Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but:
ch is traditionally realised in, for example, bocht, coch, dochter, focht, socht and troch.
ld and ndelision to and occurs in all Central Scots dialects but in the Lothians ‘’ld’’ only simplifies to ‘’l’’ finally where the next word begins with a consonant.
ng: is always.
nch: usually. brainch, dunch, etc.
r: or is pronounced in all positions, i.e. rhotically.
t: may be a glottal stop between vowels or word final.
a is usually but to the north and east also occurs. Note final a in awa, twa and wha is usually realised South of the Forth, often written awae, twae and whae in dialect writing.
aw and au is usually in the East and parts of Perthshire or in the West to West Lothian, however, is spreading eastwards, for example aw, cauld, braw, faw and snaw.
ai, ay and a'e, ae are usually realised, for example baith, braid, cake, claes, grape, kail, laid, laif, made, raip, saip, spae. South of the Forth the initial realisation is often, for example acre, aik, aits,, ale, ane and ance often written yicker, yick, yits, yill, yin and yince in dialect writing. Where that occurs, ae is realised, often written yae in dialect writing.
e is usually realised, for example bed, het, yett, etc.
ea, ei, has generally merged with or depending on dialect. With prevailing in the southeast and west and prevailing in the north east of the dialect area. Before, may occur. For example deid, heid, meat, clear etc.
ee, e'e. Occasionally ei and ie with ei generally before ch, but also in a few other words, and ie generally occurring before l and v. The realisation is generally e.g. dree, ee, een, flee, here, lee, see, speir, steek, thee and tree etc. The digraph ea also occurs in a few words such as lea and sea.
eu is usually realised in the west and Fife, and in the south west and south of the Forth, for example beuk, eneuch, ceuk, leuk and teuk.
o : has merged with vowel 5 throughout much of the dialect area, often spelled phoneticallyoa in dialect spellings such as boax, coarn, Goadjoab and oan etc.
oa is usually.
ou the general literary spelling of vowel 6, also ue in some words, is realised, often represented by oo, a 19th-century borrowing from Standard English. e.g. cou, broun, hoose, moose etc.
ow, owe, is usually in bowe, howe, knowe, cowp, yowe, etc. Vocalisation to often occurs before, for example bowk, howk often written boak and hoak in dialect writing.
ui, the usual literary spelling of vowel 7. The older realisation may still occur in Perthshire and in Parts of Fife otherwise, as is the norm elsewhere, vowel 7 merges with vowel 15 in SVLR short environments and vowel 8 in long environments, e.g. buird, buit, cuit, fluir, guid, schuil, etc. Note that uise v. and uiss n. are and. The realisation is often written ai in dialect writing, e.g. flair for fluir, shair for shuir, yaise for uise and yiss for uiss.
