Gantin fur it

I'm a big fan of Karen Dunbar. Not that I've ever seen her perform live. I've heard her on the radio and seen her on the telly. She is what's referred to as 'edgy.' That means dangerous, because although on national media she's slightly curbed, live she doesn't give a rat's arse who she insults. I like that.

I like Betty reminiscing about what life was like in the west of Scotland during World War 2. Some of you will remember that the phrase 'gantin fur it' appeared in Betty's memories. I remember being relieved to hear Karen Dunbar use that phrase. Up to that point, if you listened to the authorities, life in WW2 seemed to be about defending the nation, working hard and being an upstanding citizen, whereas I just knew from listening to family and neighbours that all sorts of behaviour had gone on. Food smuggling and extra-marital houghmagandie were only two examples.

Houghmagandie is Scots - from Ayrshire maybe? Gantin fur it is Central Belt Scots. It's amazing to me how many different forms of the Scots language there are. And just as amazing is to find out how much the different strands of the Scots language are despised by everyone else: fellow Scots, scholars, even people from Northern Ireland. I've got used to the contempt with which some people react to Scots saying 'I seen' and 'I done' although these are perfectly acceptable expressions in the Scots language and refer back to a very old form of English/Scots. Just as I have come to accept that 'war' has no final r in some English dialects, although I still object to modern dictionaries that try to tell me that 'sure' and 'saw' are pronounced the same way.

Sadly, some experts go on arguing about what constitutes Scots, while others keep needling each other about keeping the language pure. Who knows what that means. The great thing about Scots is that it has kept on changing, with or without the permission of linguistic experts. Scots goes on evolving and I hope that will continue.