LL-L: "Specialized terms" LOWLANDS-L, 16.NOV.1999 (05) [E]

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject:  LL-L: "Specialized terms" LOWLANDS-L, 16.NOV.1999 (01) [E]

> From: Anja Meyfarth [AMeyfarth at t-online.de]
> Subject: LL-L: "Specialized terms" LOWLANDS-L, 24.OCT.1999 (11) [E/LS]
>
> Hello Lowlands-L
>
> John M. Tait wrote:
>
> > Complicated in Scots by the fact that 'freind' traditionally means
> > 'relative'. In Shetlandic there is the term 'bluidfreend' which makes it
> > explicit, but in my experience 'freend' is used with this meaning.
>
> So, how would you translate Rabbit`s friends and relations into Scots?

Well, accrding to Chambers "Concise English-Scots Dictionary" it might be
"Kinnen's Billies an Sib" - I've got to stop looking at this book before
it's too late!

Seriously, "Rabbit's Freends an Fowk" gives a nice readable translation
slightly superior to English in its alliterative qualities!

As an excellent antidote to "dictionary-howkin" when attempting to write
Scots, I recomend the novel "Marget Pow" on my Website, by Catherine P.
Slater. Marget Pow is a Scottish nanny who writes home from her travels
around Europe with her young  charges. She attempts to write in Englsh but
really only ends up writing a kind of Scots with English spelling. However,
this causes her Scots idiom an grammar to shine through and I think you can
learn a lot more about Scots grammar and idiom from this book than almost
any other on the site.

Examples (note in particular the perfect use of verb-noun agreement - a
rarity in Scots literature):

"Coals is wee in England by ours" (Coals are small in England compared with
ours = Coals is wee in England bi oors).

"It's a long hurl from Paris to Pisa, and we stopped at three towns in the
by-going."

"Miss Celandine's real ill about the way the folk in the hotels cleans her
boots."

"A waesome look on her face that very near garred me greet."

"Miss Jean gave me a read of a wee book ca'ed Pet Marjorie."

The verb-noun agreement still isn't consistent - is this a mistake or is
there a good reason for it? (it happens a lot in the book):

"The flowers is lookin’ fine.  The eccremocarpusses are ten feet high
already."

But for another rarity, she gets it right when it comes to wha/that:

"The cat’s oot o’ the pock - it’s the auld Samuel Tosh that’s the new
gairdner!"

There are some magnificent turns of phrase you'll wish you'd written:

"The gloamin’-star shinin’ in the West, and the loch lapperin’ among the
seaweed."

And language aside, the humour is outstanding:

"The name of the town is Lucerne, and we’re to board with two Scotch ladies,
the Miss Farquharsons.  Do you mind of two tall ladies that used to visit
next door in the winter-time?  One of them used to be hurled out in a
bath-chair with a Pomperanium dog sittin’ on her.  Well, it’s no’ exackly
them.  But their sister was married on a Mr Farquharson (he was a placed
minister at Dremside, but they lifted him no’ very long syne), and he’s
brother was Papaw to the two ladies in Swisserland.  It will be a treat to
meet in with somebody that can speak plain."

A book that'll reward your study, I think!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org

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