"I Dinna Ken" ? (lyics "I Hate Men"

I have been wondering the words to the song I HATE MEN as seen in the musical KISS ME KATE.

I looked up the lyrics on Google and I keep getting the words “There worth to me on earth I dinna ken.” What is “I dinna ken?”

It’s Scots for “I don’t know”.

I don’t know.

Or “I don’t understand”. Subtle difference, but occasionally important. As in “I dinna ken you” doesn’t mean “I don’t know you” but rather “I don’t understand you”.

Can’t it mean both, as in “D’ye ken John Peel”?

It can mean either know or understand, depending on the context. It almost never means both in the samw sentence. Also, the word ken alone can mean what, as in:

“Do you want tea?”
“Ken?”
“I said, do you want tea?”

An exchange all to common in my parents house.

No - “I dinna ken you” does NOT mean “I don’t understand you”, it DOES mean “I don’t know you.”

In other contexts, “ken” can mean “know” or “understand” but not in the context above - at least I have never come across it in that sense, and I have lived in quite a few regions in Scotland.

I don’t mean to quibble, Iguana Boy, but I have heard the phrase used to mean ‘I don’t understand you’. Consider the following exchange:

Son: “I want to get up early to go jogging.”
Father: “but tomorrows Saturday”
Son: “Yeah, but I’ve got to get some exercise.”
Father: “Well, I’m going to have a long lie. I dinna ken you at all!”

Now, this obviously means, ‘I don’t see reason for your behavoiur, I don’t understand you’, as it would be strange for a father to suddenly claim he did not know his own son!

What does it mean in reference to this song?

I believe the line goes something like:

"I hate men
“Their purpose on this Earth I dinna ken.”

In that context, it means, “I don’t know what purpose they have on Earth.”