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From "Ghosting" by Jennie Erdal
".....when Uncle Bill visited, something happened to the way we spoke.
It is difficult to describe exactly what it was that happened, but it had to do with the shape of the sentences and the words that were in them - they seemed to be just the right words in the right place. The sound of my parents chatting with Uncle Bill was a joy - they used words like scunner and glaekit and puggled and wabbit linked together by lots of dinnaes and winnaes and cannaes. Uncle Bill led the way, and my parents seemed to take their cue from him. In my recollection they seemed happier at these times than at any other, laughing a lot, sharing together, not holding back or being secretive."
".......They were relaxed in the rhythms, at ease with the words - as if they were real owners of this language, not just borrowers. And not pretenders either, for their conversa- tion was real and full of rich meaning."
"......With its colourful dialect words and distinctive accent the Scots tongue was - still is - a vigorous, vital and varied thing. And it was something my parents clearly took pleasure in. But in common with parents the world over, they wanted the best for their children. They wanted them to get on. And it can't have escaped them that the status of the Scots language in wider society was low. If you spoke in the way it felt natural to speak, the way you heard spoken all around you, you were marked in the eyes of the world beyond. It was daylight snobbery, but that's the way it was. My mother was fiercely aspiring, and my father, perhaps in the interests of peace, went along with her. English was the thing; hence the elocution lessons and all that pitiful vowel management."
"Ghosting" by Jennie Erdal published by Canongate ISBN 1 84195 562 0