Friday, April 27, 2012

Galloway Gossip Eighty Years Ago (1901)

Thanks to my friend Joe in Ayrshire for showing me his copy of this great book over a cup of tea last Friday night in his lovely home up in the hills. Joe helps me with a lot of stuff, from stories and songs to bricks an visiting oul hooses and Covenanter battle sites! It's a real gem of a book, and I'm going to enjoy reading it over the neext wheen o weeks. The oul folk knew a thing or two:

Speech
'...the writer has a speaking knowledge of every dialect of Scotch, including two of Glasgow-Irish, and two of Ulster Scotch, as well as five dialects of vernacular English...'

Ulster migrants in Galloway
'...the Scotch-Eerish is really no Eerish ava. They're the descendants o' the Scotch Colonists yt James the Sixt got tae gae ower an coloneese Ulster aboot three hunner year sin. They maistly speak verra gude Scotch... they'r joost wur ain folk come back again... they're maist a' Presbyterians and a gey wheen o them's Cameronians. They maistly come ower tae work...'

0 comments: