Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/113

Rh applies specially to "lang-nebbit" words of Latin origin, as in, "It's braw to be weel eddicate," just as Shakspere writes (1 Hen. IV.), "These things indeed you have articulate" (expressed). Another Elizabethan feature is the use of a strong preterite for a participial form. Thus, in "King Lear," we read," I dare pawn down my life for him that he hath wrote this to feel my affection." Lord Stair said, "All letters from Lord-Advocate Craigie, before and after Prestonpans, were wrote like a man of sense and courage." This Shaksperian characteristic is found in many of last century letters, even those of English ministers. Chancellor Hardwicke to Lord President Dundas has "was writ." Newcastle again says, "Sir Alexander Gilmour is very much threatened that he shall not be chose again for the city of Edinburgh." Another correspondent, speaking of Sir John Cope, says, "He has rose fast to considerable rank and preferment." Only the uneducated would now say, "The man has corned, is went away, begoud (began) his work early, I seen him do it."

Some well-marked differences between Scots and English fall under the head of relational expressions. Such idioms as these are common: "This is the man as told me," "Still in life," "Had it in his offer," "He speaks through his sleep." A favourite preposition in the Scots vernacular is at—"Angry at him, asked at him, a hatred at him." In "Robert Urquhart" we read, "Robert Muir took scant notice of his neighbour's belated sympathy. He had seen how his mother had suffered at their tongues when she was alive." Other prepositions are equally characteristic. Witness the phrases, "A pound in a present," "No fault to him," "Better o' a dram," "Married on," "Oot amon' thae neeps," "Oot the hoose at wance," "Aboon the lave," "A slater to his trade." There is change in progress even in modern English. Thus Gray wrote, "What cat's averse to fish?" Formerly from had been more frequent in such a case, and this is coming in again. Quite recently to has superseded from after "different." Shakspere uses avert without a' preposition, "To avert your liking a more worthier way" (Lear).

What would now be deemed a vulgarism, alongst for along, was very frequent till near the close of the eighteenth century. Mrs. Calderwood, as well as many English writers, uses