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Scots Language Centre Centre for the Scots Leid

The Scottish Antisyzygy

Neivie neivie nick nack
Fit tongue’ll YE tak?
Schule-Sassenach, or back-yaird Scots,
Deep-reeted as the thrussle?
Pit plainer … Heid or hairt?
The forkit tongue o Scotia’s lion
(Cleft frae the crib, wi Lunnon’s wyes an leid)
Grows grait wi grissle …

Whyles gurly’s ony grumphin Rusky bear
Whyles blythe an plisky
Whyles Haly-Willie stinch
Whyles sowsed wi whisky ...

Betimes, sma-boukit.
Blabbrin as a burn
Ahin a kail-grun barn
Betimes, derk, dreich an dowie
As a midnicht tarn

Kenspeckle claik
Soarin sweet’s a lintie —
Neive-roosy, roch’s a craik.

Neivie neivie nick nack
Oxford crack, or guid plain Scots
Fit tongue’ll ye tak, brither?
Brocht up bi birth wi baith
Say, fa’s the Mither?