LL-L "Grammar" 2002.04.06 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 06.APR.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at wirhoose.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2002.04.03 (02) [E]

Ian James Parsley wrote:

>In Scots there is a similar issue.
>
>A gae tae kirk - I go to church (ie as a general rule)
>A gae tae the kirk - I go to church (ie a single
>event)

By contrast, in any kind of Scots I'm familiar with, the form 'I gae tae
Kirk' does not exist - I cannot imagine that anybody would say this.
Only 'I gae tae _the_ Kirk' would be natural. The same thing goes for
all similar words: 'in schuil' wouldn't be natural in any sense: '_at
the_ schuil' would; similarly 'in the hospital' (I think of _spital_ as
archaic).

The only possible exception I can think of is the Whalsay dialect of
Shetlandic, where 'I gae tae Kirk' may be possible - but that is because
of a general tendency to omit the definite article.

In Shetlandic, I have the following idiomatic contrasts.

in da schuil = Eng. in the school, ie: in the building
at da schuil= Eng. at school, ie: being educated there

I'm not sure if there is a difference between Eng. 'in school' and 'at
school'.

in da bank - in the building
at da bank - there to use some banking service

Here, I would use the same syntax in English with the same intended
meaning.

in da Kirk - in the church, ie: in the building
at da Kirk - at church, ie: at a church service

BUT:

in da ospital= in hospital, ie: as a patient
at da ospital=at the hospital, ie: there for some other purpose (e.g. as
an out-patient, working there, or whatever.)

The idioms I use seem inconsistent - even the English ones. (By the way,
I would use some of the Scots syntax - eg: 'at _the_ school' rather than
'at school', even when speaking English, though I would probably write
_at school_. I would never either say or write _in school_.)

John M. Tait.

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