#Scribbler 1: Residual Ulster Scots (part 1)

Ulster / Scots Thoughts

Over the last while I’ve been suffering from a wild dose of imposter syndrome.  Two things have done it.  If you would have told me a year ago I’d be on the radio reading one of my poems, I wouldn’t have believed you, about either the poem or the wireless.  Truth be told, I wouldn’t have believed you even if you said the poem I’d be reading was someone else’s. 

 

Anyhow I was on the radio, twice in fact.  That’s the first bit, the second bit was the words I used, lots of Ulster Scots words.  They were the words and cadence of speech I fondly recalled.  It wasn’t a hobby, or an academic exercise, or a cultural statement, it was recollections.  The poems just happened, I had a few ideas that wanted to be expressed, then the ideas found words, and then the words found poetry.  You see, I don’t believe I’m some kind of Ulster Scots expert, and this is the second part of the imposter syndrome.  I just used the words I knew, the words of home, the words of long ago, the words that fitted the thoughts. 

 

Added to this there are a few other things that just happened.  This all coincided with Ulster Scots Language week.  As a personal opinion, I’d rather hear poetry read, so I read my poems and used the recording equipment I already happened to own.  This wasn’t a plan, or an experiment, it just happened, it was serendipity.  And for all the life of me, I’ve now this imposter syndrome.

 

So, for my own peace of mind I needed to think my way through this.  As I did, I realised there were two modes of Ulster Scots, now it’s important to hear what I’m saying, these two modes aren’t separate or different, they are sides to a coin, and these two are very important to one another, and the two are not contradictory.

 

Firstly there is residual Ulster Scots, and then secondly there is Scholarly Ulster Scots.  The definition of terms is always vital for clarity of thought, and visa versa, clear thought always gives clear terms.  So I had better define my terms.  As I understand my term, residual Ulster Scots are the words and cadence of speech that have naturally survived.  In some places its a lot, in others a little, but either way its always been there.  The Ulster Scots I know is residual, that which has survived.  This doesn’t make it better or worse, it just makes it what it is.

 

Now, scholarly Ulster Scots, as I define it, is that which focuses on the Ulster Scots linguistically: in its etymology, grammar, historical usage, traditional spellings, and the many variations thereof, and so on.  A scholarly understanding of Ulster Scots does not require the residual, after all if this was true no one could learn any other language.  But mere aften than not, the greater your interest in the Hamely Tongue, the more likely your interest will become more scholarly, at least to some level. 

 

The residual is authentic*, but often limited, the words were learnt orally from hearing them, but this was not teaching, it was not structured tuition, it was what you happened to hear, and also it was what the other person had happened to hear, then happened to remember and then happened to still use. 

 

However, it was in the 1990’s that things changed, a number of books were published throughout that decade, and these publications have had a huge impact.  I might add what I’m about to mention all pre-dates 1998, the year of the Belfast Agreement, or as its also called the Good Friday Agreement.  In 1995 James Fenton set out “a personal record of Ulster Scots in County Antrim”, his work was entitled “The Hamely Tongue”.  Hame is home, so hamely is the home place.  The word “language” has its root in the Latin word “lingua”, that is “tongue”.  Fenton simply set out the language or tongue of home.  Then in 1997 Philip Robinson published, “Ulster-Scots a grammar of the traditional written and spoken language.”  There was also the less well known “Barnish, Co Antrim Dialect Dictionary” (1993) by M & F Montgomery.  Yet the publication of lists of words and phrases was no new invention, as it had been happening in newspapers and pamphlets down through the years.  Here the work of Mark Thompson is invaluable as he finds and shares on his blog such things! The Hamely Tongue, the words, or language, or tongue of our home was hidden in plain sight, and the light hadn’t gone out. 

 

Anyhow, having said all that, I’m not sure if it was being told to stop speaking that way when I was young, or attaining the heady heights of an F in my English Language GCSE.  And just in case you’re interested English ‘Lit’ was dumped in third year at the first possible opportunity, but either way, this is still a wild strange thing!  But if the ideas find words, and the words find poems, I’m sure I’ll still find somewhere for them, and the Hamely Tongue will be a part of it.

* Having re-read this I wish to add, the word "authentic" is used as a description and not a contrast.  I believe "Scholarly Ulster Scots" is also authentic.