Notes - Glossary of words in ‘The Northern Cottage and other poems’ by George Dugall
Author: George Dugall
Date: 1824
Source: ‘Glossary’ — an appendix with notes to The Northern Cottage and other poems; written partly in the Dialect of the North of Ireland by George Dugall (Londonderry: William McCorkell, 1824)
Comments: George Dugall (c.1790-1855) lived most of his life at Portlough near Newtowncunningham in Donegal. His book of poems The Northern Cottage and other poems; written partly in the Dialect of the North of Ireland (sixteen of which were written in what he describes sometimes as ‘braid Scotch’ and sometimes as the ‘dialect of the North of Ireland’), also contains an extensive and separately compiled ‘Glossary’ of Ulster-Scots words. George Dugall describes this Glossary as “a tolerably correct analogical specimen of the language … worthy of the unprejudiced and philanthropic eye of research, [hoping that] the acute and erudite philologer will not despise the simple data”. Indeed Dugall’s poems (see Ulster-Scots Poetry 1800-1899) were “cast”, he says, in the scene of “that part of the North of Ireland” where the dialect “bears a strong affinity to that of Scotland”. His poems are even richer in Ulster-Scots vocabulary than the Glossary indicates, and so citations from his poetry have also been excerpted for the Academy’s Historical Dictionary (see Dictionary).
Doc. ref. no.: USLS/TB/Hist/1800-1899/009-notes
Home | Notes | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | W | Y
The dialect of that part of the North of Ireland, where the scene of the foregoing pieces is principally cast, bears a strong affinity to that of Scotland, as exhibited in the poetical works of Ramsay, Burns, &c. The a, au and aw, however which in the latter have the same sound as the English a in wall, have in the former that of the same letter in bar, far, &c. The remaining peculiarities will spontaneously suggest themselves to the reader.
N.B. — Although the foregoing Glossary (which may be taken as a tolerably correct analogical specimen of the language) may perhaps be considered by some, as more copious than the exigencies of the reader might seem to require; yet, it is presumed, that, in this enlightened age, when no corner of the empire remains so obscure, as to be thought unworthy of the unprejudiced and philanthropic eye of research, the acute and erudite philologer will not despise the simple data, which a well wisher to rational refinement, thus presents to his attention.
Home | Notes | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | W | Y