> I'm not so sure that the use of the apostrophe *was* trivial, Peter.
I agree, but authors can be so precious. This recent episode I'd regularized
the text according to the Scots style sheet, as I'd normally do, only to
have the author gnawing away at interminable length and insisting
oh-so-politely that he knew better... He claims that this is a special form
of Scots that Ulster catholics bring with them when they come across the
water; my Ullans contact disagrees...
I guess victory in the language wars entitles folk like him to do as he
pleases. I think, if I remember rightly, that Angus Calder wrote something
interesting on this -- the rural/urban thing, and poetry in Glasgow
specifically -- in the Hamish Henderson issue of Chapman, no. 82.
P
|