Product Description

The essential guide to modern spoken and written Scots is now available in the durable flexibound format of the Collins Gem reference range. First published in 1995, the Collins Gem Scots Dictionary is by far the most popular guide to the language of today's Scotland, with nearly 1800 everyday words and phrases from all over Scotland clearly explained in full sentences and with lots of helpful examples of usage. Colour text now makes this best-selling dictionary even more user-friendly. With its durable and eye-catching cover, this is a great new addition to the Collins Gem reference range.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2417344 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 271 pages

Customer Reviews

pure barrie, like!
Unlike the other reviewer, I do think this book is very good. It teaches words that are used in everday speech that you will rarely get mentioned in official Scots dicitonaries - but certainly words that any visitor to the lowlands of Scotland will hear. On top of that it has examples of how words are used in sentences - and they are not coy about the sentences! It is also funny to read the origin of expressions -that you maybe know but never expected to see in a book. For example "the Jambos" when refering to Hearts of Midlothian football team. This is what is said and what we are used to -and it is heart warming to see the actual language we use on a daily basis being put in this highly useful, current and pertinent dictionary. It does not pretend to be a comprehensive dictionary of the Scots language - but of how Scots is used today. The other reviewer makes comments about it being a dictionary of "Scots slang"- I'd challange them to tell me what Scots slang - or for that matter any language's slang is. "Slang" is the language that is spoken on the street that rarely makes it into print. Scots unfortunately does not have any real official recognition or support and largely because of this, does not have a central dialect that is seen as "correct" and set "the standard". In some ways this is good as it is hard for one dialect to look upon another as inferior. but it means that no dialect can be seen as "slang". This is a most enjoyable book -even for us native Scots speakers; It gives you plenty of enjoyable laughs - especially the sentence examples which do not seem contrived but totally imaginable - but of the earthy Scots way of seeing things. How many other Scots dicitionaires are you going to get phrases such as "goin the messages", "a jellie piece" and "goin ben the hoose" explained to you -which are all commonly understood expressions in Scotland. I have enjoyed this book a lot and if anyone asks me for a dictionary to recommend as to how people actually speak Scots, I'd have no hesitation in recommending it -as I have in the past.

A newcomer to Scotland and the Scots language would learn a lot more about everday spoken Scots that we use and also about the lowland Scots mentality, from this dictionary than from any of the heavy tomes out there.

As a test if anyone doubts this, I'd challange people to find out the meaning of the title of my review "pure barrie, like" -which is destinctive Edinburgh Scots, from different dictionaries. I am sure from this Collins dictionary they'd find out the meaning and the ways to use it in the Collins dictionary and come up with a feasible example in a sentence than from any of the other dictionaries - if you are able to work it out from them at all!

And there is nothing wrong with being targetted at the tourist market! It is good that we have books like this that allow tourists to get a bit more aquainted with our true culture and language than all the guff that is sold as scots culture that is total rubbish and leaves tourists going away thinking that they have seem the real Scotland when in fact all they have seen (and spent a lot of money on!) is a false impression of Scotland promoted purely to gain money, and yet there is a vibrant Scots and Gaelic culture out there that they could discover -but is kept hidden behind the tat. No, I would be pleased to see a tourist here buy this book ass I know reading it they would get a better idea of the real modern day Scots language and people

Definietly one for the tourist market
This is a dire book, ceratinly not even in the same league as you would have come to expect from the Collins Gem series. It seems to aimed at the tourist market, sold more for its quirky value than for it content. It appears to me (although I am no expert) to be more a modern Scotish slang dictionary than anything to do with the Scots language. The vocabulary is tiny compared to most Collins dictionaries, and contains many important ommisions, suprisingly there is no English to Scots section. This book really has no merit, there are plenty of worthwhile scots dictionaries, but alas this isnt one.