An A to Z of the Doric: an occasional series. Y

Doric, the dialect spoken in the North-East of Scotland is rich in words and phrases associated with the land and the sea. Over the next few weeks I will try to illustrate some of them in an A-Z using examples of their use taken mainly from Buchan Claik, The Saut an the Glaur o't written in 1989 by Peter Buchan and David Toulmin.

YAVINS: The beard or bristles on barley which comes off in the threshing. When it gets inside the shirt, it causes great irritation and itching on the skin.

"I hid tae change my sark and semmit efter a day at the mull, threshin barley. I was jist crawlin wi yavins!" (I had to change my shirt and vest after a day threshing barley at the threshing mill. I was just crawling with barley hairs.)

Fans of 'Star Wars' will know that Yavin is also the name of a red gas-giant planet in the fictional Star Wars universe.

I am sorry that this entry to the Doric A-Z is so drastically out of alphabetical order. By the time that I should have reached Y, the barley would be long gone from the fields!

Zoomify for maximum itching.