Rows an Ructions

If you are listening to a disturbance or quarrel. Yer hearin 


Rows an Ructions

Otherwise known as a nurration (also noration)




Note: in typical understatement the 1798 rebellion has often been referred to as 'the ruction'

Leisure

It's no aftin I pit doon onaythin that's no Ulster-Scots. But sum days an idea, oor a thocht, oor a poem jist rises oot o' yer heid tae fit tha day.

William Henry Davis wus a Welsh poet, fae a poor backgrun, an like monnies an Ulster man he made his wae tae America. Nearly aa o his poems ir aboot nature, oor lifes hardships, oor his ain adventures trampin aroon America. But this yin iz mae favourite.

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

W. H. Davies 1871 - 1940

Opposite

Yin o tha maist handy Ulster-Scots wurds iz fornenst. If simthin iz opposite ye, it's fornenst ye. If simthin iz on tha far side o tha room it's,

Far fornenst ye.

Clocherin

If yer gan tae tak a fit o 'coughing' dinnae dae it near an Ulster-Scot. Thur's mere hamely wurds tae describe sum poor cratter clearing his throat thon in onay ither language I hae herd tell o.
Fur thur proper effect ye need tae, at least, dibble thum up.

Look at thon cratter splooterin an berkin.

Thur's nae need fur aa thon craitlin an Kaehaein.

Ye shud o herd him peuchin an clocherin.

Wud ye listen tae thon bloicherin an blooterin.

Scraigh

Daybreak
Tha scraigh (also scraich) o dawn


Sunset (daylight going)
Dailygan

Thrie sheets tae tha wun

Thur's a brave wheen o Ulster-Scots sayin's devoted tae tha subject o intoxication. I cannae fur tha life o mae think why.

I redd yin racently that I hadnae heerd in a lang time. Tha poor cratter wus sae drunk,

He wus hairdly able tae bite his fing'r.

Slippery

Whun sumthin iz slidey or faas aff anither thing gye easy. It's like,

Snaw (snow) aff a dyke

Ulster-Scots Tea Ceremony

I love the vaguely, precise measurements employed by proponents of the hamely tongue. What other language can measure quantity, amount, distance and intensity with the same words.

The best way to begin learning the Ulster-Scots measuring system is to make a cup of tea.

"Wull ye hae a wee drap o tay?" If yer ootside it's "A drap in yer han?"

"Noo hoo dae ye tak it?"

Thur's a wheen o answers tae thon, an if yer oot bae mere than a hairs breadth wae tha timing or quantity tha tays ruint.

"Wae a wee toaty taste o milk."

"Wae a brave wee bit o milk."

"Wae a drap o coul water."

or "Wae nithin, jist tay on its ain."

Next week hoo tae axt fur sugar.

Thur's a quare guid poem on tha hale subject by Newtownlass

Mony's a slip

Thur's mony's a slip twixt cup and lip.

This is yet another example of an old English saying that has made it's way into the Ulster-Scots lexicon. It's used to imply that even when the outcome of an event seems certain, things can still go wrong.

(above) Many a slip twixt Cup & Lip

by James Bateman

The proverb supposedly comes from a Greek legend in which one of the Argonauts returns home to his winery. A local soothsayer had previously predicted the Argonaut would die before he tasted another drop of his wine, thus the Argonaut calls the soothsayer and toasts him for the Argonaut had survived his journey. The soothsayer replies to the toast with a phrase corresponding to the above proverb. As he finishes his toast, the Argonaut raises a cup filled with wine to his lips but is called away to hunt a wild boar before he could take a sip. The Argonaut is killed hunting the boar.

The first occurrence of the proverb in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is in Thackeray's Pendennis, 1850.

Yin befur bedtime

“Dare to be honest and fear no labor.”


 Robert Burns

Tartar

Recently I was reading a short story by local author Hugh Robinson entitled 'A wee bit of Christmas Crack.' In it one of the characters (Robert John) relates his close escape from a 'tartar' of a women. Who it seems held an over blown sense of her own importance as well as being somewhat fond of her own voice. Robert John sums up her qualities, for his friend Mick, with typical Ulster-Scots brevity and wit.

"When she engaged her tongue in conversation, I can tell ye Mick, it fairly shortened the winter!"

Guid advice

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!


Robert Burns - To a Louse

If its fur ye

Whut's fur ye 'ill no go bye ye.

If you are meant to have something then you will get it.

Say Nithin

A wheen a months ago I wrote aboot tha local version o Rabbie Burns' Epistle to a Young Friend that wus aftin quoted in mae hoose as a wean.


Aye ricth han your story tell
Whun wi a bosom crony
But aa keep something ta yorsel
Ye dinne tell ta onnie.

Aye free, aff-han', your story tell,
When wi' a bosom crony;
But still keep something to yoursel',
Ye scarcely tell to ony:


Whun I axt mae mither whut it meant she said,


"Whutiver ye say say nithin."