LL-L "Orthography" 2003.03.02 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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

> From: Ian James Parsley <parsleyij at yahoo.com>
> Subject:  Orthography
>
> The more I think of it, the more spelling reminds me
> of driving. We always criticize everyone else's, but
> of course we're perfect ourselves. And we all have our
> pet peeves, and other things which by any logic should
> irritate us the same way but just don't. Just goes to
> show the power of instinct over logic - or something
> like that.
>
> Clearly those who hog the passing lane on a dual
> carriageway/divided highway should face the same
> punishment as those who write 'thanx' with an <x>.
> Outrageous! <grin>

I was working on the new ScotsteXt today and the idea
is to have a page for each author with an index of his
works and if possible a few "soundbites" from the author
himself. Scouring my vast library I came across this
soundbite from Robert Louis Stevenson, describing his
own spelling problems:

"THE human conscience has fled of late the troublesome
domain of conduct for what I should have supposed to be
the less congenial field of art: there she may now be
said to rage, and with special severity in all that
touches dialect; so that in every novel the letters of
the alphabet are tortured, and the reader wearied, to
commemorate shades of mispronunciation. Now, spelling
is an art of great difficulty in my eyes, and I am
inclined to lean upon the printer, even in common
practice, rather than to venture abroad upon new quests.
And the Scots tongue has an orthography of its own,
lacking neither 'authority nor author'. Yet the temptation
is great to lend a little guidance to the bewildered
Englishman. Some simple phonetic artifice might defend
your verses from barbarous mishandling, and yet not injure
any vested interest. So it seems at first; but there are
rocks ahead. Thus, if I wish the diphthong 'ou' to have
its proper value, I may write 'oor' instead of 'our'; many
have done so and live, and the pillars of the universe
remained unshaken. But if I did so, and came presently to
'doun', which is the classical Scots spelling of the English
'down', I should begin to feel uneasy; and if I went on a
little farther, and came to a classical Scots word, like
'stour' or 'dour' or 'clour', I should know precisely where
I was--that is to say, that I was out of sight of land on
those high seas of spelling reform in which so many strong
swimmers have toiled vainly. To some the situation is
exhilarating; as for me, I give one bubbling cry and sink.
The compromise at which I have arrived is indefensible, and
I have no thought of trying to defend it. As I have stuck for
the most part to the proper spelling, I append a table of
some common vowel sounds which no one need consult; and just
to prove that I belong to my age and have in me the stuff of
a reformer, I have used modification marks throughout. Thus
I can tell myself not without pride, that I have added a fresh
stumbling-block for English readers, and to a page of print in
my native tongue, have lent a new uncouthness. Sed non nobis.

"I note again, that among our new dialecticians, the local
habitat of every dialect is given to the square mile. I
could not emulate this nicety if I desired; for I simply
wrote my Scots as well as I was able, not caring if it
hailed from Lauderdale or Angus, from the Mearns or Galloway;
if I had ever heard a good word, I used it without shame; and
when Scots was lacking, or the rhyme jibbed, I was glad (like
my betters) to fall back on English. For all that, I own to a
friendly feeling for the tongue of Fergusson and of Sir Walter,
both Edinburgh men; and I confess that Burns has always sounded
in my ear like something partly foreign. And indeed I am from
the Lothians myself; it is there I heard the language spoken
about my childhood; and it is in the drawling Lothian voice
that I repeat it to myself. Let the precisians call my speech
that of the Lothians. And if it be not pure, alas! what matters
it? The day draws near when this illustrious and malleable
tongue shall be quite forgotten; and Burns's Ayrshire, and Dr.
MacDonald’s Aberdeen-awa', and Scott’s brave, metropolitan
utterance will be all equally the ghosts of speech. Till then
I would love to have my hour as a native Maker, and be read by
my own countryfolk in our own dying language: an ambition surely
rather of the heart than of the head, so restricted as it is in
prospect of endurance, so parochial in bounds of space."

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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