'A word of Ulster-Scots'

By Liam Logan

When I came to pen this month's piece, I had a 'rugh idea whit I'd dae'. Equating on many levels with 'rough', 'rugh' still has a distinct meaning, peculiar to Ulster-Scots. As with all these columns, I acknowledge my thanks and debt to James Fenton, the premier poet and original lexicographer of Ulster-Scots whose opus magnus, 'The Hamely Tongue', is available from the Ulster-Scots Academic Press.
To describe your (perhaps temporary or holiday) lodgings as 'rugh enugh' is to indicate a slightly sub standard state of affairs. The same critique applied to a neighbour's house is an altogether more damning indictment.
The modifier is vitally important. 'Gye rugh' is worse again and if your living quarters are in a state of total dereliction, they might be described as being 'rugh as a badge's erse'.
If an individual were to lose their composure or allow their exuberance to get the better of them, it might be said that they were 'cuttin up rugh'. And if the person were possessed of a slovenly nature or an unkempt appearance, they might also be classified as 'rugh'.
I have heard those hardy Ulster-Scots souls who take ship across the sheugh to Scotland in pursuit of their favourite football teams describe the crossing as 'brave an rugh' or 'as rugh as I hay seen it'. For the veterans, inevitably perhaps, it's nearly always 'no as rugh as I hay seen it'.
Grub prepared to a standard well below that of Cordon Bleu and in circumstances evidencing a healthy disregard for environmental health food safety regulations might be deemed 'rugh packin'.
To slightly paraphrase Fenton, 'Ye'd need to be mair nor hungry tae face what was put up tae ye'. This, of course, would never happen on the ferry to Scotland.
'Rughie', sometimes called 'roozle', is bread baked from oatmeal, flour and cold boiled 'prootas' (the noble spud).
A 'rughness' of money indicates a not insubstantial (or indeed a considerable) amount of coin. A young woman might be made more marriageable if the putative match were to include a 'rughness o money'. Such an individual might be said to 'hay a guid purse tae her erse'.
If a task were to be partially done but in large measure completed, it might be said that the 'rugh o its daen'.
Like this article (since no work of art is ever completed, merely abandoned).