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gang

Dialect
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Gang is a Scots and northern English dialect verb meaning “to go” or “move along,” frequently used in ballads and older regional verse.

Detailed Definition
Gang is a Scots verb meaning go. Burns uses it in the poem’s promise that the seas will not dry up before his love endures, and the dialect word helps mark the poem’s Scottish setting and speech.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear” uses Scots gang for go; Burns’s dialect gives the promise local voice and musical rhythm; “Let the waters gang their way” means let them proceed; A modern Scots-style line: “We’ll gang hame beneath the moon.”
Additional Notes
The word gang in the quoted line is Scots dialect and can be unfamiliar to readers used to standard English.; Found in the poem, A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
Also Known As
band crew company faction
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