Categorisation schemie fur buiks "written in Scots"

In which Ah setfurth a list o categories descrievin the extent tae which buiks may be scrieved in Scots

Ah’ve been collectin Scots buiks fur five year noo, first tae feed intae ma corpus o 21st Century Scots, an then jist as an unco obsession. It’s awfy frustratin fur a nummer o reasons:-

• ISBN metadata incorrectly descrieves Scots buiks as language : English

• Buiks descrieved as containin Scots, sometime jist huv a mixter maxter of Scots an English

• Some buiks are undeniably Scots but huv an unconventional orthography

• Ye cannae dae wild-card searches o the National Library o Scotland catalogue tae find aw Scots language buiks ony mair

Ah’ve biggit a spreadsheet o aboot 1,300 titles noo, maistly buiks frae the last twinty five year, but also gaen back tae the 1850s, an Ah’m tryin tae categorise them aw uisin the follaein category codes:-

WS - wholly Scots, perhaps with copyright, and introductions in English
D1 - Scots dialog, English narrative
D2 - some Scots dialog, some English dialog, English narrative
D4 - hardly any Scots dialog, mostly English dialog, English narrative
ES - English with some Scots words
EN – English about Scots
MX - some English pieces, some Scots pieces, prose, poetry, etc
MS - mostly Scots pieces, some English pieces
ME - mostly English pieces, some Scots pieces
NC - non-conventional Scots orthography
EO - English orthography Scots (eye dialect)
ST - Scots pieces with translations into English, original poetry etc.
CE - Scots text with substantial commentary in English
BU – Orthography from 1790s
RF – Reference works like dictionaries or textbooks, for non-Scots readers

Yon leet, micht be uisefu fur fowk who dinnae spik Scots, but can recognise English an “somethin similar but no quite the same”, perhaps fowk in the publishin industry or librarians. The finer distinction atween D1 an D2 buiks, or NC an EO orthographies can be left tae academics or mair experienced Scots readers.

The idea is that it stops chumps lik me frae expendin sillar on a buik that is marketed as “written in Scots” ainly tae find there’s jist a couple of lines o Scots, an maist pages are pure English.

Imagine pickin up a buik that someane said wis scrieved in Scots, an turnin tae a random page, an that page is wholly written in English. Me cuid conceive o ane o thay folk on Twitter, sneerin “this is yer Scots, is it?”. It cuid jist be that the buik is a D2 or MX or ST category an it jist happens tae be a page o English.

Example buiks

WS - Graeme Armstrong’s “The Young Team”, Moira McPartlin’s “Before Now”
D1 - Ethyl Smith’s “Changed Times”
D2 - Douglas Stuart’s “Shuggie Bain”
D4 - Michael M’s “You’re Doing It Wrong”
ES - Jackie Kay’s “Coorie Doon”
EN – Clive Young’s “Unlocking Scots”
MX - Len Pennie’s “Poyums”
MS - (nae examples tae be fund)
ME - The Association of Scottish Literature’s “New Writing Scotland” anthologies, Chris McQueer’s “HWFG”
NC - Irvine Welsh’s “Trainspotting”
EO - James Kelman “How Late It Was, How Late”
ST - Kathleen Jamie’s “The Keelie Hawk”, Josephine Giles’s “Deep Wheel Orcadia”
CE - William Donaldson’s “The Language of the People”
BU – Robert Burns “Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect
RF – “Concise Scots Dictionary”

On me wee spreadsheet Ah’ve ainly categorised aboot half o the buiks. In mony cases Ah maun acquire a physical copy a the buiks, Ah’m no gonnae find them in ma local public library.

Continuua

Its no jist a single axis wi a continuum frae buiks scrieved wholly in Scots tae buiks scrieved wholly in English. Amang thay categories there are several wee continuua:-

• D1, D2 an D4 - descrievin the degree tae which dialog is Scots or English

• MS, MX and ME - descrievin the proportion o pieces in an anthology are Scots or English

• WS, NC, EO, ES - descrievin the degree tae which the texts adhers tae conventional Scots orthographies - fur example representin the word TAE (“to” in English") - WS would uise “TAE”, NC micht uise “TI”, EO micht uise “TEE” and ES micht uise “TO”

Maist o these categories overlap tae wi ithers tae some extent, an its possible that presented wi ony gien buik it micht faa intae several categories. Jist pick ane thats kindae appropriate. It disnae matter as lang as some thoucht haes been pit intae it. Ah dinna ken, maybe a buik cuid be listed wi several codes an nane will worry.

Wee note aboot dialects

Ye micht note that this categorisation schemie disnae tak intae consideration the regional dialect that buiks micht be scrieved in. Ah reckon that a well-read Scots reader shuid be confident tae coorie doon wi ony regional dialect o Scots.

Its lik it wid be unco an weird gif someane ainly liked readin English buiks by American scrievers, or British scrievers an gif they wir confronted wi a buik by an Australian scriever they wid fling it intae the midden.

Ah dinnae want tae gie ony support tae Scottish libraries’s current shadow policy o ainly considerin Scots buiks scrieved in their local regional dialect an explicitly rejectin buiks by Scots scriever frae further awa.

Ootliers

There are a haunfu o theoretical categories that we can imagine, but Ah’m reluctant tae find examples o:-

• S1, S2, S4 - Scots narrative with various proportions of English dialog

• 19 - Scots orthography distinctly from 19th century

• 20 - Scots orthography distinctly from the 20th century

• CS - English with substantial commentary in Scots

Also Ah thought aboot haen a category NV fur novelty dictionaries buiks an colourin buiks, but Ah figured Ah’d jist ignore them.

Endispiece

Ah dinnae expect libraries or the English language publishin industry will worry aboot these categories too much. Its jist a wee framework o categories that Ah’ve pit thegither fur ma spreadsheet, an it micht be uisefu fur ither fowk who want tae descrieve their buiks, athoot misleadin potential readers.

Ony corrections an suggestions wid be warmy welcome. Its no lik this is the finished laminated version o the categories, tae be pinned up neist tae the Scots department in Watterstanes, an even “draft” version soonds a bit fancy.