The Dialect Of Robert Burns As Spoken In Central Ayrshire PDF Download

Excerpt from The Dialect of Robert Burns as Spoken in Central AyrshireIN the notable lack of special studies of the various dialects of Scotland, it is not remarkable that the vernacular of Ayrshire has hitherto failed to receive close attention, in spite of its being the native speech of the national poet. This neglect, no doubt, is mainly due to the fact that Burns in his writings made no attempt to reproduce the local dialect in any exact fashion, but unquestioningly adopted the standard which had been set by his predecessors in the field of Scottish poetry. It was well that he did so, for against the endeavour to reproduce in literature, and above all in poetry, the precise details of any dialect even genius itself may strive in vain. Burns wrote for his country and not merely for his native district, and his countrymen have rightly accepted his words in the form he gave to them, and have pronounced them according to their own habits and instincts.At the same time, Burns could not help being influenced by the speech which he daily heard around him, and the use of which was natural to him. Every now and then, behind the conventional spelling which he had learned from Ramsay and Fergusson, it is possible to detect the real sounds which were in his ears and on his lips. The tell-tale rhyme-words, when carefully considered, frequently reveal what Burns said, in contrast to what he wrote. On the surface, the rhymes in the poetry of Burns are remarkably lax, and many of them Cannot be made exact on any fixed system. Many more, however, are loose only in appearance, and become perfectly regular when the words are pronounced as any native of Ayrshire would utter them.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.