Scots language, if you ken whit ah mean?

Adam   Mon May 15, 2006 12:59 pm GMT
The Scotsman.
Scots language, if you ken whit ah mean?
BEN MCCONVILLE

BACK in the 1970s teachers used to love beating the Scots language out of us. A clip round the ear was what you got for using Scots words. Only RP (received pronunciation) or Estuary English would do in the modern classroom, ken what I mean? “Who is Ken?” would, of course, be the reply.


The second instalment in a new four-part series.

During that era, Scots was dismissed as street talk and not likely to get you far in the world. Well, a quick deek (modern Scots for look) at some of the most successful writers in Scotland today and you'll soon learn it pays to hang on to the mither tongue. Irvine Welsh, Tom Leonard and James Kelman have brought Scots to a new international audience with their books that use our native language liberally.

There are two major dictionaries of Scots words, the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongues (DOST), which records words in use from the twelfth century through to about 1700, and the Scottish National Dictionary(SND) which traces modern Scots from 1700 to the 1970s.

Many words from Old Scots survive in common use today. DOST dates the word gey, or goodly or fine, to the 16th century. (It is also spelled gei, guy, gae, gay(e), gie or gai.) The term gey now more usually means "rather" and expressions such as gey glaiket remain in common use to mean "rather stupid". Glaiket itself dates back to the 1700s and means foolish or senseless.

If you were to call someone gey glaiket, you might cause something of a stramash, or commotion. The first written record of stramash is thought to date back to 1803. Lewis Grassic Gibbon used the word in his novel Sunset Song and John Buchan, author of The Thirty-Nine Steps, was also unafraid of the odd stramash.

After a stramash you might begin to feel scunnered. The noun scunner is found in DOST and dates to the 1660s. It means disgust, revulsion, loathing or a source or cause of this, a stomach upset or a sinking feeling.



Dictionary of the Scots Language

Scots love nothing better than to talk about the weather and dark and overcast, or rainy days are often described as dreich or dreigh. Many Scots think dreich literally means wet, but DOST dates the word back to the 13th century and defines it as extensive, lasting, tedious, tiresome or slow.

The word midden, which according to the SND was first recorded in 1717, was used by many great poets including Robert Burns. The word started life meaning dung heap, then later refuse or rubbish heap. Nowadays it is also used to describe a mess.

Deek is still in use today and means to look at a person. Early recordings of the word started in the 1780s.

So having taken just a wee deek at some of our Scots words, why not test your own knowledge. Our simple multiple-choice quiz will soon let you know whether you're a true-Scot or just a bletherer.



1. Haud yer wheesht!

Hold that sausage!
Shut up!
Have you had your tea!
What a terrible person!
2. High Heid yin

A brainy person
A dreamer
The most senior ranking person
A tall fellow
3. Lang may your lum reek

What a terrible smell
Have a good night's sleep
Long may your lump smell
May you always be prosperous enough to have fuel
4. A sair fecht

A sore fight - meaning something disappointing
Not a nice person
A doomsayer
A dangerous situation

scotsman.com
Adam   Mon May 15, 2006 1:12 pm GMT
You'll have to go to the website to see how many questions you answered correctly.
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon May 15, 2006 3:46 pm GMT
IT'S A SAIR chavv, ma loons an' quines, fan ye canna e'en spik in yer ain tongue ti fowk fae far ye bide!!

What made you post this Sassenach Adam? A fair wee bit o' guiltful were ye?

I got them all right and anyway, I saw this article go to press. Most of us use the word "dreich"...I have in this forum a fair few times....it does not only mean wet weather (and in that respect it's a dreich day here in Edinburgh today and that's for sure). It means anything miserably horrible and bleak and depressing and boring and nasty and dull and tardy and grotty and tedious and...well, just about anything negative and awful really....just plain dreich.
Guest   Mon May 15, 2006 5:06 pm GMT
Interesting "Sassenach" comment there Damian ;)
Weird actualy, I was searching last night for information on Lowland languages, especialy Frisian. I wanted to hear for my self the similarities between these languages. http://www.omropfryslan.nl/ is really interesting, the presenter I heard last night sounded like he had the same typical "graveyard shift" accent as English radio presenters! except he was speaking in Frisian. Plus they had some good music on last night.

These pages are good as well, the Northumbrian Lowland version is very easy to read for me, I think its good there are sites like this (our own little version of that pan-Celtic thing, well a liguistic version anyway)


http://www.lowlands-l.net/map.htm
http://www.lowlands-l.net/index.php
http://www.lowlands-l.net/talk/eng/index.php
Jim C, York   Mon May 15, 2006 5:07 pm GMT
Guest is me
Guest   Mon May 15, 2006 9:21 pm GMT
You didn't have to tell about your identity in the second post as your spelling is itself a big identity to give away, Jim ;)
Jim C, York   Tue May 16, 2006 2:35 am GMT
Bugguh ih, ah meh asweul tahp ih ouh ah seh ihh. ahn thee cuen gohw tek ah luong wohhk ofvah shauh peehh.

Go one where did I go wrong this time buddy boy?
Jim C, York   Tue May 16, 2006 3:39 am GMT
Ive been sleuthing about a bit more on that Lowlands_L site, thingy.

http://www.lowlands-l.net/anniversary/index.php?page=english-england#

Really interesting translations of the same poem/story in various languages (not only "lowland" ones, but Celtic, and other language trees), and a plethera of actual recordings. I hope this thread isn't too "specialised", because I really recomend people have a look, really intersting.

Ps. Linked it onto the standard English section, but I recomend the "Northern English" clips as your next listen.
Jim C, Jorvicskyre   Wed May 17, 2006 10:10 pm GMT
Please excuse me.

I'm just going to bump this up, I think people should get involved with the link above me, not nearly enough recordings of various world wide languages!
Pete   Wed May 17, 2006 11:46 pm GMT
Hey guys, in the Harry Potter films, there's this bloke, Hagrid. At times I can't understand what he says. I guess he's Scotish, where's he supposed to be from? and Why can't I understand? is it a difficult accent? or I'm an idiot?
Jim C, York   Thu May 18, 2006 1:16 am GMT
The actor is Scottish, but he is trying to put on a westcounrty accents, can be a difficult accent for some to get, especialy when it is faked. So your not an idiot ;)
Michelle   Thu May 18, 2006 4:06 am GMT
how can I transcript "cow"
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu May 18, 2006 8:01 am GMT
The actor who played Hagrid of Hogwarts is Robbie Coltrane. He comes from Rutherglen, Lanarkshire - just to the south of Glasgow. Of course he adapted his accent for the film but it's deffo not easy for a Scot to take up a Westcountry accent and sound authentic. I know I couldn't do it. I can do a Cockney and a Brummie and maybe a wee bit of Scouse quite well but could never keep it up. One accent I haven't a hope in Hades of doing is Geordie even though Geordieland is much nearer to me here than either Cockneyland, Brummieland or Scouseland.

If I tried to hoodwink the BBC with a decent English English RP I just may get away with it but only in the very short term...I'd soon lapse back into standard west Edinburgh.
Alice   Sun Jul 16, 2006 2:43 am GMT
look at tha wee lil dog next door !!!
oh u wee basted !!!