OF ROBERT BURNS In his Native Dialect BY SIR JAMES WILSON, K.C.S.I., M. A. EDIN. AUTHOR OF THE DIALECT OF ROBERT BURNS AS SPOKEN IN CENTRAL AYRSHIRE' OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD 1925 Oxford University Press London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen Printed in England FOREWORD THIS volume is an extension, or rather an adaptation for a specific purpose, of the plan adopted by the author in his recently published work The Dialect of Robert Burns as Spoken in Central Ayrshire, in which he gives examples of the spelling and pronunciation of Ayrshire words embedded in the proverbs and common sayings of the people, in idiomatic expressions, and in some of the poems and songs of Burns. This new volume is confined to the last of these lingual storehouses, the evident intention being to enable English speakers everywhere to pronounce the Ayrshire tongue as Burns himself spoke it, and at the same time to grasp the full meaning of word and phrase, not by the usual and frequently futile method of glossarial synonyms, but by a free translation in English of the whole text, line by line and stanza by stanza. The first of these objects is attained by the use of a few simple phonetic symbols which can be mastered in a few minutes. Having been favoured with a perusal of the proof-sheets, we are enabled to testify to the effectiveness of these symbols in reproducing with remarkable fidelity the characteristics of the language of Burns, which is still spoken with little or no change in the parishes of Tarbolton, Mauchline, and the middle district of Ayrshire generally. In fact, the phonetic versions submitted are so successful throughout as to confer a special value on the volume apart from everything else. The second object was a hazardous undertaking, in pursuance of which the sensible course of excluding any attempt at rhyme or even rhythm has been followed, and the reader presented with an impressionist rendering of the text in plain Anglo-Saxon, without superfluous verbiage or unnecessary paraphrasing. The text of the principal pieces selected is taken from the Kilmarnock edition edited by Burns himself, which, however, contains. only three of his songs. For the text of the songs other authorities have consequently been consulted, the selection being apparently guided by their suitability as typical examples of the vernacular. This was unavoidable in a work in which every item selected demanded three times the usual space. A larger proportion of Burns's lyrics than is generally supposed do not lend themselves to this method of treatment, and are best left as Burns wrote them, for the all-sufficient reason that the few and unimportant Scots words they contain present little difficulty to the general reader. Burns's marvellous conversational powers were demonstrated in the lingual vehicle of cultured Edinburgh, and there is convincing evidence in not a few of his lyrics that he, deliberately and of set purpose, reduced his use of the vernacular to the lowest possible minimum. To all desirous of acquiring some knowledge of the raucle tongue' of Burns and its proper pronunciation, we would suggest a reading of the translations concurrently with the original text, followed by a careful study of the phonetic versions after the guiding symbols have been mastered. KILMAURS, June 1st, 1924. D. MCNAUGHT, LL.D. Soth. INTRODUCTION WHEN Robert Burns published at Kilmarnock in 1786 the First Edition of his Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, he was twenty-seven years old, and had lived practically the whole of his life in Central Ayrshire between Ayr and Mauchline (Mawkhlin). Most of those early poems he had written at the farms of Lochlea (Loakhlie) and Mossgiel (Musgeel), within four miles of the village of Tarbolton (Turbowtun), which was his social centre during the greater part of that period. He says in his Preface, speaking of himself, ‘Unacquainted with the necessary requisites for commencing Poet by rule, he sings the sentiments and manners he felt and saw in himself and his rustic compeers around him, in his and their native language.' I have therefore made a study of the present speech of old residents of Tarbolton, who have always lived in that neighbourhood and habitually spoken Scotch. There cannot have been any very great change in the ordinary speech of the country-folk since Burns's day; and at all events this is the best means now available of arriving at an idea of how he himself spoke, and pronounced his Scotch verses. The result of my study, in which I received very valuable help, among others, from Dr. D. McNaught, the veteran ex-President of the Burns Federation, will be found in my book on The Dialect of Robert Burns as Spoken in Central Ayrshire, published by the Oxford University Press. In that book I have given the present pronunciation in Central Ayrshire of most of the words commonly used in everyday speech, as well as of the less common words used by Burns in his Scotch poems, spelt phonetically in such a way as to suggest the pronunciation to the ordinary reader of standard English; compared the Ayrshire pronunciation word for word with that of standard English; and discussed the grammar and idiom of Ayrshire Scotch. Burns unfortunately followed the traditional method of |