tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8249999112430764239.post8586013592945277667..comments2023-05-28T16:12:22.977+03:00Comments on Wee Fictions: Writing In Scots DialectAndrew McCallum Crawfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10741474262548635774noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8249999112430764239.post-56937154231756363782011-08-03T11:58:38.037+03:002011-08-03T11:58:38.037+03:00All you have to do is ask yourself how many writer...All you have to do is ask yourself how many writers you know – not Scots – who write in a dialect. I did some research on it a while back and I really struggled to find many. We Scots, by our very natures, make a fuss about things that other cultures would shrug at; we’re proud of our differences. Most people in the world tend to view Scots as English spoken in a funny accent – or as William McIlvanney put it <a href="http://jim-murdoch.blogspot.com/2009/11/english-in-its-underwear.html" rel="nofollow">“English in its underwear”</a>. The last Scottish book I reviewed I actually criticised because the voices didn’t feel right especially because it was set in the forties when I would imagine the local twang would have been much thicker, not yet diluted by watching too many American sitcoms. <br /><br />It’s hard to find a balance. My next book is set in Ireland, albeit an imaginary one, and I was very keen to find a balance including enough Irishisms to make it believable without making it unintelligible. I think Irvine Welsh goes too far – I find his books a hard read and I am Scottish – and we do want to be read. I’ve written a couple of short stories that are in Glaswegian and they both got published (in a Scottish magazine) but in the two novels that are set in Scotland I play it safe mainly because I write as I speak and despite having lived my entire life here I’ve never quite shaken the Lancashire accent that I heard spoken daily by both my parents.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8249999112430764239.post-80828982445895019692011-08-02T01:02:54.250+03:002011-08-02T01:02:54.250+03:00I think with poetry being such a niche interest th...I think with poetry being such a niche interest that poetry in Scots has an absolute niche readership (apart from the obvious Burns, MacDiarmid etc). With fiction I wonder if it's quite different considering the widespread fame of Iain Banks, Ian Rankin and Irvine Welsh. Although I'm not sure how much actual dialect in in the novels.Marion McCreadyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04657757253873577465noreply@blogger.com