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<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 06 September 2007 - Volume 02</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Song Contest: <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/contest/">lowlands-l.net/contest/</a> (- 31 Dec. 2007)</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span>
<span id="_user_sandy@scotstext.org" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Sandy Fleming</span><span style="font-weight: normal; font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="lg"> <<a href="mailto:sandy@scotstext.org">
sandy@scotstext.org</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2007.09.05 (01) [E]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div style="direction: ltr; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> From: R. F. Hahn <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com
</a>><br>> Subject: Grammar<br>><br>> Hello, (silent) Lowlanders!<br>><br>> On the way to work this morning I was struck by the sight of a sign<br>> saying "Stair" pointing to a set of ten or more stairways down a hill
<br>> side. Many Americans say "stair" for what others call "stairway,"<br>> "set of stairs" or just "stairs." I think the ambiguity arises from<br><br>In Scots a staircase is referred to as the "stair", eg "up the stair",
<br>"doun the stair" for upstairs and downstairs, it's long-established<br>usage. I don't know whether that would influence American idiom or not.<br></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="sg">
<br>Sandy Fleming<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://sandyfleming.org/" target="_blank">http://sandyfleming.org/</a></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: R. F. Hahn <</span>
<a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com">sassisch@yahoo.com</a><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: Grammar</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Thanks, Sandy.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Personally I have a hunch that Scots influences via Scottish English influences (as well as Northumbrian influences) have been largely overlooked in the study of the development of non-European English varieties. Perhaps our own Michael Montgomery (
</span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" href="http://lowlands-l.net/anniversary/michael.php">lowlands-l.net/anniversary/michael.php</a><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">) could share his take on this sometime, since this topic is roughly up his stair.
<br><br>"Pidgeons from Hell" (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Black Stranger and Other American Tales</span> by Robert Ervin Howard):<br><br></span><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
But he came <span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair</span>!<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From Brooklyn Online: "How to Play Three Card Monte and Win: The Story of a Subway Con Job":
<br><br></span><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Out of boredom, I walked to the end of the station to see if I could see <span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stairs</span> at the relic of a previous generation.
<br>I couldn't see anything <span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair</span>, but I noticed 10-15 large garbage bags laid out on the platform behind the fence. <br></div><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" face="arial"><font size="-1">From Malvina Reynolds, </font></font><font style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" face="arial"><font size="-1"><i>Little Boxes and Other Handmade Songs
</i>: "Billy Boy" ("In May, 1960, the House UnAmerican Committee came to San Francisco and subpoenaed, amongst others, a university student."):<br><br></font></font><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<font size="-1">Did they wash you <span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair</span>, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,</font><br><font size="-1">Did they wash you </font><font size="-1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair
</span></font><font size="-1">, charming Billy?</font><br><font size="-1">Yes, they washed me </font><font size="-1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair</span></font><br><font size="-1">And they rearranged my hair
</font><br><font size="-1">With a club in the City Hall rotunda.</font><br></div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br>Here a well-known ditty:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><pre style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px;" id="nonprop">
As I was going <span style="font-weight: bold;">up the stair</span><br>I met a man who wasn't there<br>He wasn't there again today<br>Oh God, I wish he'd go away.</pre><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
>From Robert Burns' "Charlie He's My Darling":</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Sae light's he jimped <span style="font-weight: bold;">up the stair</span>, <br>
And tirl'd at the pin; <br>
And wha sae ready as hersel' <br>
To let the laddie in! <br></div><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From "Fennario" ("The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie"):</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<pre style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; margin-left: 40px;">Come skippin' <span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair</span>, pretty Peggy-o.<br>Come skippin' <span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair
</span>, pretty Peggy-o.<br>Come skippin' d<span style="font-weight: bold;">down the stair</span> combin' back your yellow hair,<br>And bid farewell to sweet William-o.</pre><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
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