This is an articulatory reference guide for actors and anyone fascinated by the modern Scots language. This book focuses on the particular dialects and accents of Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh. With particular attention to the pronunciation and sounds of modern urban Scots, this guide is ideal for those studying it for theatrical purposes who want to honour unique regional accents or simply those studying language and linguistics.
Dealing with grammar in a modern way, with modern terminology, this book gives readers an understanding of the way language works. Providing readers with the vocabulary to think about and discuss Scots, English and other Modern languages, Modren Scots Grammar fits with the Curriculum for Excellence in that it provides the grounding for readers to undertake further exploration and discover language for themselves. Furthermore, this book aims to give readers confidence in using the Scots language. It is important for young Scots today to realise that Scots is not just bad English, but a language in its own right. Increasing understanding of the differences between the two will improve the use of both. EXCERPT: Whit is grammar? It is whit we ken aboot the wey wirds are pit thegither. The wee dug bit the muckle man is no the same as The wee man bit the muckle dug. We ken that because o the order the wirds gaes in. The laddie lowps that dyke is different fae The laddies lowpit thae dykes. We ken fae the form o the wirds. That's grammar. REVIEW: This useful addition to the study of urban Scots dialects opens up the filed of linguistics to the general reader, combining the expertise of a linguist and a voice coach. Pronunciation in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Dundee are considered, offering insights into how Scots is spoken today. SCOTS MAGAZINE
Sociolinguistics in Scotland presents a comprehensive overview of sociolinguistic research in Scotland and showcases developments in sociolinguistic theory, method and application, highlighting Scotland's position as a valuable 'sociolinguistic laboratory'. This book is a key resource for those interested in language use in Scotland.
affront • baffies • capercailzie • dingie • elderitch first fit • glaikit • hogmanay • jalouse • laldie • mar numpty • onding • pawkie • scunner • thrapple wean • yeukie • and mony mony mair tae whet yer thrapple... What is your favourite Scots word? Have you heard of a stushie or a stairheid rammy? Do you know a numpty who talks a lot of mince? For over a decade, The Herald has published the Scottish Language Dictionaries' Scots Word of the Week. This wee book gathers 100 of our favourites, showing the breadth and diversity of the Scots language over time, ranging from lesser-known Older Scots to formal language to contemporary slang. Uncover the surprising origins of well-known words such as numpty and wean, discover unusual ones like onding and gowan, and savour evocative gems like Robert Burns' 'blethering, blustering, drunken blellum'.
The skillful use of the Scots language has long been a distinguishing feature of the literatures of Scotland. The essays in this volume make a major contribution to our understanding of the Scots language, past and present, and its written dissemination in poetry, fiction and drama, and in non-literary texts, such as personal letters. They cover aspects of the development of a national literature in the Scots language, and they also give due weight to its international dimension by focusing on translations into Scots from languages as diverse as Greek, Latin and Chinese, and by considering the spread of written Scots to Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Australia. Many of the essays respond to and extend the scholarship of J. Derrick McClure, whose considerable impact on Scottish literary and linguistic studies is surveyed and assessed in this volume.
"Hugely enjoyable--and valuable. I dropped everything else to read it. A treasure..."--Charles Wheeler, senior foreign correspondent, the BBC The newspaper is to the twentieth century what the novel was for the nineteenth century: the expression of popular sentiment. In the first of a three-volume study of journalism and what it has meant as a source of knowledge and as a mechanism for orchestrating mass ideology, Melvin J. Lasky provides a major overview. His research runs the gamut of material found in newspapers, from the trivial to the profound, from pseudo-science to habits of solid investigation. The volume is divided into four parts. The first attacks deficiencies in grammar and syntax with examples from newspapers and magazines drawn from the German as well as English-language press. The second examines the key issues of journalism: accuracy and authenticity. Lasky provides an especially acute account of differences between active literacy and passive viewing, or the relationship of word and picture in defining authenticity. The third part emphasizes the problem of bias in everything from racial reporting to cultural correctness. This is the first systematic attempt to study racial nomenclature, identity-labeling, and literary discrimination. Lasky follows closely the model set by George Orwell a half century earlier. The final section of the work covers the competition between popular media and the redefinition of pornography and its language. The volume closes with an examination of how the popular culture both influenced and was influential upon literary titans like Hemingway, Lawrence, and Tynan. Melvin J. Lasky was the editor of Encounter in England from 1958 until its close in 1990. It was viewed as the most brilliant European periodical of its time. Lasky served as foreign correspondent for the New York Times and The Reporter, and has written for many of the intellectual journals from Partisan Review to Commentary. He is the author of The Hungarian Revolution, Africa for Beginners, Utopia and Revolution, On the Barricades, and Off, and Voices in a Revolution.
The people of Scotland have a reputation for being many things, but what makes us who we are? In Wha's Like Us? Chris Robinson explores the Scottish character and uncovers some amazing facts about the Scots and the words we use to describe ourselves. Are we generous or mean, serious or seriously funny, outgoing or thrawn? Wha's Like Us? takes an informative and amusing look at how we see ourselves, at our attitudes to work, love, money, envy, anger and entertainment and at the Scots words and phrases we use to describe the Scottish psyche. And you might not be so surprised to know that there are far more Scots words for sinners than for saints!
