TransactioTis. 51 



The verb to 'pluck is to pouk ; and a 'plucked goose and 

 hen would be poukit birds. 



When I is the final letter of a word, it is commonly sup- 

 pressed by the Scotch. 



The English suppress it in their phrases sha'nt and won't, 

 for shall not and will or wol not 



But in the Scotch the suppression of the letter is so 

 general as to form a very marked peculiarity in the language. 



The Aberdeen story of the " A ae woo " will occur to 

 every one. 



In this connection I may notice the Scottish phrase to 

 spae fortunes, the operating female being a spae wife. 



I will not be positive, but I conjecture that the word is 

 to spell, the final letters being suppressed. The phrase is 

 sometimes varied by the phrase to rad fortunes. But whe- 

 ther the term to spell or spae is to be taken in its literal 

 sense of reading a fortune, or in the more recondite and 

 technical sense of a spell, charm, or incantation, may be left 

 an open question. 



The next letter to be noticed here is the letter v, which 

 is suppressed by the English sometimes and by the Scotch 

 often. 



The English suppress it in their phrase ha'nt for have 

 iwt ; and the Scotch in their phrase hae ye no, for have you 

 not. 



" I hae been east, I hae been west, 

 I hat been far ayont the sun." 



The English also suppress the v in o'er for over and een 

 for even or evening ; and the Scots suppress it in brave and 

 bravely, which they pronounce braw and brawly. 



Dean Trench, in commenting on these words, says — " I 

 do not very clearly trace by what steps it obtained the mean- 

 ing of shoivy, gaudy, rich, which once it so frequently had, in 

 addition to that meaning which it still retains." 



But if we may judge from the Scotch use of the words, 

 rich, showy, gaudy were the original meaning : it is the ex- 

 clusive meaninjj with us. 



