LL-L "Jargons" 2002.04.30 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 30.APR.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: "Nigel Smith [ intexta web services ]" <RNigelSmith at hotmail.com>
Subject: Scots Rhyming Slang

An article from _The Guardian_ (UK national left-of-centre daily
broadsheet newspaper) may be of interest to subscribers:

YOUNG SCOTS BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO AULD SLANG RHYMES

[Kirsty Scott]

Are ye corned beef? I said sit doon on yer chorus and we'll have a wee
Salvador. Mine's a Mick Jagger by the way.

The Scots tongue, already incomprehensible to many south of the border,
is
about to become even more abstruse with the emergence of anew form of
Scottish rhyming slang.

Researchers compiling a series of Scottish language dictionaries say
devolution has spawned a distinctive rhyming vernacular, especially
among
the country's young.

So now, on top of the glottal stop and the distinctive burr, translators
will have to contend with such obscure Scots phraseology as corned beef,
as
in "deif", as in deaf. And chorus, as in chorus and verse, as in "erse",
as
in a.r.s.e. Salvador, as in Dali, as in "swallie", as in swallow, as in
drink. Jagger as in lager.

Pauline Cairns, a senior editor for the new dictionaries said there had
always been examples of rhyming slang in Scots but its use had become
much
more widespread thanks to a growing national pride in the country's
native
tongue following the creation of the Scottish parliament and the
breakdown
of the class system.

"Before, whether or not you spoke Scots very much depended on what
register
people were brought up with", she told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.

"For nice, middle-class people, Scots would have been something of a
taboo,
it would have been seen as bad English. Today that's not the case."

Language expert Iseabail Macleod said researchers working on the new
dictionaries had noticed that rhyming slang was becoming more common
north
of the border, particularly in Glasgow, but said the Scottish version
would
fall hard on English ears.

"The use of rhyming slang was always thought of as a London thing. But
one
interesting thing which will tell you that this way of rhyming is
different
is that it won't work in English," she said.

"For example, we say corned beef to mean 'deif', but beef doesn't rhyme
with
deaf. And 'pottit heid' means 'deid', which doesn't rhyme with the word
dead."

But with a political leader (Jack MacConnell) whose surname doesn't
easily
lend itself to verse, Scots still have to refer south of the border on
some
matters. As in "yer Tony's in a real state". As in hair. As in Blair.

(From _The Guardian_, Monday 29 April 2002, front page)

Anyone have any comments on this? In particular, can anyone shed any
light
on the "series of Scottish [sic] language dictionaries" that the report
mentions?

Nigel Smith

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