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    In translation

    Currently reading Hame, by Annalena McAfee, in which the protagonist moves to a fictional Hebridean island and researches an equally fictional poet, called Grigor McWatt. The story itself is highly engaging, but I'm becoming increasingly irked by the author's demonstration of the vibrancy of the Scots vernacular by translating iconic poems (Innisfree, Ode to Autumn, etc) into the dialect. If anything, she's defeating her own argument, as if a language's only literary purpose is to act as a translation service, rather than conveying original thoughts, it can only be described as dying. Hugh McDiarmaid and Irvine Welsh are fine exponents of Scots, so why not put their words in the poet's pen, rather than contriving and striving to ill-effect?

    #2
    Aye, ah ken. Wis aywis thus.

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      #3
      And Scots isn't exactly the primary linguistic or cultural source in the in the Hebrides. There's a fair case to made for treating the varieties of Highland/Western Isles English different to the transition of lowland Scots fae a language of Crown, poesy and law, to the funny dialect Walter Scott etc set out in italics, or the "slang" of the modern lower classes. For a start, even a garrison and trading mainland town like Inverness was In the Gaeltacht till the early 19th century.
      Last edited by Lang Spoon; 13-09-2017, 23:52.

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