The Derk Isle
September 21, 2013 1:24 PM Subscribe
The first translation of The Adventures of Tintin into the Scots leid is now available, and is a joy to read aloud. Give it a shot! It was also recently published in Gaelic and Welsh (Yr Ynys Ddu).
This is fantastic, thanks!
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 2:13 PM on September 21, 2013
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 2:13 PM on September 21, 2013
It's surprising how well Scots seems to suit Tintin even from that tiny sample. Now Captain Haddock, you'd expect it to work for him.
posted by George_Spiggott at 2:28 PM on September 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by George_Spiggott at 2:28 PM on September 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
immlass: "The fact that these exist make me happy even though I don't read the languages in question."
I didn't think I read Scots leid, but apparently I do! It makes me giggle uncontrollably, though.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:28 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
I didn't think I read Scots leid, but apparently I do! It makes me giggle uncontrollably, though.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:28 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
There's also a Scots Wikipedia.
Scots seems to be a lot closer to (21st-century) modern English than (Shakesperean) modern English. Are there linguistic differences between standard (British) English and Scots that there aren't between standard English and, say, the Scouse or Geordie dialects?
posted by acb at 2:38 PM on September 21, 2013
Scots seems to be a lot closer to (21st-century) modern English than (Shakesperean) modern English. Are there linguistic differences between standard (British) English and Scots that there aren't between standard English and, say, the Scouse or Geordie dialects?
posted by acb at 2:38 PM on September 21, 2013
Yeah, I also think Scots looks like a dialect of English written more phonetically. But I might be missing something.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:53 PM on September 21, 2013
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:53 PM on September 21, 2013
acb -
Have a look at Wikipedia's (obviously very limited) list of Geordie vocabulary. At least half of them are common to Scots; e.g. aboot for about and likewise oot for out, lang/alang for long/along; bairn for child; clarts for mud*. And I'm pretty sure that Scouse, similarly, has a whole load in common with Scots.
*although to be fair, I'd have said clarty, rather than clarts, but that's maybe a regionalism.
posted by Len at 3:07 PM on September 21, 2013
Have a look at Wikipedia's (obviously very limited) list of Geordie vocabulary. At least half of them are common to Scots; e.g. aboot for about and likewise oot for out, lang/alang for long/along; bairn for child; clarts for mud*. And I'm pretty sure that Scouse, similarly, has a whole load in common with Scots.
*although to be fair, I'd have said clarty, rather than clarts, but that's maybe a regionalism.
posted by Len at 3:07 PM on September 21, 2013
Personally, regardless of whether it's a language or not, Scots Wikipedia is different enough to be interesting and I would love to have Tintin written in Geordie as well. Reading books in British dialects is fun and makes the world of Englishes feel a bit more colorful.
posted by shii at 3:07 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by shii at 3:07 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
acb –
Sorry, I now see that I've got your point arse about face. Linguistic differences between Scots and regional English dialects? Yes, definitely. Cultural/class ones as well. Lowland Scots was very much the language of the educated classes for a large chunk of post-reformation Scotland who lived in, or below, the central belt (simplifying, it was Gaelic or Doric or some other language/dialect the further north you got). Though of course the educated central belt classes could write in standard English as well. I'm not sure that your average Tynesider or Scouser would, in official correspondence, communicate in a "posh" version of their dialect, rather than in standard English, but this was certainly the case in Scotland, at least in pre-industrial revolution times. Burns, to give an example, didn't necessarily write in Scots as a political statement; that said, he was writing in the language of the dominant (Scottish) political class of the time. I'm not omniscient, but I can't think of equivalents in Geordie or Scouse. (If you can, do let me know ...)
posted by Len at 3:17 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Sorry, I now see that I've got your point arse about face. Linguistic differences between Scots and regional English dialects? Yes, definitely. Cultural/class ones as well. Lowland Scots was very much the language of the educated classes for a large chunk of post-reformation Scotland who lived in, or below, the central belt (simplifying, it was Gaelic or Doric or some other language/dialect the further north you got). Though of course the educated central belt classes could write in standard English as well. I'm not sure that your average Tynesider or Scouser would, in official correspondence, communicate in a "posh" version of their dialect, rather than in standard English, but this was certainly the case in Scotland, at least in pre-industrial revolution times. Burns, to give an example, didn't necessarily write in Scots as a political statement; that said, he was writing in the language of the dominant (Scottish) political class of the time. I'm not omniscient, but I can't think of equivalents in Geordie or Scouse. (If you can, do let me know ...)
posted by Len at 3:17 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
"Nane o yer haivers, noo!"
Looking forward to seeing the Scots versions of Haddock's "bashi bazouks!" and "billions of blue blistering barnacles!".
posted by blueberry at 3:23 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Looking forward to seeing the Scots versions of Haddock's "bashi bazouks!" and "billions of blue blistering barnacles!".
posted by blueberry at 3:23 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Scots seems to be a lot closer to (21st-century) modern English than (Shakesperean) modern English.
This is ambiguous enough to make me uncertain that you mean that Scots is more similar to the common English spoken today than the English of Shakespeare is. I'd have to disagree pretty strongly. You can get through a whole Shakespeare play and count the completely unfamiliar words on one hand. You can scarcely get through two sentences of Scots without hitting a few.
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:24 PM on September 21, 2013
This is ambiguous enough to make me uncertain that you mean that Scots is more similar to the common English spoken today than the English of Shakespeare is. I'd have to disagree pretty strongly. You can get through a whole Shakespeare play and count the completely unfamiliar words on one hand. You can scarcely get through two sentences of Scots without hitting a few.
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:24 PM on September 21, 2013
Tintin's been available in Welsh for a good while, although Yr Ynys Ddu might be a new addition.
There's a Tumblr of all Capten Hadog's more colourful moments.
posted by ceiriog at 3:35 PM on September 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
There's a Tumblr of all Capten Hadog's more colourful moments.
posted by ceiriog at 3:35 PM on September 21, 2013 [3 favorites]
Ooooh! The Black Isle was my first Tintin! This is great, thanks!
posted by chapps at 3:46 PM on September 21, 2013
posted by chapps at 3:46 PM on September 21, 2013
Yeah, I also think Scots looks like a dialect of English written more phonetically.
The question of what, if anything, the difference between a language and a dialect is aside, I have to say that I find written Scots to be much closer to Standard English and easier to follow than spoken.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 3:52 PM on September 21, 2013
The question of what, if anything, the difference between a language and a dialect is aside, I have to say that I find written Scots to be much closer to Standard English and easier to follow than spoken.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 3:52 PM on September 21, 2013
If Scots is a language, can't the vowels just be more glottal/shifted? Like "E" could be pronounced as the English "air" but written "E". Instead, it defers to English vowel usage and makes vowel constructions relative to English.
Nationalism makes people do stupid shit, though this is totally innocuous as far as those things go.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:26 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
Nationalism makes people do stupid shit, though this is totally innocuous as far as those things go.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:26 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]
> … can't the vowels just be more glottal/shifted?
The transcriptions seem fine to me, a Lowland Scot. Mind you, we actually do things with vowels, unlike the rest of you lazy lot…
posted by scruss at 6:16 PM on September 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
The transcriptions seem fine to me, a Lowland Scot. Mind you, we actually do things with vowels, unlike the rest of you lazy lot…
posted by scruss at 6:16 PM on September 21, 2013 [2 favorites]
>Yeah, I also think Scots looks like a dialect of English written more phonetically. But I might be missing something.
Only written. Spoken, well, for some of us yanks at least, it can be a wee bit of a struggle...
:)
posted by twidget at 6:17 PM on September 21, 2013
Only written. Spoken, well, for some of us yanks at least, it can be a wee bit of a struggle...
:)
posted by twidget at 6:17 PM on September 21, 2013
I want Scots to be a language. Dammit, Germans and Spaniards and even Finns have other languages that are close enough to their own that it's easy to become fully bilingual. Why shouldn't English speakers get a language we can learn that's already mutually intelligible with English?
posted by Dreadnought at 6:59 PM on September 21, 2013
posted by Dreadnought at 6:59 PM on September 21, 2013
Oh, it very much is, Dreadnought. But we still have to put up with proposals for the closing of Scots Wikipedia because it's a “joke project”.
posted by scruss at 7:23 PM on September 21, 2013
posted by scruss at 7:23 PM on September 21, 2013
Ah huv tae admit ah fun this book's patter affae tricky tae unerstaun e'en though ah'm a Scoat masel, wi hauf ay ma faimely biding in the Doric spikkin lands ay the deen an the other hauf biding awa in the Hebrides. Ah divvent ken fit sairt ay words thon wee loon Tin Tin has bin taucht bit thir a gie wa awa fae ony patter ah've ivver hert aroon either ay they pairts. Ony wise fowks am nae gonnae fash masel ower it aw, disnae mak muckle odds tae me.
posted by Callicvol at 5:33 AM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Callicvol at 5:33 AM on September 22, 2013 [2 favorites]
ceiriog: "There's a Tumblr of all Capten Hadog's more colourful moments."
Of course there is! It's probably curated by the same people that thought it was okay to make him Scottish in the recent Spielberg film... sheesh!
No, I will not stop harping on about that detail...
posted by yaymukund at 1:16 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Of course there is! It's probably curated by the same people that thought it was okay to make him Scottish in the recent Spielberg film... sheesh!
No, I will not stop harping on about that detail...
posted by yaymukund at 1:16 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
Why am I suddenly wishing for a Tintin/Oor Wullie crossover? (Crivvens!)
posted by Spatch at 4:47 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Spatch at 4:47 PM on September 22, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by immlass at 2:13 PM on September 21, 2013 [3 favorites]