LL-L: "Orthography" [S] LOWLANDS-L, 09.JUN.1999 (04)

Wed Jun 9 21:28:39 UTC 1999

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From: "Sandy Fleming" <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Orthography

> A fund it in the constitution o the Scots Leid associe,
>
> 'The Societie walcums an stauns the pairt o members nae maitter whit thair
> springheid and haes nocht adae wi...'
>
> (thair spellin!)
>
> It wis obvious whit it meant, e'en gin it is a neologism. Its ane
> o the few
> that wirks, ye ken whit it means e'en gin ye hinna seen it afore.

Weel, leuks like A wis richt - it's a neologism! The word dis seem tae me
disconform tae ony Scots paradigm. The'r mibbie something A'm missin but the
ae wey A can think what this means is bi translatin throu English:
springheid -> spring -> some kin o beginnin? "Whare they come fae" or
"ethnicity"? Bi John gits a haud o'd he seems tae be uisin it tae mean
"source" or "etymology", A dinna ken what ane. An syne the'r nae dictionar
tae leuk in for't!

If A dinna translate throu English A can juist see it as meanin (like A
says) "somebody that's haed their heid brak." =:(  Or mibbie somebody that
gaes aboot brekkin fowk's heids? It's no gittin ony better!

A dout the cheil that thocht on't wis thinkin in English - aiblins English
wis his "wallheid"  :)

Assumin oo'v been talkin aboot etymology in thae shortsyne mailins, what wad
be a guid Scots word for "etymology"? A wad suggest uizin the ISV
(International Scientific Vocabular). Words can be thocht on as belangin
this vocabular if they come up in the technical or scientific terminology o
mair nor ae langgage an if they hae their ruits in antiqarian langgages
(e.g. the Greek or Laitin), but no bi line o descent - raither, it's thae
words as is made up speceifical for technical uise. Ye see that the ettle
here is that the words dinna belang tae ony modren langgage, sae can be
uized in ony modren langgage athoot bein seen as a len fae ony ither.

Sae if oo uized this principle in Scots, oo'd hae, richt naitral, English
"etymology", French "e'tymologie", an sae Scots "etymology" (or
"etymologie", if ye insist!). It wad be a grand wey tae sortin a hale fouth
o prablems an mak Scots far mair likely as a langgage o discoorse.

(Sorry aboot the French spellin, but A still dinna git speicial characters
sent back on this new server).

Sandy Fleiman
http:\\www.fleimin.demon.co.uk

----------

From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at jmt.prestel.co.uk>
Subject: Orthography

Sandy wrate:

>Div ye ken the hae the informant's details at the backs o the beuks? Like
>LAS(1) p308 gies the Hamnavoe informant as a 57-year-auld male that's bade
>thare 31 year an wis born at Setter. His mither wis born at Sandsting an his
>faither on Burra. Seems a gey reliable informant tae the area!

Ay - at the back o vol. 3. it juist gies the ineitials (JP) an the age
group, tho; an I dinna think the informants is aye the same for baith
volumes. (Born at Setter, tho - Jeemie Pottinger (JP) wis aye caa'd 'Jeemie
o Setter' - I dout thon's the verra chiel! But gin he cam frae Setter I
dout his brither John maun hae an aa.... Baith lang deid nou, i coorse.)
>
>
>A dout a hauf mile isna faur eneuch for daecent linggistic differs, but it's
>worth thinkin aboot if your fowk mibbie disna hae mair contact wi ither
>airts fae Hamnavoe, maugre o deistance (disna seem likely, fae the map o
>West Burra tho!). I see Burra's nae mair a island nor Skye nou!

Thay biggit the brig ti Burra whan I wis aboot fifteen. Coorse Burra is
raelly twa isles oniewey - Wast an Aest - but the wee briggie atween the
twa haed been thare for a gey lang time afore thay jynt thaim baith ti the
Mainland.

Nou I come ti think on't, the ir a puckle differs atween the wey I speak an
the wey Hamnavoe fowk speaks, but it's juist details o pronunciation in
twa-three words at I'm awaur o - like I say 'Hotel' but that's cause o my
mither - my faither says 'Hotael' juist like the Hamnavoers. An thay say
'Berbara' whaur I say 'Barbara' an pronounce 'Wilbert' wi whit I caa a
'saft' 'i' soond (bittie like [I]) whaurbyes I say it wi whit I caa a
'hard' 'i' soond (bittie like [@]). The 'e' soond in 'Berbara' is likely a
'saft' /a/ tae, raither nor an /E/ phoneme. (In baith cases thair
pronunciation is mair like whit ye wad expect, cause the consonant efter
the L is vyced; sae I dout my pronunciation o thae words comes frae my
mither tae.) Mairatower, my frein frae Setter (nearer nor Hamnavoe) says
'fedder' (phonemic: /'fEd at r/, phonetic: ['feid at r]) at ti me means 'feather'
(tho we aye caa a feather a 'pen' as weel) whan he means 'faider'
['fe:d at r], (faither). That's likely cause o his mither an aa - she cam
richt frae the Sooth end o the isle - haith, the Aest isle, tae! - an some
o her fowk frae somewey hine awa like Channerwick! Seein I notice aa thir
wee differs, I wadna think I wad miss muckle great differs like sayin
'gaet' insteid o 'gate'; but I suppose it's possible.

Bi the wey, gin ye'r leukin at a detailed cairt, I come frae Meal (shuid
raelly be Mael - [mel].)

John M. Tait.

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