A Word of Ulster-Scots 2

Sometimes Ulster Scots takes a perfectly functioning English word and freights it with a set of meanings peculiar to the hamely tongue. When I was wee, all I wanted to be was big. Nowadays, if you're big, all you want is to be wee.

Big has a number of uses in Ulster Scots, not all of them relating to physical size. As always, I am indebted to poet and lexicographer James Fenton for his invaluable reference work "The Hamely Tongue" (Ulster Scots Academic Press). To quote a prominent academic, 'If it's not in ‘The Hamely Tongue’, it's not Ulster Scots'.

If folk are described as big people, this has more to do with their social standing in the community or their possession of adequate financial resources rather than their girth or weight. Although that might also have been the case.

People who have not always seen eye to eye but who have belatedly discovered the concept and joys of brotherly love might well be described as big and those who aren't just as chummy might be identified as no big or perhaps no as big as they wur, possibly indicating a contretemps. 

Rotundity or corpulence in general is not necessarily being referred to if an individual is described as big o the erse (although it's a possibility). Rather the person being described is clumsy or awkward. Although it’s hard to deny that the description an erse that big ye could clod a britchin ower it (of a generously proportioned individual, usually female, a  vivid phrase for which I am indebted to Sam Agnew of Kilwaughter) employs big in the conventional English sense.

While not strictly relevant, I am reminded of my brother's experience many years ago as a young producer for BBC Scotland. He was working on the development of a strand of programming for the Scots Gallic language (sometimes known as Erse, itself a mispronunciation of Irish) particularly targeted on speakers who had a basic knowledge of Scots Gallic but who were returning to the language after an absence, either linguistic or geographic. The working title of the programme,  'Brush Up Your Erse’, sadly didn't make it to air.

Big o the mooth or big o the gub indicates someone with a loose tongue, one who might be deemed as unable 'to houl their ain watter'.  Big o' the heid doesn't imply possession of an over inflated sense of your own worth but rather a stupid person; thus 'big o' the heid’ clearly indicates ‘small of the brain'.

An unexpected turn of events might be described as a 'big yin' and empty boasting could be labelled 'big tak'.

Aberrant or antisocial behaviour (or indeed the day to day strains of family life, according some mothers) might result in a stay at the 'Big Hoose', a destination which varied according to your location. In County Antrim, Hollywell, in County Down, Downpatrick; Belfast had Purdysburn and in Derry it was Gransha. My mother in law hails from Dungannon and my wife assures me on bad days she threatened to end her days in Omagh.

If something were to be described as 'big odds', this doesn't indicate a potentially hefty payout from Barney Eastwood or Alfie McLean but rather denotes something important but usually expressed in a sarcastic or ironic way. A 'big deal' in English means something important but if someone says 'Big deal' it usually means 'No big deal'. So is it also in Ulster Scots, nay big odds.