The following extracts from "Ulster-Scots: A Grammar of the Traditional Written and Spoken Language" by Philip Robinson (Published for The Ulster-Scots Language Society by The Ullans Press, 1997), are provided by permission of Philip Robinson and The Ulster-Scots Language Society. Copyright: Philip Robinson, 1997. All rights reserved. No part of these extracts may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Ulster-Scots Language Society.

NOUNS AND NUMBERS

Nouns are words that stand for animals, places, people or things (and even for abstract concepts such as “fear”). More words act as “nouns” than “adjectives”, “verbs” or any other part of speech. The range of Ulster-Scots nouns is enormous, and it would require a work of dictionary proportions to provide a comprehensive listing. For example, the words used for parts of the human body provide us only with a glimpse of a few familiar terms:

heid	-	head
bap	-	head
fizog	-	face
clock	-	face (slang)
bake	-	face, mouth (slang)
broo	-	forehead
mooth, mou	-	mouth
gub	-	mouth (slang)
weeks	-	creases from corner of mouth down to chin
neb	-	nose
snoot	-	nose (slang)
cootèr	-	nose (jocular: “coulter” of a plough)
lug	-	ear
ee/een	-	eye/eyes
chollers	-	jowls, cheeks
gowl	-	throat, jaws, jowl
craa	-	gullet, throat
thrapple	-	throat
shoodèr, shouller*	-	shoulder
airm	-	arm
oxtèr	-	armpit
hann, haun*	-	hand
fing’r	-	finger (rhymes with “singer”)
thoom	-	thumb
nieve	-	fist
loof	-	palm
fit, fut*	-	foot
faet*	-	feet
shanks	-	legs
hinches	-	haunches, thighs
hunkers	-	backs of thighs
hurdies	-	hips
wame	-	stomach, belly
breesht, breast	-	breast, chest
airse	-	bottom, backside (N.B. airse is not a “naughty” word in Ulster-Scots and is used metaphorically for the “back” or “bottom” of anything)

Note: Words used in this and the following chapters may be archaic (that is only recorded in the written record and not in modern speech). These “literary” forms are identified as such in the glossary at the end of the book only. Words and/or pronunciations indicated by spellings which are “dialectal” within Ulster-Scots (i.e not used in the traditional speech of the “core” Ulster-Scots area in mid and north Antrim), are identified throughout by an asterisk following the word, e.g. fivver* (‘four’), fut* (‘foot’) (where the ‘standard’ Ulster-Scots words for these examples would be fower and fit).

Consider which words in a sentence might be nouns:

Oor ain kye aye aits hay
‘Our own cattle always eat hay’

Here there are two nouns, with kye operating as the ‘subject’ of the sentence, and hay as the ‘object’. The construction of this sentence in Ulster-Scots is similar to its construction in English, where in simple terms we would expect a Subject-Verb-Object (S-V-O) word order, and where the subject and the object are often ‘nouns’. For example, in the simple English sentence; ‘The cat (Subject) has eaten (Verb) that little mouse (Object)’, the noun ‘cat’ is the subject and ‘mouse’ the object.

In Ulster-Scots grammar a construction is often preferred which puts the object to the front of the sentence (and at the same time keeps a pronoun object), and part of the verb is moved to the end; See thon wee moose (Object), tha cat ( Subject) haes it et (Verb).

However, before considering in detail how Ulster-Scots sentences are actually constructed (chapter 10); we must establish how the parts of sentences operate. As far as nouns are concerned, this means establishing whether they act as subjects or objects.

Subjects and objects of a sentence can be either a noun or a ‘noun phrase’. A noun phrase must contain at least one noun (or a ‘pronoun’) within the group of words which functions as the subject or the object. For example, the noun phrase thon wee moose contains the noun moose, while the whole phrase may act as subject or object.

Some words can be used not only as nouns (‘naming’ words), but also as verbs (‘doing’ words). The words ‘walk’ and ‘work’, for example, can stand for the things or ‘nouns’ that we know of as ‘a walk’ or ‘his work’. On the other hand, ‘to walk’ and ‘to work’ are verbs. In an Ulster-Scots phrase such as a wee dannèr, the dannèr (‘walk’ or ‘stroll’) is a noun, although we might dannèr intae toon where we are using dannèr as a verb. As in Standard English, both options are available, but most Ulster-Scots speakers prefer the noun usage, so we would hae tuk a wee dannèr intae toon rather than hae dannèrt intae toon. The Ulster-Scots forms of ‘work’ include wark and darg. In general darg is used only when the noun is intended: hè’s his day’s darg daen (‘he has finished his day’s work’), while wark is preferred when the verb is the given sense: an quhit daes he wark at? (‘and what does he work at? , that is, ‘what is his job?’). Wrocht is the past tense verb form of ‘work’: hè wrocht aa nicht. Rather than say ‘worry’ in Ulster-Scots, fash or trouble yer heid is common (for example, Savage-Armstrong: “tae trouble me heed aboot deein”). Here a noun (‘head’) is introduced where it would be unlikely in English.

The Ulster Scots grammatical preference for nouns rather than verbs (although of course both are necessary in the grammar of all languages), is really a preference for certain core verbs that are ‘simple’ (‘have’, ‘put’, ‘take’, ‘give’, etc), along with an extensive use of nouns to form phrases. So we will pit in an apologie for someone, rather than ‘apologie’ for them. We will tak a scunner (or a ‘sickener’) at or agin something rather than be scunnert wi it. A clergyman will mak a prayer rather than ‘pray’ and we will gan for a swam in tha wattèr rather than ‘go swimming in the water’.