This region contains some of the most historic towns in Scotland. On its northern edge is Dundee, founded in the late 12th century by Earl David, brother of William The Lion.  In the west is Perth, to the far east, in Fife, are both Dunfermline and St Andrews, and towards the southern edge of the region is Stirling. We can see traces of the early Scots language as vernacular words contained in charters, beginning in the 12th century, while full texts appear from the 14th century ownwards.

Name

The dialect of this region has long been called either Scots (the traditional name) or Scotch. In the Dundee, which is on the edge of this dialect, the dialect of the city is known as Dundonian.

Characteristics

The dialect of what is now Angus and Tayside falls somewhere between Central and Northern Scots.  Strictly speaking, the speech of, say, Dundee and the area to the west of the city, is the same as the dialect spoken in Edinburgh and Glasgow, called Central Scots. To the north of Dundee the dialect begins to change and merge with Northern Scots.  In one old saying the town of Forfar is regarded as standing on the boundary between the two dialect regions: Bi foo, fit, far an fan, ye can tell a Farfar man.

 There are in Angus some points of pronunciation which differ from further south.  Whereas in the south the sound i is usual to words such as muin, spuin and guid, in Angus the same words substitute an oo sound, becoming mune, spune and gude (moon, spoon, good).  Also, in Angus, the word ane (one) is pronounced as it looks while to the south it becomes yin.

In the city of Dundee there is also a classic sound by which native Dundonians may be recognised: eh. Billy Kay, in Scots The Mither Tongue, gives a good example of this sound in the following sentence: Eh hud meh eh on a peh (I had my eye on a pie).

Region

There are one or two writers who are connected with this region, such as William Soutar and Violet Jacob, but probably William Lorimer, who translated the New Testament into Scots, is the most well known.

Scots is the collective name for Scottish dialects known also as Doric, Lallans and Scotch or by more local names such as Buchan, Dundonian, Glesca or Shetland. Taken altogether, Scottish dialects are called the Scots language.

 The dialect stretches down through the western half of Angus, includes the city of Dundee, Perth and Kinross, and also the whole of Fife, Clackmannan, and Stirlingshire together with Falkirk district. Within this region are included the towns of Anstruther (Ainster), Auchterarder (Auchterairder), Cowdenbeath (Coudenbaith), Cupar,  Dunfermline (Dumfaurlin),  Dunkeld (Dunkell), Falkirk (The Fawkirk), Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, Perth, St Andrews (St Aundraes) and Stirling (Stirlin). The biggest town within this dialect is the city of Dundee which has its own city dialect of Scots known by its speakers as Dundonian of whom Ellie McDonald, Gary Robertson, Mark Thomson, and Sheena Wellington are poets, singers and writers. In Dundee the dialect is largely like that of Scots spoken to the south and west but there are some characteristics that stand out. Perhaps the most well known characteristic of Dundonian is the eh sound as in the sentence Eh hud meh eh on a peh (I had my eye on a pie). In this dialect generally people say hoo, whit, whaur, whan, in difference to the f pronunciation (for example, fit - what) used further north. Much of the dialect is very similar to the other regions of Central Scots further south, but the accent, or way people pronounce things, is obviously somewhat different. For example, the fishing communities of the East Neuk of Fife and the old mining communities of the west of Fife both have distinct ways of pronouncing the dialect, the people of the East Neuk tending to raise the pitch at the end of sentences. Outside Dundee there are a number of other poets, singers and writers in the dialect including Willie Hershaw, Mary Kermack, Andrew McNeil and William Soutar.