LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.01.13 (02) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 13 January 2009 - Volume 02
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From: Thomas Mc Rae <t.mcrae at uq.net.au>
Subject: LL-L Scots Dialect

Reminiscing about growing up with the Working Class Edinburgh Scots language
reminds me of how confusing it gets with unnecessary pre- and su- fixes.

eg Large becomes "shoodge big"  and small "wee toatty". On we go to
referring to our upmost skeletal bitty as "a skull's heid",and  the overall

item as a "deid skellingtun". Even more confusing is a strange use of of
"awful" to describe something as particularly significant for either good or
bad things.

eg "It wiz awfy guid.""He wiz awfy big," "He wiz awfy cluvvur." "She's awfy
boannie."  Awful can also stress negative items eg

"He goat hurt awfy bad". "He goat awfy drunk." "She wiz awfy seek wi 'er
stumick". "Ah'm awfy thursty"

Then we have the diminutive suffix "i.e." which often lengthens the word
concerned eg bairn becomes "bairnie"; school lunches, known as school
dinners,

become "dinneries", my parents always referred to the mobile ice cream van
as "the icie". A concert given by the local tap dancing school was a
"Coanie", and

a bonfire became "a boanie".

My Australian wife was particularly amused at the way Scots can enlarge  a
simple tale to an epic. In the best Bardic tradition a short account of
someone's visit to,

say, another town can get really tortuous. We will get a vast genealogy as
the tale unwinds, "Aye he wiz Sandy's brother's school pal whaise mither ran
away wi' a kiltie.

Cannae blame 'er mind 'er man wiz a right drinker. Efter she left 'e
stoapped drinkin' an tuik up gowf, wun przes tae. Now his auntie...." Some
time in a good tale we invariably have the account of a wedding of
yesteryear complete with meal menu that will start with "We hud
soo-oop....." Eventually we get to the crux of the matter, simple short
account of how the narrator went to Perth and bought an awfy nice handbag.
By then, like Dr Who, we have travelled long and far through Time.

 I was delighted to find when I visited Scotland after over 30 years absence
that such a language not been crushed by Globalisation. Hardly classic
Lowlands

Scots but the language of a very real and genuine people.

Regards

Tom Mc Rae

Brisbane

AUSTRALIA

"Oh wad some power the Giftie gie us,

Tae see oorsels as ithers see us

Robert Burns



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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Folks,

To get a load of what oor Tom is talking about there, please check out his
growing collection of tales in the very variety:

http://lowlands-l.net/gallery/mcrae_tales.php

Yes, more will be added.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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