LL-L "Orthography" 2002.02.21 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 21.FEB.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: "Aviad Stier" <aviad2001 at hotmail.com>
Subject: morphology

From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Orhrography"

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Orthography
>
> Andy, Sandy, Lowlanders,
>
> It seems to me that there ought to be some type of device that
> distinguishes
> /z/ and /s/ also in such alternations, that is if you aim at regularizing,
> i.e., consistency, unless there are processes in Scots of which I am not
> aware.

I have been practising this sort of thing in my written Scots,
hence you see me (and probably only me!) writing "uise" (noun)
and "uize" (verb).

This point is right - we can, and I think should, make the
disctinction in the orthography when there's a grammatical
change like this that involves altered pronunciation.

Having settled that, I wish I could take it further and allow
also for the fact that in Scots the distinction between "s"
and "z" has a fairly regular effect on vowel length (described
by Aitken's Scottish Vowel Length Rule), and so observe a
regular orthographic distinction between [s] and [z], [f]
and [v], [T] and [D] and certain other consonants, because
this can help learners to judge the length of the preceding
vowel. But this sort of help becomes a hindrance if you're not
consistent with it, so I end up wanting to write "noze" for
"nose" and so on, and even realising that in Scots we would
also want an orthographic distinction between [T] and [D].

While you can explain to a Scots speaker that [s] should be
consistently written <s> and [z] <z>, and hear them vehemently
exclaim "DEID RICHT!" and "AMEN!!", presenting them with "My
love iz like a red, red, roze" will soon change their tune!

In Scots there seems to be an unbridgeable gap, and a very
wide gap it is, too, between sensible orthographies, and
orthographies that Scots speakers will accept. On the whole,
I'd say a writer would have no success with a Scots orthography
unless it's more or less just English orthography with the
minimum possible adjustments.

Incidentally, I tried learning the Shavian alphabet recently
(a search on "Shavian" will turn up plenty of descriptions of
it on the Web - it's an alphabet specifically designed for
writing English) to see what might be the effect of writing
Scots with a completely regular orthography. I found that I
couldn't write Scottish English in it, let alone Scots!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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