2.6 Possessive and compound nouns

In fact, the possessive case in the –‘s or – s form as in tha Queen’s commaun is often avoided altogether by using the construction: tha commaun o tha Queen. In English, partitive nouns (particularly collective nouns such as ‘herd’, ‘crowd’, etc) are followed by ‘of’. This device is much more extensively used in Ulster-Scots, especially where the noun phrase contains two nouns rather than a noun and an adjective. For example, a ruif o thatch or thà ruif o tha Meetin Hoose are typical constructions, and the alternatives of a theekit ruif and tha Meetin Hoose ruif are less satisfactory. So too, we find the key o tha dorr o tha hoose rather than the *hoose-dorr key; the scraitch-o-day rather than ‘daybreak’; and with the explicit possessive cases: tha coo’s eldèr, the preferred form can be tha eldèr o tha coo (‘the cow’s udder’).

Note: This ‘rule’ breaks down when the two nouns used together in a noun phrase become familiarly associated together to give a compound noun such as Kirk Session (rather than *Session o tha Kirk). When we mean a ‘teapot’ rather than a ‘pot of tea’, we use the compound noun taypot or tippet as a single word to describe the object needed when we decide to wat (i.e. brew) a wee pot o tay. In earlier times this was the tay-draa’r (used to ‘draw’ the tea). A church organ, referred to derogatively as a kist or ‘chest’ of whistles in Ulster-Scots, is written as a compound noun in the hyphenated form kist-o-whussles, rather than as a single word, and so it is also with peep-o-day (‘dawn’).

It should also be noted that the possessive case for ‘general’ classes of objects involving two nouns in a noun phrase, such as ‘dogs’ leads’, ‘car tyres’ etc, are constructed using for rather than ‘of’: laids for dugs; tyres for motors etc, e.g.: Hae ye onie paiper for lappin in tha schap? (‘Have you any wrapping paper in the shop?).

When a proper, singular noun ends in –s, the possessive form is –s’s, e.g. Burns’s poems (‘Burns’ poems’).