ah-bay-say

• aw-be-sae, aw-bay-say, ABC
• abbacee, ebbasay, abersay (Shetland)

From Middle English abece, from the first three letters of the Latin alphabet, standing for the whole alphabet.

• IPA^(key): /ɑːbeːseː/, /-beːsiː/, /ɔː-/
• (Northern Scots, Insular Scots) IPA^(key): /aː-/

ah-bay-say

1. (Orkney) alphabet

• “ah-bay-say, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• “abbacee, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• “ebbasay, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• Eagle, Andy, editor (2026), “ah-bay-say”, in The Online Scots Dictionary‎^[1]