2.2 Quantifiers

‘Quantifiers’ are used in the noun phrase to indicate the amount or quantity of whatever is referred to by the noun itself. They can indicate the approximate amount, for example ‘some’ houses, or the exact quantity, for example, ‘four’ houses. Because quantifiers have some ‘adjectival’ properties, they are also known as ‘determiners’ (see section 5.1). When they do not indicate the actual number or exact amount of the noun, they are known as ‘indefinite determiners’ (such as ‘all’, ‘few’, ‘several’,etc.).

A wheen o something is one of the most widely used general quantifiers or ‘indefinite determiners’ in Ulster-Scots. Depending on the context, a wheen can mean ‘a couple’, ‘some’, ‘a few’, ‘a number’ or even ‘a good quantity’. Some is used in Ulster-Scots with the meaning ‘a surprisingly large amount of’: e.g. thon wuz some rain last nicht. Another widely used word for ‘an amount’ or ‘number’ is feck; e.g. wuz thar onie feck o fowk at it? The maist feck means the ‘majority’ or the ‘greater part’.

If the intended meaning of the indefinite determiner is ‘some’, ‘occasional’ or ‘a few’, then antrin can be used, for example, slug A tuk thà antrin o watter (‘I took an occasional swig of water’). However, antrin is an historic and archaic Scots form, today in literary use only (such archaisms are distinguished from current usages for the reader in the glossary). In everyday speech tha odd is more often used: He wud cum roon tha hoose tha odd Setterday (‘He comes to our house some Saturdays’, or ‘the occasional Saturday’). Thar wuz tha odd wee dràp o rain yestreen (‘There was an occasional shower yesterday’). In Ulster-Scots we might hae tha odd pun, meaning ‘several’pounds (although, given that this might be a characteristic under-statement, it could actually mean ‘have a good few pounds’). To express ‘few’ in the sense ‘not many’, some sort of negative phrase would be used such as A hinnae owre monie puns left. Note that ‘odd’ meaning ‘peculiar’ is sometimes orra in Ulster-Scots literature: a gye orra mon (‘a very odd man’).

The most common quantifying adjectives (or, more properly, ‘indefinite determiners’) used in Ulster-Scots are as follows:

little, small	-	wee
[a little bit	-	awee (e.g. Orr: “turn’d his head awee”). However, this is an adverb here, not an adjective (see Section 5.2)]
all	-	aa, aw, a’
any	-	onie
many	-	monie (e.g. Thomson: “Right monie a hurchin I hae seen”)
much, many	-	muckle (e.g. muckle guid thon’ll dae ye)
more	-	mair
most	-	maist
about, approximately	-	or sae (e.g. twa dizzen or sae)
enough	-	eneuch (pronounced [en-yugh])
some, a good few	-	wheen, lock
some, an amount	-	thing (e.g. thar’s nae coals in tha hoose, bot thar’s thing oot in tha shade)
a lot of	-	some
some, occasional	-	antrin (archaic/literary)
every, each	-	ilk, ilka (archaic/literary)
every day	-	ilkaday
few, a small amount	-	pickle
roughly, round about	-	in or aboot
whole/whole amount	-	hale, halewar (e.g. Thomson: “The halewar o’ them clean awa”)

Some of these quantifiers can sometimes (but not always) function in Ulster-Scots without  '…of’ added (when it would always be expected in English):

a wheen prittas	'a number of potatoes’
a pickle saut	‘a pinch of salt’
a wee dràp tay	‘a small drop of tea’ (e.g. Herbison: “A wee drap tea they be to gie them”, also “an’ taks a drap whiskey”)
A hae plentie cattèr	‘I have plenty of money’

Note: A ‘little’ can be a wee bit, also without ‘…of’, e.g. “Your bonnie wee bit bigged nest” (Herbison).

Conversely, eneuch (‘enough’) does take an ‘…of’ in Ulster-Scots:

A hae eneuch o cattèr

‘I have enough money’.

A nievefu is a handful or fistful, while a gopin or gowpin is an amount that would fill two cupped hands held together.

Muckle (‘much’) appears in the Ulster-Scots literature with various spellings, including mickle:

How hae I leugh a meikle deal
Wi meikle dole she hosten spat
He was nae man o’ meikle lear
She ca’s the muckle brute her dear
Sae, when a carle, wi’ mickle pains
I b’live owre muckle o’sic stuff
White as a mickle skaith
Jist noo A em muckle tae busy
So by sic means, I maybe may make mickle mair
Ye could as muckle bear his bangs
Ye’re got sae mickle gowden gear
He cared na mickle, like ow’r little dreed
Then hame I goes wi meikle speed

Pickle ('little') occurs less frequently in Ulster-Scots poetry, although in 17^th century documents, both muckle and pickle occur regularly. Some examples of later usuages in poetry include:

To sell a pickle yarn
That half his pickle peets they tak’

Many of these quantifiers can function as nouns or adverbs as well as adjectives. ‘Each’, for example, may be ilk or ilka in an adjectival usage meaning ‘each’ or ‘every’. Ulster-Scots poets alternated between ilk and ilka without any immediately apparent pattern. When almost 100 examples of these two forms are examined from the different poets writing between 1720 and 1880, it seems that ilk, rather than ilka, is more often used at the start of a sentence:

Ilk thing that’s about them
Ilk ane’s as feat’s a new made prin
Ilk lassie wi’ her dear
Ilk ferlie ye saw there
Ilk fairy scene on simmer’s morn
Ilk ane sinsyne must have his tree to speel and spring af
Ilk wee bird frae its dreary dream
Ilk lass man ha’e a snaw-white gown
Ilk lass, no tald lees on, wha deems
Ilk maid and matron hauds her dear
Ilk short relapse
Ilk day when he did dry the kiln
Ilk coley dog
Ilk farmer man the kintra roun’
Ilk ane I trow
Ilk fearless frien’ shall by ye stan’

On the other hand, when ‘each’ occurs within a sentence, the form ilka is preferred (especially when the following word begins with a consonant such as b, c, g, or d):

For ilka verse, my social swankie
And ilka bosom kindness shew’d
Remembrance ilka morn
Wad fok at ilka time agree
And ilka wee bird blithely sings
Thou feeds our beasts o’ ilka kin’
Twad be fine gif ilka youth ay
The youth on forms sit rang ‘d roun’ ilka wa’
Then men o strength wha bullets play, or put in ilka alley
My head was reft wi ilka cough
Frae ilka neuk the spunkies stauncher
The beasts rub doon the cheeks o’ ilka door
For ilka draught
Were slung on ilka shou’der
He early rase on ilka morn
Frae ilka bush he taks a few
There’s money taxes ilka year
When ilka piper play’d a tune
Ae British shillin ilka day
Then ilka day in sax hours gaun
In ilka gruntle
Then ilka bonnie face I saw
While ilka breath o’ wind that blaws in ilka way
Wae ilka word my love let fa’.

Historically, ilka is a reduced form of ilk ane (‘each one’), and appears later in Older Scots than ilk. There is some suggestion that ilk was used where ‘each’ might be the expected meaning in English, and ilka whenever ‘every’ would be more usual.

On those occasions where ilk rather than ilka is used within a sentence, the word following it often starts with a vowel. Of course, this most frequently occurs with ilk ane, although the ‘incorrect’ form ilka ane also occurs

But now ilk ane withouten fear
Tears flow freely frae ilk e’e
Clash to ilk ane
Tho’ ilk fareweel
Auld mem‘ries types ilk image tine
Some stript ilk morn
Their pride ilk day
To check ilk heart an’ banish wae
On her laigh floor ilk winter night
Divided roun’ ilk hook an’ crook

The choice between ilk and ilka, in poetry, could also be dictated by metrical considerations, and may be determined only on the basis of fitting the iambic metre.

However, if the English meaning of ‘each’ is ‘to each’ such as in a sentence as ‘The boys are careless with money, I gave them two pounds each’ ,then tha piece or apiece is used: Tha weefellas haes nae had wi catter, A gien thaim twa pun apiece. A haet is a ‘jot’, or a ‘scrap’ – the ‘smallest amount’: A hinnae a haet in thà hoose. Feen (a) haet or Deil (a) haet are common phrases for ‘not a jot’, i.e. ‘nothing at all’ (e.g. Thomson "Diel haet he dow bot girn an spit”). A racherie is a ‘large number’, usually a large, unsorted collection of something, and a hattèral has a similar meaning.

Several compound indeterminate pronouns are formed from quantifiers such as ‘any’, ‘some’ and ‘every’:

anything	-	ocht, oniethìn (also oniethìn* pronounced [oanythin])
something	-	somethin (also somethìn* pronounced [som’in], with a glottal stop in place of ‘th’)
[Note: boadie is used in Ulster-Scots for English ‘one’, meaning ‘person’: A boadie cannae dae ocht these days (‘One can’t do anything nowadays’)]
anyone	-	onieboadie
everyone	-	aaboadie, iveryboadie
someone	-	someboadie

‘Any’ as a quantifier in Ulster-Scots is onie (pronounced [oany]). However, if ‘any (thing)’ is meant, e.g. ‘I haven’t any (thing) left at all’; the appropriate Ulster-Scots word is ocht: A hinnae ocht left ava.

Similarly, ‘too much’ can be iver ocht or owre ocht as well as owre much in Ulster-Scots, although this idiom has also been used in Ulster-Scots literature to mean ‘so much’:

he laucht owre ocht (‘he laughed so much’)
he’s owre thran gat (‘he has become very difficult)
he’s owre ocht thran gat (‘he has become far too difficult’)

‘How little’ is aa tha much: luk at aa tha much ye hae et, and ‘how much’ is tha much: luk at tha much laun he haes. Or sae means ‘or about’: twa dizzen or sae.