Underwoods: Table of Common Scottish Vowel Sounds. Stevenson, Robert Louis. 1913. A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods

Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.

Underwoods: Table of Common Scottish Vowel Sounds

ae ai	= open A as in rare.
a’ au aw	= AW as in law.
ea	= open E as in mere, but this with exceptions, as heather = heather, wean = wain, lear = lair.
ee ei ie	= open E as in mere.
oa	= open O as in more.
ou	= doubled O as in poor.
ow	= OW as in bower.
u	= doubled O as in poor.
ui or ü before R	= (say roughly) open A as in rare.
ui or ü before any other consonant	= (say roughly) close I as in grin.
y	= open I as in kite.
i	= pretty nearly what you please, much as in English. Heaven guide the reader through that labyrinth! But in Scots it dodges usually from the short I, as in grin, to the open E, as in mere. Find and blind, I may remark, are pronounced to rhyme with the preterite of grin.