LL-L "Morphology" 2002.08.31 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 31.AUG.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Morphology"

> From: "Daniel Prohaska" <daniel at ryan-prohaska.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2002.08.30 (10) [S]
>
> Dear Scots speakers, John and Sandy,
>
>   Could you tell me how much alive a "thou"-form is in mainland Scots. I
> know Shetland Scots has a "du"-form (I don`t know about Orkney).

Daniel,

The only use of the "thou" form I actually hear in spoken
Scots is "tu" (pronounced as a short "too" - /tu/) which as
far as I know is used here and there throughout the south
of Scotland. This takes the -s form as you suggested, eg
"tu kens": "thou knowest".

I can't seem to think of any corresponding "thy" or "thee"
forms.

This is _only_ used when speaking to young children or pets,
don't try it on adults! You can see it in Burns's children's
story at:

http://scotstext.org/pages/resultspage.asp?text=1517&pagetype=text

(note that the apparent inconsistency in use between "Whare's
tu gaun?" and "Whare tu gaun?" reflects the original text -
I didn't correct it because it's acceptable to drop the
copula in Scots in some places, and after the question word
"whare" is one of those places).

Of course, use of the "thou" (pronounced "thoo" - /Du:/) is
still going healthy in more formal Scots such as Bible
translation, and is seen throughout the corpus of traditional
Scots song and poetry. Here are some usages from Herd's 1776
collection of Scots songs...

>From "The Bonny Lass o Anglesey":

Fifteen ploughs but and a mill,
   I'll gie thee till the day thou die;
And the fairest knight in a' my court,
   To chuse thy husband for to be.

I believe that here the "die" /di:/ is uninflected because
it's the subjunctive (as well as helping the rhyme!).

>From "Auld Guidman":

Thy auld guidman that thou tells of,
    The country kens where he was born,

Showing what's usually considered to be the strictly correct
Scots -s ending, although this song also shows that Scots
writers often succumb to the King James English forms, as in
the following two lines that seem to show both Scots and King
James English usages:

Why dost thou pleen? I thee maintain,
    For meal and mawt thou disna want;

There are many examples of closely mixed forms like this in
this collection. I'm inclined to think that the -s forms are
Scots and the -st forms arise only because the Scors writers
are thoroughly acquainted with the King James Bible.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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