A Wee Scotch Grannie’s Story
It was a warm
summer day in Greenock and neighbouring Gourock along the banks of the River
Clyde. Something that wasn’t totally unusual but then again Greenock was known
more for its rainy days than for its sunny days. Grannie Coupar looked for days
like this to take her two younger grandchildren, Ewan and his younger sister
Heather, down to the riverside in Gourock on Sundays where she had a favourite
spot to sit and watch the children as they played among the rocks and shells.
Grannie had a friend among those rocks, one in particular, Victoria who was a
Rockkin, a female druid priestess who been given the form of a spirit in the
distant past and so now existed in the form of a kind of Faerie. Grannie Coupar
always took a jeelie piece for each of the children and usually a bottle or two
of Barr’s Iron Bru in case they were thirsty. When the time came for them to
take a break from rock throwing and shell collecting they sat down around
Grannie ready to eat when suddenly Ewan said “Gran I have a question.”
“Well I’ll see
if I can answer it for ye so ask away.”
“Well every
time I say aye instead of yes Aunt Betty, (Aunt Betty was Gran’s sister),
always corrects me and tells me to say yes instead of aye. She says it’s not
proper to talk that way. Yet I told her sailors say aye aye captain, not yes
yes captain.”
“Let me give
you a wee history lesson.” said Gran. “But first of all it's better not to
argue with your Aunt Betty. Just let her have her ways. You see a long long
time ago Scotland and England were two separate countries. And way up in the
Highlands of Scotland people spoke a language known as Gaelic but in some of
the lowland areas we spoke what was referred to as Northern English. And the
people that spoke northern English were known as Scotch. The people in the
Highlands were more often referred to as Scots. Now the Scotch people for the
most part were poor hard-working and honest folk. They had little money and not
always were there many schools that they could go to so they would be thought of
as being illiterate. Och there was farmers, shepherds, weavers, fishermen and
fishermen's wives and all sorts of hard-working lowly folks. Some of the richer
and more elite folks that lived in the bigger cities like Edinburgh and Dundee
and so forth looked down their noses at the lower working-class and so it got
to be that being Scotch was a station in life that was undesirable. Now this
northern English they were speaking was called Scotch or Lallans which meant
lowland Scotch, sometimes called Doric. To tell the truth when a lot of them
were sent to Northern Ireland by King James VI they were given farms with low
rents and a lot more freedom to prosper which they did. But for a long time it
was still just not right to be Scotch and to speak the way they did. So to say aye instead of yes was one example and they tried to get away from being called
Scotch. But you know some of the very famous authors and poets in Scotland
constantly used the word Scotch in their writing. Authors like Sir Walter
Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Barry and even Robert Burns continue to
use the word. Even the famous Harry Lauder called himself a Scotch comedian. He
wrote one of my favourite songs called Mary
Ma Scotch Bluebell. So you see it was fine to be Scotch and to speak the
Scotch tongue. But folks like your aunt Betty are a bit too prudent to admit
that. You see your Grannie’s side of the family actually comes from a very
Scotch area over to the east in Edzell and Loch Lee.”
“I see.” said
Ewan. “So it’s OK to say aye?”
“Aye.” said Gran, “Just not in front of
your Aunt Betty.
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