The Doric Quine

16/09/2024

Yours truly has a wee poyum in this new beuk! https://www.lulu.com/shop/fin-hall/hit-the-north-east/paperback/product-2mj5rm8.html?q=Hit+the+north+%28+east%29&fbclid=IwY2xjawFViLFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVYKQ3hKHqWeTbXLPi3K9L8RA5SviAQAYfbojPb3oX75kRqRkv4Mo90gXA_aem_UpW3AV7lMzITLIKRAklHcA&page=1&pageSize=4 (and it's in baith Doric and Glasgow dialect, cos it's aboot Joan Eardley fa hid a hoose in Glesgae and een in Catterline!)

This book, the 10th publication, from Like A Blot From The Blue, an independent publisher in the North East of Scotland, is a collection of writings from poets from Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

25/08/2024

A pucklie o local actors in ess film - fae the true story o the trade union quines fa held a sit doon protest in the men-only Grill Bar in 1973

Award-winning short based on the true story of the Scottish Trade Union women who, in April 1973 staged a sit-in at the then "men only" pub, The Grill, in Ab...

18/08/2024

The Toulmin Prize 2024 deadline for entries is 27 August. The prize for the winner is £500, and the story will be read aloud at the WayWord Festival at the University on Friday 27 September by Sheena Blackhall, pictured reading the winning stories at the 2023 prizegiving. For more information on how to enter see details at:
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/public-engagement/toulmin.php

18/08/2024

This year Publishing Scotland celebrates its 50th anniversary!Publishing Scotland have been supporting and promoting Scotland’s independent publishers since 1974, both at home and internationally. To celebrate this milestone year, we've selected a ‘50 for 50’ list - 50 books that have been pub...

18/08/2024

JK Annand’s poems have enchanted generations of bairns. As copyrights holder, we were delighted to work with Itchy Coo for this brand new edition! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Beautifully illustrated by Bob Dewar, it’s a rare treat for wee een as weel as wee lugs! 👇

https://blackandwhitepublishing.com/products/our-wicked-histories

07/05/2024

Strichen Festival is back. Yours truly won a certificate for a Doric poem I scrieved at skweel

Here is all the details about our Festival Weekend

Look forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks

07/05/2024

Feartie Cooard!

Scots Word of the Week: FEARTIE/FEARDIE

Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) defines feartie as a “coward, timorous person” and notes the combined form “feardie-coward” from Watson’s Roxburghshire Wordbook (1923).

Ten years later, the Aberdeen Press and Journal of November 1933 reproduced Kitlins, a poem by Jean R. Ord describing a vigorous dance with this non-participant: “While Dreidlock, the feartie can just sit an glower some”.

A different feartie makes an appearance in Ian Rankin’s 1997 novel Black and Blue: “‘So who passed you the info?’ ‘Fergus McLure.’, ‘Feardie Fergie?’ Rebus pursed his lips. ‘Wasn't he one of Flower's snitches?’”.

And there’s this trenchant exhortation from Edwin Morgan in For the Opening of the Scottish Parliament, 9 October 2004:

“A nest of fearties is what they do not want.
A symposium of procrastinators is what they do not want.
A phalanx of forelock-tuggers is what they do not want...”

In Carey Morning’s bairns rhyme Neeps and Tatties (2020) it’s the vegetables behaving badly:

“They flung fierce words and sometimes worse,
a stick, a stane, a sneisty curse.
Yin might yekk, ‘Haw! Feartie breeks!’
then a rammie wid stert and rin for weeks.”

In Gregor Steele’s Betty the Vampire Slagger (Scots Hoose, 2021), Betty favours insulting the vampires to impaling them and is ridiculed - until the vampires create a jag to immunize themselves against stakes and then:

“Aw o the feartie Slayers,
Shoutit fae the cludgie flair,
‘Gaun yersel wee Betty,
Slag them aff fur ever mair!’”

Perhaps sometimes discretion is the better part of valour – gaun yersel wee Betty!

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/feardie

06/05/2024

2024 Heirskip’s are now available at the following:
Dyga, Fraserburgh,
Whyte's, New Pitsligo,
The Mustard Seed, New Deer,
The Old Mart Cafe, Maud
The Lodge, Strichen

Or more information on the website

21/04/2024

Ahm in the hame o Ulster Scots ess wik!

18/04/2024

Wir ain Doric Theatre company Fleeman Productions is back wi twa shows

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TV2ByGFwkDsp78ZQ/

RETURN OF FLEEMAN PRODUCTIONS WITH COMEDIES IN DORIC

Fleeman Productions, the Doric language based theatre company, founded by the late playwright and director Charles Barron, is touring the North East again, from 27th June to Midmar, Stonehaven, Inverurie, New Deer, Tullynessle, Kemnay, Fraserburgh and Culter. They are presenting a double bill of Evie, a play written by Charles Barron, and Gosser’s Gala, a short farce, based on Alan Ayckbourn’s Gosforth’s Fete, adapted into Doric by Sheila Reid.

Evie, featuring Yvonne Morton (pictured), who has appeared in several Fleeman shows, tells the story of a true Aberdonian whose sharp wit and humour are shared with her cat, as she faces a huge change to her way of life. Gosser’s Gala is a laughter filled romp at the village gala day, where the weather and cub scouts get in the way of things running smoothly. The cast features some familiar Fleeman faces, including Brian McDonald as well as newcomers to the company.

Details of performances are available now and tickets, priced £10 will be on sale online on TicketSource/fleeman-productions, and from local outlets, from mid May.

28/03/2024

Ess is ma favourite phrase. Made u o verb and adjective: Ca = to go; Canny = carefully (canny can also mean shrewd but nae in ess context).
Ca also means to rotate or set in motion, e.g. "Ca the hunnle till e wheel giz roon."

Scots Word of the week: CA' CANNY

The earliest citation for this phrase in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language comes from John Galt’s Annals of the Parish (1821): “To admonish the bride and bridegroom to ca canny”. It is defined as “to proceed warily, to be moderate”.

Later, it appeared in a political coinage quoted in the Glasgow Herald (1921): “Mr Ramsay MacDonald recommends ‘a magnificently organised system of passive resistance,’ which, plainly interpreted by his followers, means Ca-cannyism”.

Moderation in all things is, of course, sound advice. Here is some from Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay’s Forever Yours Marie-Lou (1994): “Ye should caw canny oan the breid, no eat sae much ae it …".

Found in the Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech comes more sage advice from Michael Hamish Glen in his The lassies tak the bannock, O! (1995): “Fur, gin yer fere’s John Barleycorn, Ca canny, fur he’ll nirl yer horn”.

The Aiberdeenshire Bairns an Young Fowk’s Chairter (Banff Academy, 2020) has this at number 4: “Ca canny judging fowk. Thole us. Unnerstan far we’re comin fae an fit we hae experienced. Realise that wi aa mak mistakes…”

This warning about over-watering plants appeared in the Aberdeen Evening Express (2021): “Keep them in good light and in temperatures above 5°C… From time to time they may need to be watered but ca’ cannie!”.

And finally, from Robbie Shepherd’s Doric Column in the Press and Journal (2023): “Gang canny throwe this world o’oors An tak yer steps wi care, An nivver do yer neighbours wrang, But aye do what is fair.”

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/ca_canny

28/03/2024

The boy has daen the letter G noo!
https://www.facebook.com/100064490002312/posts/813608294132163/

26/03/2024

Pinched fae the Aberdeen page
https://www.facebook.com/share/1TZ7JDsP1PhoUhrR/

22/03/2024

Fit's yer favourite Doric wird and fit wye?