Languagle #63: Scots
A bonnie bride is suin buskit, and a short horse is suin wispit
"A pretty bride is soon dressed, and a short horse is soon groomed."
What it means
Something that is already good doesn't need much effort to look right. A bonnie bride is quickly dressed (buskit), and a small horse is quickly groomed (wispit, rubbed down with a wisp of straw). Said of people or jobs that need little fuss.
How to say it
uh BON-ee BRIDE iz SIN BUS-kit, an uh SHORT HORSS iz SIN WIS-pit
Suin, soon, is said 'sin' in some parts of Scotland and closer to 'sun' or 'seen' in others.
Word by word
- bonnie BON-ee: pretty
- suin sin: soon
- buskit BUS-kit: dressed, made ready
- wispit WIS-pit: rubbed down with a wisp of straw, groomed
Where it was written down
A traditional proverb, passed down by word of mouth.
How to recognise Scots
Scots looks like English with different spelling, because the two grew from the same roots. Look for ae, ane, frae, ken (know), cannae and dinnae, oo where English has ou (hoose, mouse), and past tenses ending in -it instead of -ed, like buskit and wispit here. Scottish Gaelic is a completely different language, full of bh, mh and accents like à.
About the Scots language
Scots is a West Germanic language, a close sibling of English, that grew out of the northern Old English spoken in south-east Scotland. Around one and a half million people in Scotland said they could speak it in the most recent census, and a related form, Ulster Scots, is spoken in Northern Ireland. It was the language of the Scottish royal court and parliament before the 1600s, and much of Robert Burns's poetry is written in it.