Sunday 3 January 2016

The Sunday Posts 2016/ A Wee Cock Sparra'



This comic poem was an annual entertainment for New Year when I was growing up. The Scots dialect of the non-gaelic regions was always only heard on TV in a comic situation, not taken seriously, except in a work of Rabbie Burns. I always thought it was strange that the language I spoke everyday with friends and family and had grown up with was something to be laughed at in 'polite' society. At school you could earn a prize one day for reciting Burns and get belted the next for 'not speaking properly'.

Thankfully that situation has slowly changed but there's a long way to go in recognising and rescuing the diversity and heritage of a native tongue.

2 comments:

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Indeed so Alastair - when I was moved down to a school in Suffolk, it was the jaunting of the other kids which prompted my shift in vocals. Now, apparently, without any conscious effort on my part, I tend to adopt the sounds around me - simply to be understood! It is amazing the number of folk who, hearing a different accent, automatically 'dinny unnerstaun' and make no effort to open their ears.
YAM xx

DB Stewart said...

Love this. Reminds me of my great grandparents.

The Sunday Posts 2017/Mince and Tatties.

Mince and Tatties I dinna like hail tatties Pit on my plate o mince For when I tak my denner I eat them baith at yince. Sae mash ...