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Howburn Digger wrote: I live a few hundred yards from where Christopher Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid) lived out his days at Brownsbank. He unashamedly utilised Jameson's.
http://www.scotsdictionary.com/
Like Douglas Young and many others, MacDiarmid was inspired by the infinite expression in local dialects. Robert MacFarlane is another fellow traveller finding delight and inspiration in this rich furrow.
In years langsyne (afore I wisnae sae much buckled as deid-doun) I used tae wander in Knoydart wae my auld scunner Frazer. He took a dauner doon the Craw Road last year. I miss him ower much at times. Ah still hae mind o' pitchin' oor tent in the larach o' a clearance hoose. We kinnelt up a fire in the lee o' the broken dyke and sipped drams in the how-dum-deid wae a' the stars keekin' doon at us. Ye could still tell that even efter 250 years that thone wee larach hud aince been a gairden tae somebody an' their faimlie. Their auld tummled wa's geid us shelter on a nicht when we needed it. We kipped at Sourlie's the next nicht.
The Scots dialect is fascinating to some of us down here below the border. Robert Macfarlane book 'Landmarks' is about dialect and language in the British Isles. Chapter 2 (in the proof copy anyway) is called "A Counter-Desecration Phrasebook" and is mainly about language of the Outer Hebrides.
"The extraordinary language of the Outer Hebrides is currently being lost. Gaelic itself is in danger of withering on the tongue: the total number of native speakers in the the Scottish Gaidhealtachd is now around 58,000. Of those who do still speak Gaelic, many are understandably less interested in the intricacies of toponymy, all the exactitudes of which the language is capable with regard to landscape."
I highly recommend the book. I've already spoken on a different thread about Nan Shepherd and her little book "The Living Mountain" which is a later chapter. Also a chapter called Hunting Life where Robert Macfarlane talks about J.A. Baker's book "The Peregrine". What I like about Robert Macfarlane is the way he brings back to life writers who may have otherwise fallen into obscurity.
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