have asked used it over many generations but i can find no reference as to where it comes from.Regards Peter.


Answer
Hi Peter

I've found the Kelty  Fife Post reference: were the headstones in Kelty? Could it be some localised usage? I'm  none the wiser at this moment, but I will keep looking. If I find out more, I will add it to the site after the follow ups.

All things good

Kaye

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Kaye McAlpine

Expertise

Lifecycle (birth, marriage, death) customs in Scotland, Early Modern Scottish social customs, modern Scottish social customs, Border March laws and procedures, criminal processes and judicial execution practices, social history in Early Modern Scotland, ephemera printing in Scotland. While I have some knowledge of the clan system and function of the clan society (Highland and Lowland), I am not a an expert in clan genealogy. Having traced back my own family over a couple of centuries, and traced others due to academic research, I do know how the system works, however. This doesn't mean that I'm a genealogist. Please note that I do not speak Gaelic.

Experience

Research Fellow (University of Edinburgh). Contributer to various books and journals on ballads, including Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, The Ballad and History and The Harris Repertoire. Freelance tutor in outreach courses from Edinburgh University on Scottish Culture and Tradition, including lifecycle customs, broadsheet ballads in Scotland, the traditional ballad and history. Freelance writer, guest presenter on Ch4 History Hunters programme, contributor to BBC Radio Scotland's 'Songlines' series on 'The Dowie Dens of Yarrow'. Currently co-director of a media production company

Publications
Books: Forthcoming: The Gallows and The Stake Published: Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, vol. 10, chapter on The Traditional and the Border Ballad; The Harris Repertoire (2000, Scottish Text Society, co-editor), The Ballad in History (chapter on Border ballads). Journals include Folklore, The Review of Scottish Culture,Sottish Studies, and The Scottish Literary Journal

Education/Credentials
Ph D, M. Phil, BA (hons)

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