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ITS A SIGN!UNBELIEVABLE SIGNS FROM SCOTLAND AND BEYOND

Edited by Ken Smith

BLACK & WHITE PUBLISHING

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First published 2012

by Black & White Publishing Ltd

29 Ocean Drive, Edinburgh EH6 6JL

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 12 13 14 15

ISBN: 978 1 84502 419 2

Copyright Ken Smith & Newsquest

(Herald & Times) Ltd 2012

The right of Ken Smith & Newsquest

(Herald & Times) to be identified as

the author of this work has been

asserted by them in accordance withthe Copyright, Designs and Patents

Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this

publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form, or by any

means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording orotherwise, without permission in

writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library.

Designed by Richard Budd Design

Printed and bound in Poland

www.hussarbooks.pl

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CONTENTS

Introduction iv

1. Scottish Dialects 1

2. Scotland 293. More From Abroad 65

4. Other Signs 83

5. Make Us Laugh Then 97

6. Finally 107

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INTRODUCTION

Its a strange phenomenon that,

as the ability to take instant

photographs with small digital

cameras and many mobile phoneshas increased, the number of

photographs of the Loch Ness

Monster and alien spacecraft has

decreased. Perhaps the lochs

creature and the visitors from other

planets have suddenly becomecamera-shy.

However, one area that has benefited

from this rise in instant photography

is the Diary column in The Herald

newspaper. In the past readers

would describe an amusing sign orview and end the description with

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the phrase, If only I had a camera

with me. Now almost all of us have

become instant photographers by

simply reaching into a pocket fora mobile phone, pointing it, and

taking a snap. Nor do we need to

know what an f-stop is in a cameras

aperture scale. Point the phone or

digital camera, press a button and

thats it.The only time you hear f-stop

nowadays is when a Glasgow drunk

is making enquiries about where he

can catch a bus.

So for years nowThe Herald

s Diarycolumn has been recording the

daft signs, mis-spellings, and visual

oddities sent in by our generous

readers who have indeed reached for

that phone or camera.

Thank you to all our readers for their

help. Here are a few of the more

popular ones.

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SCOTTISH DIALECTS 1

CHAPTER 1

SCOTTISH DIALECTS

Scots may speak the Queen's English - sometimes - but that doesn't

stop them from wandering off into their own dialects, slang, and

pronunciations. Thus it may seem perfectly acceptable in South

Africa to have a bank called Nedbank, but to visiting Scots it conjuresup pictures of skinny wee pasty-faced individuals in Burberry caps

drinking bottles of Buckie while depositing their giro cheques.

Here are some other examples of pictures that only make Scots laugh.

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2 SCOTTISH DIALECTS

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SCOTTISH DIALECTS 3

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4 SCOTTISH DIALECTS

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SCOTTISH DIALECTS 5

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6 SCOTTISH DIALECTS

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SCOTTISH DIALECTS 7

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8 SCOTTISH DIALECTS

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SCOTTISH DIALECTS 9

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10 SCOTTISH DIALECTS

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