Anither glaikit gowk

In recent weeks two 'journalists' with the Irish Daily Star were geckin at the Ulster-Scots language.  Meanwhile a regular contributor to the Derry Journal (22 February) has also had a go at Ulster-Scots.  This time it was Norman Hamill, who is described in the newspaper as 'a former police inspector in Derry' and who has a column called Hamill's Beat.  Here then is some of 'Norman's nonsense', which might be a better title for the column.

Even without a dictionary you can still speak in Ulster-Scots.  All you have to do is to talk English with the broadest Ballymena or North Antrim accent you can muster. 

Don't worry about making mistakes.  Nobody will notice.  I've been making up cod Ulster-Scots in this column for ages and nobody has notices any mistakes.  In fact making up codology has been good craic.

They don't have anything like Ulster-Scots in Scotland.  That's because it would be considered too embarassing there, even for Scotland.  Of course it's embarassing here too but no matter how severe the cringe-factor, anything is deemed to be worth it to counter the promotion of Irish.

I must confess that I am neither a regular nor an avid reader of the Derry Journal so I have not had the privilege of reading any of Norman Hamill's 'cod Ulster-Scots' but one thing is absolutely certain.  His article is just another example of trash journalism.

It seems that when some columnists have nothing else to write about, and surely if they are half-decent journalists there must be something, they tend to resort to an attack on Ulster-Scots.  They don't worry about the facts because they have no facts.  They just give expression to their abject ignorance and their cultural prejudice.

Clearly Norman Hamill has not read The Hamely Tongue by James Fenton or Dr Philip Robinson's Ulster-Scots Grammar, and he in unaware of academic works such as the Dictionary of the Scots Language.  But then, why would Norman let his abject ignorance stand in the way of earning a few bob?

So perhaps Norman Hamill may find it helpful if I correct him on two points.  Ulster-Scots is not an accent, it is a language and it has been recognised by the United Kingdom government as one of the regional or minority languages of the United Kingdom, along with Irish in Northern Ireland, Scots and Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, Welsh in Wales and Cornish in Cornwall.  It is a West Germanic language and a sister language to English, with its own vocabulary and grammar.  As an example of vocabulary the words glaikit and gowk are Ulster-Scots words.  They are not English words and they are not 'an accent'.  Yes there are words that are common between English and Ulster-Scots, just as is the case with sister languages around the world, but there are many words that are not shared.

As regards Scotland, Norman Hamill said, 'They don't have anything like Ulster-Scots in Scotland.'  Well, Norman, you're wrong again.  In Scotland they have Scots, and in Ulster, we have Ulster-Scots.  It isn't hard to understand, or at least it isn't hard to understand if you have a gleed o wut and know even a little about the subject of minority languages.

Sadly the standard of journalism seems to be declining and there are more and more journalists and columnists who refuse to let total ignorance of a subject stand in the way of them writing about it.

Londonderry has been chosen as the first United Kingdom City of Culture.  I do hope that this drivel in the Derry Journal is not a reflection of the cultural life of the city, I really do.  A city of culture should be an inclusive city that embraces cultural diversity, including the culture of the Ulster-Scots.