15.3 The path to Lorimer’s translation
In the 19th century strictly orthodox Calvinism was on the wane in mainstream Protestant churches, and some people began to openly regret the division between the official religious register of formal English and the spoken language of a great many people sitting in the pews: Scots.
A series of translators worked to provide Scots versions of bible books or selected passages, including Henry Scott Riddell, George Henderson, P. Hately Waddell and James Murray, who was to become the Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. Finally in 1901 William Wye Smith, a Scots American, published a complete New Testament in Braid Scots [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , which broke fresh ground by working from more recent English translations, and attempting to imitate the language of Burns rather than the medieval poets.
Although Smith reached a broader public market, his work has been criticised by Graham Tulloch, the leading historian of the Bible in Scots for being inconsistent and not sufficiently colloquial. Burns himself combined literary and colloquial Scots with literary English in his poetry, and the Authorised Version of the Bible is a strong stylistic influence, as in much Scottish Literature.
Inspired by the Scottish Literary Renaissance of the 20th century, W. L. Lorimer, a noted classicist and Scots linguist, embarked on a fresh translation of the New Testament from the original Greek into Scots. Published in 1983, Lorimer’s New Testament was instantly hailed as a classic work of translation in any language. The first words of Lorimer’s version of Paul’s paean to love in I Corinthians 13 are inscribed at the gate of the members’ entrance to the Scottish Parliament, making it one of the most recent Scots inscriptions in Scotland’s capital city:
Gin I speak wi the tungs o men an angels, but hae nae luve I my hairt, I am no nane better nor dunnerin bress or a ringin cymbal. Gin I hae the gift o prophecie, an am acquent wi the saicret mind o God, an ken aathing ither at man may ken, an gin I hae siccan faith as can flit the hills frae their larachs - gin I hae aa that but hae nae luve in my hairt, I am nocht.
Activity 8
In this activity, you will work more closely with the inscription on the Scottish Parliament building from Lorimer’s Bible translation into Scots. This time, you will focus on the vocabulary used by Lorimer.
Part 1
Match the Scots words with their English equivalents.
Using the following two lists, match each numbered item with the correct letter.
-
dunnerin bress
-
acquent
-
aathing ither
-
siccan
-
flit
-
larach
-
nocht
a.such/like
b.resounding gong
c.all/everything
d.move/shift
e.place/foundation
f.nothing
g.knowing/being acquainted with
- 1 = b
- 2 = g
- 3 = c
- 4 = a
- 5 = d
- 6 = e
- 7 = f
Part 3
Finally, listen to a recording of the first words of I Corinthians 13 and then record yourself reading these words.
Transcript
Listen
Gin I speak wi the tungs o men an angels, but hae nae luve I my hairt, I am no nane better nor dunnerin bress or a ringin cymbal. Gin I hae the gift o prophecie, an am acquent wi the saicret mind o God, an ken aathing ither at man may ken, an gin I hae siccan faith as can flit the hills frae their larachs - gin I hae aa that but hae nae luve in my hairt, I am nocht.
Model
Gin I speak wi the tungs o men an angels, but hae nae luve I my hairt, I am no nane better nor dunnerin bress or a ringin cymbal. Gin I hae the gift o prophecie, an am acquent wi the saicret mind o God, an ken aathing ither at man may ken, an gin I hae siccan faith as can flit the hills frae their larachs - gin I hae aa that but hae nae luve in my hairt, I am nocht.
Language links
In the extract from Lorimer’s Bible translation you came across the word dunnerin, which in English means ‘thundering/noisy/resounding’. This Scots word has close connections with the German language. It derives from the Scots noun dunner, which in modern German is Donner. There is, however, a Scots verb with the same spelling as the German noun, which means being stunned by din, a loud noise.
However, Lorimer’s huge literary achievement is also a weakness, because his recovery of centuries of Scots is rich beyond the reach of contemporary spoken idiom. It was left to the retired actor and social worker Jamie Stuart to strike a more accessible note.
Stuart was, before his death in 2016, the last surviving member of the cast of the 1948 revival of Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis. His A Scots Gospel, published in 1985, is the text of a dramatic retelling of the Gospel story, based on his own live performance, and drawn from all four New Testament Gospels. Stuart makes good use of all his predecessors, including Lorimer, and found a ready market for both performances and text. Encouraged by this he achieved even greater popularity with his similarly constructed Glasgow Bible, which went through numerous reprintings as well as audio and video versions.
The drama aspect is significant, as performances outwith or alongside standard church services provided the best opportunities for Scots usage in religion. These events were often connected with revived festivals such as harvest or, most popular of all, Christmas Nativities, which also take place in many primary schools. Here is a typical extract from a Nativity, In the Beginnin (Smith, 1994), produced for churches and schools by The Netherbow Arts Centre. Colloquial idiom and local variants are both actively encouraged, yet this is recognisably a continuation, or renewal, of Scots language in a religious context.
Here is the audio recording of an extract from the play – we are sure you will recognise the well-known scene. Note the meaning of the following words that appear in the recording: lift (sky), dwined (faded away) and clishmaclavers (gossip). You might want to try reading this yourself to practise your spoken Scots. You can read the text of the Nativity play in full on the Church of Scotland website, where you can appreciate how the use of the Scots language once again brings religion to life for the people by establishing a link to their own sense of identity.
Transcript
Listen
Model
15.2 The impact of Anglicisation on religious language in Scotland