NE Scotland Doric, pronounciation v spellings - then and now! - this is just a space to pop surnames into which may have sounded, and been spelled, a lot different to their anglicized versions today.
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First the "ch" and "ck"
I'm not sure how to explain this but I just know - Just try to think of Loch Ness, I think most foreign visitors to Scotland will have heard of that.. that is not pronounced Lock Ness with the hard "ck" (though some do!) - it's more like you're whispering or spitting almost.. let's just google it..
How to pronounce Loch .. as in Loch Ness (it's only 37 secs long btw!)
PS: that's not Doric, it's just general Scottish pronounciation.. but it's important as we get to the Doric.
Doric words differ even locally
While the dialect is generally associated with the North East of Scotland, i.e. Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, Morayshire, even words between those close knit communities could differ.. however everyone knew what each other was spikkin' aboot (speaking about). It's like being able to understand french, german or spanish these days (if you're a native english speaker) when on holiday, but not be able to write or speak it!, though you likely could still convey it in conversation when required
Doric is a "lazy" tongue
If it was at all possible to shorten anything then it would be done, it's a very fast spoken tongue, bit like today's texting and instant messaging with emoji's type thing, people just knew/know what they were trying to convey! our english teachers would be horrified..
Why this page?
Recently I've been working with my own family tree when I realised that I've hit on on 2 names especially, Dickson and Grassick, that I've always just known about as I still can spik (speak) the doric! but while profile building and trying to get every single variation into a profile I realised it's nae bonny (not pretty)! I mean how do you do a LNAB when you just know it depended on who was actually writing the register.
There is likely more names so please feel free to add, then can just link this page in a profile to help explain the random spellings
Dickson, Duckison, Ducheson, Dukieson, Ducheson and more
Dickson is the anglicized version for sure, however if you land in the NE Scotland for your roots there are weird and wonderful spellings. It is likely not the "son of a Richard"
In Doric a duck (the bird) is known as a duke (anglicized), "The Doric word for duck is dyeuck which can also be spelt dyeuks or dyook throughout the North-East of Scotland."
dyeuk or dyook is pronounced Duke, and then also duck is pronounced "Duch" (with the "ch" being as in Loch) hence the 2 variations depending on who was writing the register
It does not explain every spelling variation, but I hope it helps
Grassick, Grassich, Gracie, Gracy and more
Hopeully that is half-way self explanatory, Grassick is the more commonly accepted version today, the version with the "ch" is being the scottish verion of the "ck" as explained above .. Grassie or Gracy are the "lazy versions"
Please feel free to add more
please do add more and change what it is here if adding a new name add the == tags before and after the heading (differnet names) so each bit can be added to or edited individually
Further Reading, if you want
please add any more fun Doric sources here, so it doesn't get lost entirely, thank you!