PhD research examines perceptions of north-east speech
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An Inverurie woman's PhD studies focused on how the Doric dialect is perceived in the north-east.
Dawn Leslie (32) was recently awarded with her doctorate in linguistics after completing it at the University of Aberdeen.
She examined perceptions of north-east speech, particularly what Doric means to people.
She said: "The focus was on how people speak about language.
"What was found is where people think the Doric is spoken moves about depending on who you ask.
"Identity issues within the region and how that links to language was also looked at."
As part of her studies she surveyed 320 people across the north-east.
Her studies took in a large area of the north-east with communities including Elgin, Banff, Peterhead, Alford, Inverurie and Newburgh.
"One of the aspects was there was a map of the north-east and the people taking part had to draw on where they thought Doric was spoken and then that was mapped on to heat maps," she added.
"Where people think the label Doric applies to changes depending on who you ask. If you ask people in Peterhead to draw a circle on their map, they'll draw it in the Buchan corner. But then if you ask folk in Alford their circle for Doric is much more rural."
One of the main findings was youngsters in the Garioch area in Inverurie are perceiving language very differently from the older speakers.
Dawn said: "I was quite surprised by the variation within the younger groups.
"The youngsters in Inverurie don't seem to as strongly identify with the idea of the Doric as speakers in other more remote and rural parts of the north-east."
Dawn is a former Inverurie Academy pupil and studied at university after school before becoming an English teacher in Alford Academy. She then went back to university to undertake her PhD over the past four years.
During that time she has also been a teaching fellow in the linguistics department of the University of Aberdeen and this year she started a new Doric course for the Elphinstone Institute.
