Greetings, dear, Sunny Optimists,
I love being Scottish!
In its healthy state, this awareness is delightfully tribal. I am part of a tribe that identifies me with the land of my birth and with my ancestors. I know where they are buried. I deeply appreciate the arts and crafts of Scotland, the music, the language, the dialects and, of course, the humour.
Knowing my lineage sustains my wellbeing; sharing this knowledge with the younger generations in our family is vital as I age. As I look back over my writing here in The Sunny Optimist, I see that it has become a repository for my family memories and my love of Scotland. It will be there for my grandkids when they are older. I did not appreciate this would be the case when I started this two years ago.
At the moment, I am reading the book Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble by Stephen Jenkinson. It is an arresting and provocative book that is not always an easy read. But, from my perspective, his insights and challenge to my generation are profound. One view that he holds is that many older people are culturally adrift from their lineage. They no longer have a sense of the land or the culture from where their ancestors originated. He describes them as ‘cultural orphans’. This concept literally stopped me in my tracks. To be adrift from the memories, traditions, and cultural artefacts of our tradition can profoundly affect our sense of self. It feels quite lonely. As I think about this, I see how fortunate I am to be grounded in my Scottishness.
Funny Scottish Words and Our Wullie
This morning, I was being playful with what this might lead me to for The Sunny Optimist topic today.
Over breakfast, David and I were chatting. I told him that I was 'scunnered' with the taste of coconut flour. I use this flour a lot to make gluten-free bread and biscuits. But I am so tired of the taste of it. David laughed and looked at me and said, 'Scunnered! What does that mean? You and your crazy Scottish words'. He is English, by the way!
Scunnered means something you are tired of, dislike, or makes you nauseous.
And so, my topic for this week arrived, i.e. Scottish words that might brighten your day. For example, there is the term 'dreich' with lots of 'chchch' sound at the end of the word. This emphasis is because Dreich means' dreary', 'cheerless' or 'drizzly damp weather'. Have a go at saying the word. It truly captures the energy of feeling wet and uncomfortable, like when the cold rain is trickly down your neck.
Or what about the word 'blether'? It means talking, gossiping and catching up with another person. I love this image below of the two women sitting on a bench 'having a blether'. They seem relaxed and in no hurry. You have a sense that their conversation could meander quite easily, and they are setting the world to rights.
As I started searching for images around Scottish words, a cartoon character called 'Our Wullie' popped up. A true blast from the past for me! Wullie is a Scottish version of the boy name William.
Now this wee lad is from the fictional town of Auchenshoogle. He is the subject of a Scottish comic strip published since the 1930s in our Sunday Post newspaper. Wullie's trademarks are spiky hair, dungarees, and an upturned bucket on which he contemplates Life.
In the cartoon below, he is lamenting that 'it's a sair fecht' which means 'it's a hard life'.
Wullie speaks a unique brand of Scots language, which includes his famous exclamations like ‘Jings!’, ‘Crivvens!’, ‘Help Ma Boab!’ and’ the Very Dab’.
See below!
Wullie has many adventures with his pals, which I remember so fondly as a child. So to get an Our Wullie annual in my Christmas stocking was a special treat.
In 2016 the 80th anniversary of Our Wullie was celebrated with a ‘Bucket Trail’ of sculptures placed around Scotland. It was fun to visit.
Questions for this Week
I hope you have enjoyed this whistle-stop tour around some of the marvels of the Scots language. Here are my questions for you this week.
What are your treasured memories of the land of your birth?
Are there aspects of your lineage that are special to you?
What words or phrases from your culture make you smile?
As always, I would love to hear from you.
Ann
Dear Ann
The peak district in Derbyshire is one of my favourite memories as a child.
Also the freedom we enjoyed. We were given a packet of sandwiches ("pieces" in Scotland) and a bottle of orange squash and we were away until we got hungry again. Going to houses to ask for refils of the bottle.
One word we had in Derbyshire was "Mardy" - it is dialect word originating from Derby and Sheffield a) Adjective used to describe a moody or grumpy person b) Can also be used as 'mard' as a noun to describe someone who is currently in a mood c) Someone who is reguarly mardy can be described as a mardy bum or mardy arse or mard-arse. "Lucy had a go at me for nothing today. She's so mardy at the moment!"
Dear Ann, really enjoyed your musings this week. It has taken me to reflect on my own life journey through many dialects. I was born on Teeside in England with its own dialect and then lived for many years in Durham with its rather up-market accent. Then university in the capital of Geordie land - Newcastle upon Tyne. My first job was as a Brewer making Newcastle Brown Ale, a very special beverage of the Geordies!! Then north to Scotland to make Whisky. I travelled extensively in Scotland visiting Distilleries and experienced lots of Scots accents. Some like in northern Aberdeenshire where it was almost impossible to understand what they were saying. My work took me to Kentucky where quite often people would say to me 'Gee I just love your accent'. So many happy memories.