Crossed wires over Scots language in phone book

The phrase is generally recognised as belonging to the north east of Scotland and is rightly carried on the front of the Aberdeen and Shetland 2022 / 23 book, also due in December.

Eyebrows have also been raised over the ‘Dinna Fash: It’s Yer Local Phone Book’ greeting on the new publication for Glasgow north and south.

Comedian Andy Cameron, who hails from the Rutherglen area covered by the new Glasgow South book, said: ”To me, ‘Dinna Fash’ is more of a Dundee saying, certainly not one linked to this side of the country.

“A more suitable expression for Glasgow would be ‘Keep the Heid, By The Way: It’s Yer Glesca Phone Book!”

BT say that Jonnie Robinson, lead curator of spoken English at the British Library in London, provided such sayings as ‘Yiz’ll be fair chuffed wi’ yer local phone book’ (Borders and Tayside) ‘Take a deek at yer local phone book’ (Edinburgh) and ‘Sha Boy, Neebs!’ (Fife).

However, accuracy concerns are sufficiently widespread that the director of the Scots Language Centre has suggested BT should have consulted his experts prior to publication.

Michael Dempster, head of the Perth-based cultural centre, said: “Scots may be written in a way that suits all dialects or in a specific Scots dialect. It appears that the dialects selected for each of the local editions do not all match up with the dialect spoken in the regions covered.

“We would encourage any organisation considering using Scots in their official publications to get in touch with the Scots Language Centre to consult our expert team for advice before producing text that has the potential to go against their communicative aims.”

The Scots writer and broadcaster Kay, who wrote ‘Scots: The Mither Tongue’, now an audio book, said: “The only place in the Highlands that ‘Fit Like’ would sit well with would be in Upper Deeside.

“It’s a cross-over between north east Scots and Highland English.

“It is definitely not appropriate for the Western Isles. I like the choice of ‘Dinna Fash’. My family are from Ayrshire and Fife and this was one of my gran’s favourite sayings.

“It was used across much of Scotland until comparatively recently. The ‘deek’ in the Edinburgh phone book stems from Romany language, as Berwickshire has had a strong traveller influence for centuries. The phrase started there and spread into Edinburgh slang."

A BT spokesperson said: “The books cover large geographical areas so it's impossible to capture every variation, but we hope we've helped celebrate and draw attention to the range of different dialects across the country.”