Linguistic Staundardisation

Posted by Iain Mcgregor

Transmogrification an houghmagandie ir braw leukin words, but ower the byganes baith hiv gien muckle sair-heids tae a wheen fowk. Gin ye thocht A wis gaun tae screive a airticle aboot houghmagandie, weel ye’ll bi hert-scaud for A’m ower eild tae mind ocht aboot it. Insteid A’ll ettle tae mell ma thochts anent the ither lang word, ein it’s furrin.

Transmogrification o oor leid is whan oo chynge words or mak up new words fae different spellings, an mak strynge leukin words naebodie kens. Yon gies the reader unfameeliar words tae see an breks the concentration an unnerstaundin whiles reading.Gin it’s ower haurd tae read naebodie will bather reading it.

 

Scots screivers hiv aye wrutten the Scots leid in aw different weys uisin phonetic spellings onie gait thay thocht wad soond like thair ain dialect, ein chyngin spellings gin thay leukit ower Southern, juist tae mak thaim leuk, whit thay jaloused mair like rael Scots. This is whit creative screivin is aw aboot mind, uisin dialects skech tae thair ain pairt o the kintra, but ein wi this individuality thare haes tae bi a smidgin o linguistic staundardisation nor juist a smatterin o fowk will unnerstaund the meaning.

 

Noo A’m no onie expert in linguistics, no ein on the fit o the ledder yet, sae A’ll lave aw yon tae the Varsities an Colleges whaur heidie fowk gin eik oot aw the leid’s orthography, study the diaphonology an sort oot the digraphs fae the homographs.A telt ye A kent naethin aboot houghmagandie! A div enjoy screivin in ma mither tung an wush the hail jing-bang o Scots spelling wad sattle doon.

 

It’s mair nor feifteen year sin the Comatee on Scots Spellin stertit its work, sae is it no time tae stert pouin aw thur transmogrified screivins wrutten the day , taegaither an stop fechtin agin ilkither like a curn o wee bairns argie-bargien ower whae haes whit sweetie,whan the poke o sweeties ir aw the self-same.

 

Whan oo stert kythin tae the warld a unified Scots leid, the warld, parteeclarly thaim that speak English, micht than tak us a bittie sairious whan oo tak oorsels mair sairious, an pit forrit a jynt front.

 

Whit’s oor SNP government daein tae help?

 

Ta-ta the noo, A’m awa tae ma bed.

 

Iain.

blog comments powered by Disqus

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writers and commentators and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Scots Language Centre