A selection of words from 'The Hamely Tongue'

The Ulster-Scots Agency is delighted to share with you representative extracts from James Fenton’s “The Hamely Tongue: A Personal Record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim” (Published by The Ullans Press for the Ulster-Scots Language Society, 2000).

Born in 1931, James Fenton spent the first 18 years of his life in the countryside a few miles south of Ballymoney, where the great majority of the people speak broad Ulster-Scots. Maintaining close contact with family and neighbours, he has over the years compiled a detailed record of contemporary speech, and the author has meticulously checked each entry in his dictionary with informants in different parts of the county.

However, this book consists of much more than words and meanings. The author’s stated aim “has been to compile an authentic, comprehensive record of a living language: its vocabulary, idiom, characteristic turns of phrase and modes of expression, its aphorisms and its humour”. The reader of these extracts will quickly appreciate how magnificently this aim has been realised.

“The Hamely Tongue: A Personal Record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim”, James Fenton (Ullans Press, 2000). Copyright: James Fenton, 2000.

All rights reserved. No part of these extracts may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Ulster-Scots Language Society.

The following extracts are reproduced by permission of James Fenton and The Ulster-Scots Language Society.