Urban Scots Dialect Writing
Published on 4. April 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
345 pages
978-3-906768-39-7 (ISBN)
Description
This study explores the fundamental issues - linguistic, historical, cultural and discoursive - involved in the written representation of urban Scots. Offering a comprehensive linguistic description of Glaswegian, it examines its use and functions in 20th-century Glasgow fiction. The study argues that urban Scots is a coherent variety perfectly suitable as a literary medium alongside any other standard or non-standard variety of English. Throughout, the book draws on examples from Glasgow fiction for illustration, culminating in the analyses of representative text passages and of authenticity in their dialogue representation.
Reviews / Votes
«...there is much to savour in this book. It is exemplary in its setting of contemporary urban fiction in a coherent historical tradition of writing in Scots; and it is intriguing in its detailed thesis that the twentieth century saw a movement away from a general Scots prose, towards something much more localised and concrete.» (John Corbett, Scottish Studies Review)«This is a valuable study of a recently-developed sub-genre in Scottish fiction. [...] This book is an important contribution to the study of one of the most adventurous and dynamic branches of recent Scottish literature.» (J. Derrick McClure, Scottish Language)
More details
Person
The Author: Anette I. Hagan was born in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany. She studied English, Divinity and German at Mannheim and Mainz Universities. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, where she is currently employed in the Library's Special Collections Division.
Content
Contents: Language varieties, Standard English and Scots - Synchronic description of Glaswegian - Relationships between: sound and symbol, spoken and written language, perception and representation of dialect - Analyses of selected passages from the novels No Mean City; Dance of the Apprentices; The Changeling; Mr Alfred MA; Its Colours They Are Fine.