T HE V OCABULARY OF R OBERT B URNS Burns A B C ... The Burns Calendar Two new books from Scots writer Maureen Bell Click to see many of Burns Songs and Poems Click here to use The Online Scots Dictionary
Robert Burns
Notes on Robert Burns and the Scots Language Robert Burns, the National Bard of Scotland, was born on 25 Jan 1759, the son of an Ayrshire cottar; a cottage tenant. Between 1784 and 1788, whilst Burns was working as a farm-labourer he wrote much of his best poetry, including "Halloween", "The Cotter's Saturday Night" and the skilful satires "Death and Dr Hornbrook" and "Holy Willie's Prayer". In 1786 the "Kilmarnock" edition of Robert Burns' early poems brought him to the attention of literary Scotland and the second edition gave him enough financial security to marry his mistress Jean Armour. The couple settled to a hard life in Ellisland with their four children, and to supplement their meagre income, Burns took a job as an excise man (customs officer). From 1787, Burns concentrated on songwriting, substantially contributing to James Johnson's "The Scots Musical Museum", including "Auld Lang Syne" and "A Red, Red Rose". On 21st July 1796, at the age of 37, he died, his health undermined by rheumatic fever. The Scots Leid Scots is still the living language of many Scottish people and has its own unique grammatical constructions and vocabulary. It is closely linked to English, Flemish, Dutch, Afrikaans and the Frisian and Saxon dialects of German. Scots has two main dialects; Lallans, spoken in the Scottish Borders, the dialect Burns wrote in; and Doric, spoken in North-East Scotland. | |
|
