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Needing our resident Scottish-to-English dictionary....
I read this unusual passage in the Guardian today:
<<Only a return to the "seven deadly Scottish virtues" that originally made RBS and the Bank of Scotland great will save these two venerable institutions. These are thrift, thrawnness, sobriety, rectitude, reserve, prudence and hauding one's wheesht. All are undeniably virtues, yet each can be deadly if an individual or group allows itself to become consumed by any one of them. (Edinburgh, for instance, can be particularly susceptible to some of them.)>>
I'm pretty sure I can identify thrift, sobriety, rectitude, reserve, and prudence pretty handily, even if I try to only practice them in moderation. Thrawnness and hauding one's wheesht escape me, however. Any thoughts? ;)
Thrawnness - stubbornness
Hauding one's wheesht - holding one's tongue, keeping silent
thrawn /θrɔn, θrɑn/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [thrawn, thrahn] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective Scot. 1. twisted; crooked; distorted.
2. contrary; peevish; perverse.
3. unpleasant; sullen.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME (north and Scots), var. of thrown; see thraw
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thrawnness
I am sure that the average Guardian reader has no idea what 'thrawness' and 'hauding one's wheesht' mean. Furthermore, if the average Guardian reader visited a rural area of Scotland where an illiterate farm worker spoke such language, they would not even attempt to understand him.
I do not find it particularly easy to follow Scottish conversations. Most of the time I do not bother. In the local paper there is a Doric column. I would be quite happy for these variations of the English language to die out entirely. I do not think they aid communication.
Perdition: Sometimes a single word can summarise a whole way of thinking. A way of thinking that could be safely left to die a natural death.
per·di·tion (pr-dshn)
n.
1.
a. Loss of the soul; eternal damnation.
b. Hell: "Him the Almighty Power/Hurl'd headlong . . . /To bottomless perdition, there to dwell" John Milton.
2. Archaic Utter ruin.
As a native born into a Scots speaking nation I can't improve on the comments already given on the meanings of those expressions..."thraw"/"thrawness" and "hauding one's wheesht" are commonly used here - I am accused of "thrawness" more often than I care to admit in this Forum, and as for "hauding my wheesht" - that is one of life's greatest difficulties as far as I'm concerned - one of the penalties of being born under the sign of Aries the ram. "Hauding one's wheesht" doesn't come naturally to us.
The Guardian? The paper for leftward leaning intellectual liberal minded geeks? Do you mean this one, Uriel? Or do you have your own homegrown Guardian over there?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture
Today's Guardian (UK version) includes coverage of the Oscars ceremony in Hoillywood....good to see our very own Kate Winslet winning as best actress (The Reader in this case). She's great and it was equally great to see her accept the honour without yowting all over the place, whimpering on and on and on while thanking her mother, her pet hamster, the postman, the milkman and the lady she meets up on the common each time she takes her dog out for a wee walkies.
Kate Winslet comes from Reading (pronounce this as "Redding" please) - down in Berkshire, England - she told GMTV this morning that back home in Reading her mum had won the first prize in a local competition for the best pickled onions - this weekend, so Kate said it was great that they could both celebrate at the same time. How British is that - one gets an Oscar for acting and the other gets a first prize for a jar of pickled onions.
"I would be quite happy for these variations of the English language to die out entirely. I do not think they aid communication."
They might not aid your communication, but then again, they're not supposed to.
Presumably they're still useful for, say, an "illiterate farm worker" in Scotland. And if they're not, they'll die out anyway. Such is language.
<<The Guardian? The paper for leftward leaning intellectual liberal minded geeks? Do you mean this one, Uriel? Or do you have your own homegrown Guardian over there?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture
>>
Yes, the leftist commie pinko rag.;P Just kidding. They do get a little out there sometimes, but that only adds to my amusement. I make for a moderately liberal American but I would be up against the wall in the UK! No, we don't have our own version -- yours is plenty! However, it never fails to astonish me how much the BBC and the Guardian court American readership with their BBC America and Guardian America (and we don't mind, natch). I guess since we make up the lion's share of the nationalities currently prowling the internet, our hits are good business. However, the Beeb is almost always guilty of Briticizing American speech, even when they have someone's words in direct quotes, which SHOULD be verbatim! But no, to read the BBC news you would think that we've all given up "gotten" and switched to some other minor syntactical changes. Tsk, tsk! If they want our business they're going to have to transcribe us correctly!
***I make for a moderately liberal American but I would be up against the wall in the UK!***
Maybe so....your American version moderate lefties do, at times, seem to equate to our Attila the Hun type right wing extremists...like these guys I have sadly given publicitity to in this Forum:
http://bnp.org.uk/
Equally sadly these guys seem to be gaining ground in the voting intention stakes in many areas of the UK - and not only in those more urban areas with large immigant/ethic communities but also in the more rural or outer suburban areas where non white faces are very thin on the ground.
A UK General Election will have to be held before June 2010, and this May there are local elections in many areas, as well as the European Parliament Elections all over the UK and the EU this coming June.
I'm sorry, Uriel, but the Beeb* has no option but to Briticise American speech. How else are we island dumbasses to understand what the hell they're yacking on about over there? ;-) Actually, most Brits, all over the UK, are far more likely to be famiiar with American accents and idiomatic speech than would the reverse situation over in the US.
There is not a nook or cranny anywhere in these islands which has not been "invaded" by American tourists at one time or another....not even the Isles of Eigg or Rhum.
As for Edinburgh here...especially in the summer, and especially during the Festival....I could be forgiven for thinking I was walking down a street in Kansas City.
The same was true when a mate and I, on the way down to Cornwall, stopped off at this lovely wee picture card perfect wee village called Bourton-on-the Water, in the Cotswolds. In spite of the typical Cotswold stone houses and shops and flower bedecked pubs along the village green complete with swans and ancient 14th century church and wee bridge over a crystal clear babbling stream...the epitome of that part of England or rural England generally - we may well have been in deepest Oregon or somewhere judging by the voices all around us.
*The Beeb - hmmmm.....and they claim impartiality? They don't know the meaning of the word much of the time......
They do put on some good programs...right now they're showing "Mistresses" on BBC-1 TV. Interesting!...check it out.
It's just funny when I notice the obvious non-Americanisms in quoted American speech, because so many people seems to so get their panties in a twist when we do the same thing to their precious Harry Potter books, etc. So I thought I would point out that the same thing happens in reverse: everyone's guilty!
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