LL-L: "Orthography" (was "Copy-editing") LOWLANDS-L, 18.MAY.2001 (01) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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From:  Andy.Eagle at t-online.de (Andy Eagle)
Subject: LL-L: "Copy-editing" [S]

Sandy Fleming wrote:

> Some considerations:
>
> 1. I've already attempted various schemes for allowing the
> user to select between original and "improved" texts, and
> it always seems to come back to the fact that offering more
> than one version of every text is far more trouble than it's
> worth.

Wad a wee note anent whaur the oreeginal is fae suffice, or a puckle
jottins
anent whit ye hae chynged. Wi a bittie java script an CSS ye coud mebbes
hielicht the spellins ye'v chynged an hae the oreeginal spellins (an
jottins) kythe in the status baur.

>     o  correcting grammar;

This is mebbes no a guid idea at aa. Chyngin spellins is ae thing, chyngin
a
bodie's wark is anither.
>     o  attempting full standardisation (instead, I now think
>        the author's choice of dialect words should be allowed
>        to stand, eg I shouldn't have changed Mitchell's
>        "throwe" to "throu");

This is the difficult ane. Bi chyngin tae a 'non-regional' Scots spellin ye

disguise the owthor's dialect. Gaun bi the ensaumple abuin A wad tak
Mitchell tae be fae the Mairches (Borders). O coorse bi changin thon A
wadna
ken onie better.
Aiblins lea' dialect spellins alane gin its obvious that the owthor wants
the reader tae 'hear' his vyce. Mebbe anither case for a puckle jottins.

O course some owthors dinna write thair dialect sae obvious. Tak Burns'
"Gude Ale Keeps The Heart Aboon"

Ee'n in the teetle the vouel in Gude an Aboon is spelt different tho Burns
wad hae pronounced thaim [gId] an [@'bIn]

I HAD sax owsen in a pleugh,
And they drew a' weel eneugh:
I sell'd them a' just ane by ane -
Gude ale keeps my heart aboon
...
[A hVd saks AVz at n In @ plux
@n De: dru: a: wil @njux
A sElt Dem a: dzIst jIn bI jIn
gId el (jIl) kips ma hErt @'bIn]

(Thon's a roch shottie at a phonetic transcreeption!)

pleugh an eneugh juist haes <gh> for <ch> lik in maist o Burns wark tho nou

<ch> wad be mair better.
ane an aboon rhymes in (Ayshire) Scots [jIn] [@'bIn] (NE Scots [in] [@'bin]

an mebbes in Wast Fife/Perthshire [en] [@'ben].

O course A ken that but we'v aft heard Burns bein recitit whaur thae
spellins haes been pronounced wi Inglis soonds sae the rhymes disna wirk.
Wad the solution be tae spell ane - yin an aboon - abin etc. or in a
'genereal Scots' ane, abuin /abune etc. But gin bodies pronounce thaim
wrang
ye're back tae whaur ye stairtit. Sin some fowk is gaun tae pronounce
aathing wrang oniewey for  the want o Scots ye micht as weel juist uise a
'general Scots' an pynt oot hou Burns wad hae pronounced <ane> <ui> etc.
sae
fowk can see the rhyme.

>     o  using contrived modern (eg RWS) spellings.
A jalouse A dinna need tae sae ochht aboot whit A think o (monie) RWS
spellins
>
> However, there's no doubt that the orthography of virtually
> all texts in Scots poses serious problems. To take a passage
> from Burns's "Tam O'Shanter", for example:
<sned>
> Some notes on this:
>
> 1. Although the continual use of "which" and "whom" will
> grate on Scots speakers' nerves, I've left them because
> of my decision not to correct grammar. I assume that most
> Scots speakers will, like myself, correct them in recitation
> anyway.
As a said abuin richtin gremmar is vergin on chyngin a bodie's wark.

> 2. I've left alone spellings like "blude", which in other
> texts might be "bluid", since neither is any more correct
> than the other. This lack of standardisation means that the
> reader can still see plenty of the character of the original
> text without having to suffer errors of anglification.
> However, had it been "blood" I would have changed it to
> "bluid" or "blude" according to what seems to be the writer's
> own preference (for example, in "stood" -> "stude", above,
> "stude" is chosen rather than "stood", by analogy with
> Burns's own choice of "blude"). Note that the search engine
> will be able to deal with spelling variants.

Fair eneuch.

> 3. All unnecessary apostrophes are removed. In the above
> this removes all but those required by the "Saxon genitive"
> and the "-'d" of the traditional poetic diction of the time.
> This doesn't seem so important in this text, but in some
> texts, particularly in prose, it can be a real strain on the
> eyes.

Fair eneuch.

Andy Eagle
www.scots-online.org

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