Scots nursery rhyme and dialect-specific rhymes
I heard a nice Scots nursery rhyme yesterday, and thought some of you might be interested:Three craws
sat upon a wa'
Sat upon a wa'
Sat upon a wa'
Three craws
Sat upon a wa'
On a cauld and frosty mornin'.
The first craw
Couldnae flee at a'...
The second craw
Was greetin' fer his maw...
The third craw
Fell an' broke his jaw...
The fourth craw
wasnae there at a'
[Silence for rest of verse]
An that's a'
we ken aboot the craws...
I was particularly struck by the way that so many of the rhymes rely on the dialect -"wall" and "all" continue to rhyme in my own, none-too-distant dialect (British RP), but "jaw", "crow" and "mum" totally fail - only one out of ten possible rhyming pairs survives the translation!
sat upon a wa'
Sat upon a wa'
Sat upon a wa'
Three craws
Sat upon a wa'
On a cauld and frosty mornin'.
The first craw
Couldnae flee at a'...
The second craw
Was greetin' fer his maw...
The third craw
Fell an' broke his jaw...
The fourth craw
wasnae there at a'
[Silence for rest of verse]
An that's a'
we ken aboot the craws...
I was particularly struck by the way that so many of the rhymes rely on the dialect -"wall" and "all" continue to rhyme in my own, none-too-distant dialect (British RP), but "jaw", "crow" and "mum" totally fail - only one out of ten possible rhyming pairs survives the translation!