These differences used to be as marked as different languages; of course they still exist amongst the peasantry as before.

The change consists in their gradual vanishing from the conversation of the educated and refined.

The dialects with which I am most conversant are the two which present the greatest contrast, viz.

the Angus and the Aberdeen, or the slow and broad Scotch--the quick and sharp Scotch.

Whilst the one talks of "Buuts and shoon," the other calls the same articles "beets and sheen." With the Aberdonian "what" is always "fat" or "fatten;" "music" is "meesic;" "brutes" are "breets;" "What are ye duin' ?" of southern Scotch, in Aberdeen would be "Fat are ye deein' ?" Fergusson, nearly a century ago, noted this peculiarity of dialect in his poem of The Leith Races:-- "The Buchan bodies through the beach, Their bunch of Findrams cry; And skirl out bauld in Norland speech, Gude speldans _fa_ will buy ?" "Findon," or "Finnan haddies," are split, smoked, and partially dried haddocks.