Grammar Police, Auld Scots Words and Robert Burns.

It’s all Freda’s fault! She sent me this cartoon, knowing I am a committed English teacher and share with her some characteristics of Grammar Policing. Really wild, huh?

                                             

Then, shortly after, I came across a rich vein of ‘Auld Scots Words’  which delighted me in containing words that, as kids, we used almost on a daily basis. It’s a lexical layer that my brother and sister and I dig into when we meet up – none of us living in Scotland now. It’s a kinship ken, a familial mode we delight in tuning into – to the exclusion and amusement of others around!

 So rather than simply list these words  to share with you, ever the English teacher, I have compiled a worksheet for you to assess the extent of your semantic range, your Scots savvy!

Vocabulary Worksheet.

1. Arrange the following items into two groups, explaining what the words in each group share:

                 bampot                 braw                 canny                 eejit                  glaikit           stotter

2. a) Does dreich refer to a person or the weather ?

     b) Does gallus refer to a personal attribute or an item of clothing?

3. The following adjectives describe an extreme state:

a) bealin                               b) crabbit                      c) wabbit

 Match them with the appropriate state below:

i) exhaustion                        ii) anger                          iii) irritability

4. Rearrange the following letters into words that match the meanings given: (Herald Scotland  cross-word addicts will like this anagram puzzle!)

i) uproar          (noun)         smahrats

ii) steal             (verb)          coleph

iii) a request!    (noun)         htesweh

5. The following words fall under the general semantic umbrella of ‘to talk’:

1) to blether      ii) to clype             iii) to haiver

Match each of the above with one of the following features:

a) it concerns who you are talking to and why

b) it relates to the sense of what you’re saying

c) as well as the quality of content, this relates to the quantity of talk being produced.

 Thank you for participating in this activity :) !  
 Answers will be found in the next post!

Fully mindful that this is a special day and that I shall miss out on the haggis, I made some shortbread.        Here’s the paste prior to baking and the baked product cut into fingers ….mmm!

            

                                                           

  To everyone who, in their own small way, is celebrating the birthday of our Scottish Bard, Robert Burns, we send this global, poetic message: