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Scotch on the Rocks

A list of 82 words by sionnach.

About

The miracle of Google Books now makes available in digital form many literary treasures of the past, which would otherwise remain sequestered in dusty libraries. For instance, Charles Mackay's admirable "Dictionary of Lowland Scotch", upon which this list is based.

The fidelity with which the information is transmitted can depend on the particular web location you visit. For example, one site's digitized version of the book describes it as:

A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch
with an INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ON TEE POETRY, HUMOUR, AND UTERARY HISTORY OF THE SCOTTISH UNGUAGE BY

CHARLES MACKAY. LL.D.

AUTHOR or "lost bbautibs op thb bnglish ulnguagb,"
"thb gablic stymology op thb languagbs op wbstbrn buropb,"
"a glossakt op thb obscusb words and phrasbs in shaxspbarb and HIS contbmporaribs," btc. btc

The original intention of the Editor of this work was to make it a guide to the better comprehension by English readers of the immortal works of Bobert Bums and Walter Soott, and of the beautiful Scottish poetry to be found in the ancient and modem ballads and songs of the "North Countrie".

So, if you've always yearned to be more familiar with the poems of Bobbie Bums, this list's for you.


Comments

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  • ruzuzu *favorited* Jan 25, 2011

  • qroqqa 'Scotch' is never used in modern Britain for anything but the whisky. It never lived down Bums's obsessive concentration on the uterary history of the unguage. Jun 11, 2009

  • reesetee Question: My Scottish-American friends threaten with bodily harm anyone who dares call their kin (or the language) "Scotch" rather than "Scottish." I realize this list is taken from Mackay, but is it acceptable in other parts to use "Scotch" this way?

    Just askin'.

    Signed, an American of Italian heritage Jun 11, 2009

  • madmouth Actually, English has plenty of vowels (14 or so), way more than many languages considered 'musical' and 'euphonious'. In fact, what it bristles with are complex codas, whereas Scotch is spangled with open syllables (which are, it is true, indispensable to the spirit of song).

    And Towels. Apr 27, 2009

  • sionnach The English bristles with consonants. The Scotch is as spangled with vowels as a meadow with daisies in the month of May*. English, though perhaps the most muscular and copious language in the world, is harsh and sibilant; while the Scotch, with its beautiful terminational diminutives, is almost as soft as the Italian. English songs, like those of Moore and Campbell,1 however excellent they may be as poetical compositions, are, for these reasons, not so available for musical purposes as the songs of Scotland. An Englishman, if he sings of a "pretty little girl," uses words deficient in euphony, and suggests comedy rather than sentiment; but when a Scotsman sings of a "bonnie wee lassie," he employs words that are much softer than their English equivalents, express a tenderer and more romantic idea, and are infinitely better adapted to the art of the composer and the larynx of the singer. And the phrase is but a sample of many thousands of words that make the Scottish language more musical than its English sister.

    *: or, as one site puts it, more memorably -

    The English bristles with ooziaonaDts. The Scotch is as spangled with Towels as a meadow with daisies in the month of May. Apr 24, 2009