A letter from Robert Burns the poet, to a friend, 1st June, 1787
I hae dander’d owre a’ the kintra frae Dumbar to Seilcraig, and hae forgather’d wi’ monie a guid fallow, and monie a weel-far’d hizzie. I met wi’ twa dink quines in particlar, ane o’ them a sonsie, fine fodgel lass, baith braw an bonnie; the tither was a clean-shankit, straught, tight, weel-far’d winch, as blythe’s a lintwhite on a flowerie thorn, and as sweet and modest’s a new blawn plumrose in a hazle shaw - they were baith bred to mainners by the beuk, and onie ane o’ them has as muckle smeddum and rumblegumtion as the half o’ some Presbyteries that you and I baith ken.
From Scots The Mither Tounge, Billy Kay, Ayrshire, 1993, p.102
‘Voteless Weemen’ article from the The Weekly News (Dundee), 13th January, 1906
Hoo should weemen no’ hae a vote as weel as a men? That is a puzzle whilk has bothered me for mony a day. What wad this boasted Empire o’ oors, or the wide world aither, be withoot the guidin’ wisdom o’ weemen, eh? No’ up tae verra muckle I’m dootin’. Weemen even at praisent rule the warl’, but, oh, at what a loss, for they hae tae dae sae in a seeckond-handit kind o’ way. Thay hae first o’ a’ tae rule their men, an’ then let men try on their haun’s at the rulin’ o’ the world’, whilk, unco’ affen, they mak’ a gey puir job o’... The mere men buddie governors o’ oor nation hae decreed that a’ thae men are entitled tae hat a vote in the government (guid or bad) o’ oor country, but they likewise hae declared that their employer - because she is a wunman - shall hae nat vote. Oh, wives, did ye ever hear o’ sich nonsensical tomfoolery, eh? I’m thinkin’ no. That wumman gies over a hunner pounds a year tae the sa ca’d Government o’ this country in rates an taxes, an’ yet hasna a single say in whaur it is tae gang or hoo it is tae be spent or squandered.
From The Language of the People: Scots Prose from the Victorian RevivaL, William Donaldson (ed), Aberdeen 1989, p.183
Graspin the thistle o oor linguistic identity bi John Hodgart. Article in The Herald Newspaper, 1993
As we pey oor annual homage tae “the Bard “ I canna think o a mair fittin time tae consider the language o Burns an its place, or lack o it, in Scottish schuils. Indeed, in maist schuils the annual Bums’ competition has aye been the ae time when ony kinna Scots was tholed in the classroom...Yet there hae been important chynges in recent years an there are nou signs that mony folk in education believe that we need tae try an mak amends for whit wis done in the past. If Gaelic culture can succeed in makin their weans confident in baith Gaelic an English, then shairly we can manage the same wi Scots an English, kizzen tongues tae ane anither, so that oor weans lea the schuil literate in their native tongue as weill as standard Scots English... Aa Scots weans shoud be taught tae read an write some form o Scots alang wi English if we are serious aboot oor cultural identity. Scotland has aye been at least bi-lingual an we need tae come tae terms wi this in education.
From The Herald, January 28th 1993