Blythe tidins tae Leid Loanen frae the Ulster-Scots Commissioner - aa set fur haggin fir

LAST Thursday (Nov. 13) the lang awaitit Commissioner for the Ulster-Scots and Ulster British tradition, Mr. Lee Reynolds tuk up his position alang wi his Irish Leid counterpart, Mr. Pól Deeds.
I ken (know) that muckle (many) folk luk tae Stormont an Belfast wi an air o skepticism, but I personally hae adopted a 'bide an see' approach – tae gie them a chance tae see what they can dae fur the guid o the community.
Guid luk tae baith o them an tae Dr. Katy Radford the Director o the Offece o Identity an Cultural Expression, forbye.
Gien that Leid Loanen is an Ulster-Scots column, it's Cauleraine man Lee Reynolds, is the main subject o this piece.
Lee, as a wheen o youse micht ken, is the son o the late Charlie, wha for monie year screived (wrote) the forebear tae Leid Loanen, in this paper, The Ullans Article.
He sent in his articles wanst a month frae 2009 tae he retired aboot 2016.

COMMISSIONER’S TIDINS TAE LEID LOANEN
It's ‘cause o these connections, that, though hardly through his offece dure, Lee wuz fit tae send a shoort wurd tae Leid Loanen, saying: “Blythe tidins tae Al Millar an aa at hae a read o his scrievins in Leid Loanen frae Lee Reynolds as A agin tha darg o tha new Offys o Ulstèr Scotch an Ulster Bïtisch Heirskip.
“Thaur’s muckle tae be daen bot we onie hae tha yin airt, forrits thegither.”
See he uses ‘diacritics’ (the wee boys abeen letters) an I dinnae, that's aa pairt o Ulster-Scots.
Mair importantly he says thare’s muckle tae bae daun – which thare is.
On that vein, I snoked through a wheen (few) o his faither's aule Ullans Articles, tae see if I could find onything micht gie abitta (a bit of) faithery steer fur the Commissioner's stravaig (journey) fornenst (in front of) him.

HAGGIN FIR
I pickt wan o his foremaist screeds (first piece of writing) frae early 2009, that kerried the heidline ‘Haggin' fir an rizin the Deil’.
I thoucht, aiblins, (perhaps) thare wuz abitta wittens (knowledge/wisdom) ben (in) this article that micht bae o use tae Lee.
‘Haggin fir’, is o coorse ‘chopping wood’ weel a soort o wood - fir sticks.
Charlie reflects on this, axin readers aboot when wuz the last time they saw folk haggin fir wi a fir hatchet – which he says is wan bigger nor a normal hatchet.
He says: ‘A fir block wud hae stud a brav bit o haggin an it tuk a boady tae know tha wye the graen rin an the lake if he wus iver tae mak a job haggin fir,’
Charlie, a chiel o ‘The Troubles’ went on 'A knoad a yins wha wud hae blasted tha blocks wae gelignite but A suppose it wus in tha name o' that hatefa wird progress.'
'Gelignite' noo isnae thon a wurd o ‘The Troubles.’ It's naw Ulster-Scots – it is a wurd fur a soort o explosives inventit bae the Peace Prize Prize creator Afred Nobel.
Charlie o coorse didnae mean this literally, mair metaphorically, fur wha iver heardtell o folk usin gelignite tae hag thair wid?

GUID ADVICE
Can we licht hairtedly detect abitta guid advice amang these lines?
Pictur the darg (work) fornenst Lee, as a big bing o fir blocks, an him wi the fir hatchet in han.
Bit foremaist what is this darg?
‘To enhance and develop the language, arts and literature of the Ulster-Scots and Ulster British tradition.’
Gien hoo lang it tuk tae get this length wi aa the culture stramashes (squabbles) that occurred, Lee, as he sets oot haggin, wud dae weel tae luk tae the graen o the wid – tae tak tent o the nuances when raulin oot ony ettlins (plans) that he heise, or hesps or problems that arise, and use his engines (intellect), mense (common sense) an wittins tae git them blocks hagged.
Forbye, tae facilitate consensus an fair-play – an steer clear o the ‘gelignite’ approach – that I micht rephrase as the ‘hallions’ approach tae remove ony ambiguity.
He should tak tent o ‘progress’, bit dinnae bae afeart o't and hopefully he’ll get though his bing o blocks - heres hopin forbye, they sit at peace an dinnae turn intae a bag o kats.
Bit whativer fashes an swithers the weird (future) haules, dinnae, as they say in Donegal, turn the thing intae an 'aule mock', which I am sure he will naw.
Tae conclude wi the ither half o Charlie’s heidline ‘rizin the Deil’ - he maun avoid daen that forbye.
RECLAIM THE LEID
Dinnae forget – learn a word, reclaim the leid (language), wi gye an guid dictionaries aye (always) there tae help.
Why not hae a keek (peep) at the http://www.ulsterscotsacademy.com/ or the (Dictionaries of Scots Language) https://dsl.ac.uk/
If ye hear ony rare sounin wurds, or if ye hae a photta wi an Ulster-Scots caption or onything tae add tae wurds or phrases that appear, then contact us on 028276623