Teckle quiz to teach freshers Dundonian

Language expert designs a test to help arriving students tell their cundies from their cludgees

A language expert from Dundee has produced a test to help new students learn the regional dialect of their adopted city. To coincide with the start of the university year, language experts from 17 UK cities, including Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have produced a local dialect course. It is designed to help new students learn the regional dialect of their adopted hometown. The initiative has been organised by digital learning platform Quizlet. The organisation has published 10 essential Dundee words and phrases, provided by local poet Gary Robertson, who was recently crowned Scots Performer o’ The Year 2019. A video of Gary’s latest work “Mick Mccluskey’s Oary Topia” is the latest of his work to be shared hundreds of times since being posted on Facebook. The test asks people to define words such as “fleg”, “dockie” and “teckle”. The initiative coincides with new Quizlet data from 1,000 students. It shows 11% have never visited their university hometown before moving and 44% of students stated they either rarely or never socialised with locals in their university towns. Further findings showed 49% of students rarely or never understand local words. Richard Gregory, vice-president of international at Quizlet, said: “Many of us will remember how nerve-wracking those initial university days are. “Dozens of faces and names to remember, all in the backdrop of a new city. “We created this resource to try and mitigate those university jitters – teaching students about their new surroundings through the important pillars of language and culture. “The relationship between students and the local population can sometimes be a challenge, and that’s why all these language experts wanted to get on board to help us bridge linguistic divides.” Take the test and see if you can get a full 10 out of 10 of Dundonian words.

Poet Gary Robertson has prepared a list of Dundee words for students.