LL-L "How do you say ...?" 2002.04.18 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: "John M. Tait" <jmtait at wirhoose.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "How do you say ...?" 2002.04.16 (06) [E]

Sandy wrate:

>I think you're being overly dogmatic.
>
>The SND lists all alternative forms of "wolf" as obsolete,
>but I'm certainly familiar with the form "woof", so there's
>no reason to take it as gospel (the SND does sometimes list
>things as obsolete which most definitely aren't).

Well, I stand corrected! At least one of the forms isn't obsolete, in
spite of the animal being extinct.
>
>Sometimes it's surprising just how many ways common words can
>be pronounced. Consider the number system in Scots:
>
>ane/yin

+ 'een' in the NE.

>twaw/twah/twae/quaw
>three/shree
>fower
>five
>sax/six
>seeven

'seyven' in parts of the NE.

>aicht/eicht/aucht
>nine
>ten

>little finger: crannie/creenack/curnie/creemie/
>               wee finger/winkie/creenie/kittie

Aside here. I see you haven't mentioned 'pinkie'. I read recently a
comment by a well-known Scots writer and educator (I won't say who,
because the source wasn't intended to be public) that she tells people
that if they say 'pinkie' then they are speaking Scots! I _never_ say
'pinkie' (in fact, I'm so unfamiliar with it that I think of it as
almost a child's word, as I do 'tummy' - I say 'belly') so presumably I
can't speak Scots? Most of the other criteria she gave for speaking
Scots - such as saying 'I'm away to my bed' rather than 'I'm off to bed'
- are expressions I use when I am consciously speaking Engish - ie, they
are part of common Scottish English, in my opinion. This re-definition
of Scots to include what I think of as English is common in certain
circles, apparently associated with (a) a desire by English speakers to
justify their pronouncements on Scots by defining themselves as Scots
speakers, and (b) to widen the scope of 'Scots' for political reasons.
The reasons given for the 'pinkie principle' were, to say the least,
non-scientific - eg: that this word was a reliable guide to Scots speech
because it was one of the words that wasn't stigmatised, whereas words
like 'heid' were. In other words, using the 'pinkie principle' you can
define Scots as a language which lacks all the Scots cognate forms!

>splinter: skelf/stab/splice/stob/splinter/spell/
>          speel/spelk/spilk/skelb

The word 'spell', 'spellock' and variants has, in some localities, the
meaning of 'woodshaving'.

All of this raises the question - what is an appropriate form for Eng.
_wolf_ in written  Scots? The form I'm most familiar with in written
Scots is <wowf>, but CSD says that the pronunciation [wVuf] is
Aberdeenshire, the other pronunciation being [(w)uf]. The form <wouf>
would follow the common Scots orthographic device of substituting <u>
for an etymological <l>. I suspect that a form beginning with <w>
wouldn't seem so strange to most of us - who are only familiar with the
pronunciation 'wolf' - as <oof> does. What do you think, Matthew?

The fact remains that you don't often have to speak or write about
wolves in Scots!

John M. Tait.

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