Articles categorised as Writing

Jings, Crivens! Oor Wullie`s turning English

Anne Hoyer from Heidelberg University has been carrying our research into the language used in the Sunday Post's Oor Wullie cartoon strip. Hoyer has discovered that Wullie is using less Scots than...

Kidnapped Translated

It won't be the first time that Kidnapped has been translated but it surely is the first time the Stevenson novel has been rendered in Scots and as a graphic novel too. Kidnappit is the latest...

Plays in Scots for Schools

Roy McGregor and Liz Niven have edited a new book entitled 'Scottish Plays for Schools' through the Association for Scottish Literary Studies and published by Hodder Gibson. This work includes six...

New book scratches an itch

A newly published book from Itchy Coo - entitled 'Geordie's Mingin Medicine', which is a translation from English into Scots of a Roald Dahl work, has now reached number one in Waterstone's...

Book of Scots terms

Artist Scott Simpson has illustrated a series of Scots words by assigning a character to each one. These include 'ned', 'clype', 'crabbit' and many other well known words. Wrongly reported by the...

Ellie an da sail needle

Written and read by Iris Sandison from the album Hansel o Stories published by Hansel Cooperative Press http://www.hanselcooperativepress.co.uk/

Convention o Modren Leids Associe

Professor John Corbett, fae the Versity o Glesca, will be giein a paper cryed ‘The Future Oors? The Scots Language in Iain M Banks’s Feersum Endjinn and Matthew Fitt’s But ‘n’ Ben a Go Go’, as a...

Revisiting the Makars

The Text Society for Leids o Scotland (Scottish Text Society) is tae haud the first in a screed o twa-yearly lectures in honour o Angus McIntosh. At 5.15pm on 7 Januar Professor Felicity Riddy...

Association for Scottish Literary Studies

The Associe for Lair in the Leetraturs o Scotland (Association for Scottish Literary Studies) is haudin its yearly confeerance at the Netherbow Theatre, 43-45 High Street, Embra. The day is tae be...

Conversation Now Translated into Scots

The Scottish Government’s 'National Conversation' document, published in the autumn of 2007, has now been translated into the Scots language. Ministers Linda Fabiani and Maureen Watt are to be...

Nort Atlantik Drift - photography and poems from Shetland

Well known Shetland writer Alan Jamieson's latest collection of poems was launched in December 2007. In Nort Altalntik Drift, from Luath Press, Jamieson mixes mythology, autobiography and history...

Read the Lorimer New Testament

For more information about Lorimer's Scots New Testament visit www.booksfromscotland.com/Books/The-New-Testament-In-Scots-9781841951447

Aye write in Glesca

As pairt o Glesca's Aye Write fest the will be a day gien ower tae the Scots leid, cryed 'Writing in Scots: A series of three linked workshops', sponsored bi the Langage Comatee o the Associe for...

Anniversary of oldest surviving document in Scots

The month of March marks the anniversary of the oldest entire text in Scots, strictly speaking. On 12 March 1380 (1379 old calendar) Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk put his seal to a letter (see text...

Two hundred years of Scots dictionaries

It is now two hundred years since the Rev John Jamieson (1759-1838) published the first dictionary given over entirely to the Scots language, in 1808. Jamieson was born and brought up in Glasgow...

Entries invited for Doric Competition

Entries are now invited as part of the Doric Festival writing competition. Competitors must either write a poem, short story or one-act play to be submitted by the deadline of 19 September 2008....

Names in Scots - Places in Scotland

This section of the website is intended to provide a guide to Scots forms of personal and place names. There are few areas where the process of smothering Scots is more apparent than in its names...

Names in Scots - Personal

As one might expect, Scots speakers have traditionally had their own forms of first and family names, just like every language community. For example, though the name David was often written the...

Oldest act of government in Scots

In the year 1397 – apparently during the month of April – a General Council of the Kingdom was held at Stirling. The significance of this Council for Scots was the statute that it passed in the...

New series of books from Scottish Dictionaries

The people at Scottish Language Dictionaries have created a new series of little books based on the Scots language which are called ‘Say it in Scots.’ Brand new this month, and published by ‘Black...

Craigmillar baby books

The Craigmillar Books for Babies scheme has been going for 10 years. As well as work done in the community there are colourful illustrated rhyme cards which can be downloaded. These include...

Booktrust advice for baby books

Scottish Booktrust have a pamphlet on reading with young children, aimed at parents and carers. It is available in Scots: 'Stertin-up wi buiks'

Names in Scots - countries abroad

As with personal and place names, the use of names in Scots for countries has been smothered in modern times because officialdom in Scotland has preferred the English forms. A particular trait of...

Sally on Sunday discuss Scots New Testament

Sally Magnusson discusses the Scots New Testament with Priscilla Lorimer http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/scotland_aod.shtml?scotland/religion1_sun

Four Gospels now on CD

This week sees the publication in CD format of recordings of the four Scots gospels. Tom Fleming’s readings from the Scots New Testament bring to life the great stories of Lorimer’s translation....

Annual ASLS Election

The annual meeting and election of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies will be held at 1pm in the Department of Literature, 7 University Gardens, Glasgow. This will be followed by a...

Chorin Stanes...

Hello aw, howp ye hae aw been fine this hinmaist week. I'm nippin out in a bit, sae jist time fer a wee blog this week I hae been feil thrang, I can tell ye that. Syne I'll be daein Scottish...

waith n. a piece of property which is found ownerless

Waith is related to the word waif, which started out as a legal term with the same meaning, but is now more often used to conjure images of Dickensian orphans. In medieval Scotland, waith referred...

Oldest Diplomatic Act in Scots

The background to the Common Ridings was the lawless nature of the borderlands which persisted between the 13th and 17th centuries. There were often feuds between kindreds and frequent raiding by...

Border Ballads

The publication of Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’ in 1802 was the foundation for the belief that the ballads of the Scottish Borders constituted the greatest ballad...

Imprentit: 500 years of the Scottish printed word

Printing's profound impact in Scotland across five centuries is the focus of the National Library of Scotland summer exhibition with treasures on show from its historic collections. To...

The complaint of the Black Knight

John Lydgate's poem "The complaint of the black knight", commonly attributed to Chaucer, was published in Edinburgh in 1508 by Walter Chepman and Andrew Myllar. The tale is written in Middle Scots...

To a Mouse

Robert Burns’ “To a mouse” is one of the poems published in the first collection of his work, commonly known as 'the Kilmarnock edition'. John Wilson printed it in Kilmarnock in 1786. More on the...

yerk v. bind tightly; beat, whip, strike; snatch, wrench, etc.

Yerk (or yark) is recorded in medieval English, and although it has generally fallen out of use south of the border, it is still known and used in Scots and in some regional dialects of English....

Thochts fae the burd table

Hallo. A'm nae yaised tae this here new-farrant wey o bletherin cawd bloggin bit A'll gie it a shottie. Oo dae ken yin anither yit bit thats nae a baud thing whan oo dae oo micht for hae yin - twa...

Centre and Lorimer Trust set to merge

At a meeting held last week at the National Library, members of the SLC Council agreed to consider a proposal to take over the running of the Lorimer Trust, the body set up to raise awareness of...

Fouth n. abundance

As I was out walking the dog the other day, the word fouth kept coming into my mind. In the waist-high vegetation, there was that almost threatening overabundance that the English metaphysical...

SLD seeks Outreach Assistant

Scots Language Dictionaries have advertised the post of Outreach/education assistant (3 days a week), £18,000 (pro rata). The successful candidate will assist in a number of important areas...

New Writing Scotland 27 published

The latest volume of 'New Writing Scotland', from the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, is about to hit the streets. Entitled ' In the Line of Fire' this will be number 27 in the series...

Calling Doric writers

The Annual Doric Writing Competition is calling for entries. Writers may submit up to three entries in all categories. The categories are Short Story (£50 prize, £25 runner-up), Poem (£50 & £25),...

Doric Writing Awards

The winners of the Doric Writing Competition will be announced at the awards ceremony to be held in the Gordon Arms Hotel, Huntly, beginning at 7pm. There will be entertainment by various artists....

The Invisible Language

The Auld Scotch, Glaswegian, Glesca Scots, The Patter. These are the names by which the native language of the city of Glasgow – and surrounding region – have been known in modern times, and which...

Old Testament Book translated into Scots

Duncan Sneddon's Scots translation of the Old Testament book of Amos can now be read online on the Church of Scotland's website. It was first published this spring in the "Theology in Scotland"...

New Testament Readings now on Kirk web site

The Scots Language Centre’s series of weekly readings from the Lorimer New Testament can now be heard on the Church of Scotland’s web site as well as at the Centre and the web site of Homecoming...

Breaking the mould

After the Union with England in 1707, it was the language of that country that increasingly came to be the language of formality and officialdom, in spite of the fact that most people spoke Scots....

Debased or Evolved?

From the end of the 19th century onwards the speech of Glasgow came increasingly under attack by the authorities. The Scots language was generally being discouraged and punished, initially through...

The Patter Strikes back?

In the 20th and early 21st centuries the dialect of Glasgow has been the subject of several research projects and popular books. Research into the health of the language (of which work by Dr...

Strinberg in Scots at Edinburgh Festival

August Strinberg’s play, Den Fredslöse, will be performed in a Scots translation at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The performance of David Purves’s translation, The Ootlaw, by Theatre...

Sangschaw 2009

The Scots language Society has announced its yearly literary competition, called Sangschaw. The Society administrator, John Law, commented that this competition contributes to the status of the...

SLS Annual Collogue

The Annual Collogue of the Scots Language Society will take place on Saturday 10 October 2009 at the A.K. Bell Library, York Place, Perth. This year’s theme is ‘The Interaction between Scots and...

Stanley Robertson

Stanley Roberston (1940-2009) was well known as one of the country’s most accomplished storytellers. He was a singer, a writer and a campaigner for the traveller community. Stanley’s life and...

New paper on history of language study in Orkney and Shetland

In Orkney in July participants at the conference of the Forum for the Languages of Scotland and Ulster heard a fascinating paper from Professor Michael Barnes on the history of the study of the...

Starting Thursday – Sheena Blackhall reads Minnie on SLC site

From September the Scots Language Centre will be delivering more audio and video based features to its ever growing online audience. Sheena Blackhall’s novella, Minnie, will be podcast on the...

Scots Language podcast

Sheena Blackhall’s novella, Minnie, tells the story of a young girl growing up in a North East farming community between the wars. Minnie experiences and overcomes many personal challenges. In...

Back Again

Twa traivlers gaed ance to the Hielans awa I' the hairst: ah ! it’s then that the Hielans are braw ! The tane he gaed — to be like the lave ; The tither his ane he’rt’s greinin’ drave. An’...

David Toulmin - A Chiel Amang Them

Author and farm labourer, David Toulmin began his life as John Reid. Hugely popular in North East Scotland in the sixties and seventies his books frequently sold out in the region and borrowing...

Sae Mony Summers

The winning short story in the 2009 Toulmin writing competition Sae Mony Summers was written by former teacher Eleanor Fordyce. Born in Aberdeenshire and now living in Angus, Fordyce enjoyed using...

Brownsbank open to public

The farm labourer's cottage at Brownsbank, Candy Mill in South Lanarkshire, where Hugh MacDiarmid and his family lived from 1951 to 1978, will be open to the public on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13...

David Toulmin Talking

Noted expert on Scottish literature, Professor Isobel Murray of Aberdeen University, carried out the following interview with David Toulmin for her Scottish Writers Talking series of books. In...

The works of Sheena Blackhall

Sheena Blackhall is well known for her poetry, writing for children and expertise on the language and culture of the North East of Scotland. Here we have two documents which provide complete...

Scotland's Literature

Donald Smith, Director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, will be giving a a six week talk entitled 'Scotland's Literature - Scots, English and Gaelic' at the Centre, 43-45 High Street,...

Launch of 'For A' That'

The launch of a new book entitled 'For A' That' will take place at the Dundee Rep Theatre at 7pm. The University of Dundee has commissioned various wriers to put together an anthology celebrating...

South Lanark Adult Scots Project

South Lanarkshire Council has recently taken a few steps towards literacy for Scots speakers. David McDonald, who is an Adult Literacy Worker with Community Learning Service, has been working on...

Annual Collogue of Scots Language Society

The Annual Collogue of the Scots Language Society will take place on Saturday 10 October 2009 at the A.K. Bell Library, York Place, Perth. This year’s theme is ‘The Interaction between Scots and...

A Chat with Ajay

Ajay Close is the Writer in Residence at the Soutar House in Perth and has been for the past couple of years. Ajay is an established writer who has published several works. The Soutar House is...

A Tour With Soutar

Living in the very house where William Soutar lived, wrote, and died, has given Ajay Close an intimate knowledge of the life and work of the man. There are various momentos and items of furniture...

The Friends of Soutar

In 2007 a group called 'The Friends of William Soutar' was established in Perth to do more to promote the life and work of the poet. The President of the Friends is Iain Mackintosh. In this short...

A Soutar Poem

In the following audio file, Iain Mackintosh, President of the Friends of William Soutar, reads s short poem by William Soutar. Please click your mouse on the file to hear it. Black Day A skelp...

New Book published by William Hershaw

Scots language poet, teacher and musician William Hershaw has published a new work - Johnny Aathin. The work contains prose and poetry in Scots and is set in a fictional Fife coal mining village....

Minnie Episode 13

From their hiding place Minnie and Isie listen to the ceremony. The lads take an oath and then over several drinks the secrets of horsemanship are shared. The cousins struggle to keep their...

Tribute to Stanley Robertson

The life of storyteller and writer, Stanley Robertson, will be celebrated at an event to be held on Saturday 28 November at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. Reek roon the Campfire...

New RLS Website Now Live

A new website about the life and work of Robert Louis Stevenson is now live on the internet. With full information about RLS’s life, pictures never before seen by the public and downloadable...

Colour in the first Scots books

Printing in the Scots Language didn't start in Scotland – it started in Paris in 1503, with two incredibly beautiful books. Densely illustrated with finely drawn woodcuts, the books were produced...

Question in Scots Makes Parliament History

History was made in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 7 January when an SNP MSP became the first person to ask a parliamentary question and a follow-up question in Scots. Western Isles MSP...

Scots language blogging

Moray Firth Live, a news agency for the North and North East of Scotland have an area on their website for blogs, contributed by a variety of writers. They now have a contributor who is writing in...

Gie's back oor place names

The following article appeared in Lallans and is reproduced here with the kind permission of David Purves. There is no English version of this article.  Seeminlie, at ae tyme the war a lassie in...

Literature Working Group

The Scottish Government's literature working group has published its policy proposals. The report contains recommendations concerning literature and publising in Scots. This page collects Scottish...