Perspectives on the Older Scottish Tongue (review)

This book comprises of thirteen essays celebrating the publication of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). The essays are accompanied by an introduction of Alasdair MacDonald. The book contains also an envoi by William Gillies and an appendix with bibliographical notes on the editors of the dictionary.

The volumes of DOST include vocabulary of the older Scots language, the ancestor of modern Lowland Scots. The possibility for lexical material to be used as evidence in diverse areas makes both this book and the dictionary important reading for scholars and students. The dictionary itself is of indispensable assistance to all researchers whose sources are written in Scots or contain Scots words and expressions. This collection of essays shows that the dictionary can be successfully used not only in research of lexicography and stylistic aspects of language in literature, but also in the study of early Scottish history and culture. The contributors to this book, all prominent specialists in different fields of scholarship, have applied the lexical data of DOST in their own studies and appreciated the great possibilities this kind of dictionary provides in explaining of terminology and usages and in describing of concepts from the physical environment and social life of early Scotland.

Of great interest are those essays, which analyse different aspects of Scottish society through the lexis used to describe them. Jane Dawson's article for example discusses kinship words and focuses on baptism, kinship and alliance in early modern Scotland and the role of the 'gossip' in them. She shows that before the sixteenth century the term 'gossip' had different connotations in Scots and English. While in English the word was associated with the godmother, in Scots the same word was usually referring to the godfather and male activities. There were also differences between the Scottish experience of 'gossiprie' and that of the Irish.

Alexander Fenton presents the history of wine in Scotland from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries by using the entries in the DOST. As wine is not native to Scotland, it remained as a drink of the better off until, as the author points out, surprisingly recent times. He examines various features of wine trade and wine consumption, the Scottish understanding of wine and its role in social life. Fenton highlights also the range of wines and practices of selling. Iseabail Macleod's subject are the cereal terms in the DOST record. She analyses the vocabulary in question from the perspective of the importance of cereals for the diet of Lowland Scotland. Allen Simpson considers in his contribution the older Scottish terms of weights and measures. He also comments on methodology of dictionaries in the case of measurement terms.

Bruce Walker's topic is the lexis used in traditional construction work. He rightfully points out that there are also some problems with the use of historical dictionaries. Words often change meaning over a period of time. In this sense, although they are a useful tool in understanding of past events and concepts, they still highlight only part of the story. Therefore, dictionary data is being studied together with other documentary evidence and tested against the information of other dictionaries and that of other disciplines.

The contribution of M.G.Dareau, Former Editorial Director of DOST,is based on the story of the history and development of the dictionary. Angelo Forte and David Sellar both discuss different aspects of the law and the relationship between law and lexicography. Insightful comparisons between the methodology of DOST andother dictionary projects are provided by the essays of Paul Schaffner and Keith Williamson. In these chapters DOST is compared to the Middle English Dictionary (MED) and to the Linguistic Atlas of Older Scots (LAOS).

Donald Meek concentrates on the usages of two related words (Gaelic sgaoil and Scots scail). He examines their corresponding general and parallel specific usages as well as their use in distinctive settings. Correspondence in the uses of both verbs is...