SCOTS Project - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk Document : 995 Title : Conversation 18: Edinburgh lexicographer on making recordings Author(s): N/A Copyright holder(s): SCOTS Project Audio transcription F209: He, well, it was, appar- I didn't realise this, but it was him who had suggested us F606: Mm F209: as the consultants in the first place. And er he was very pleased with the the results o the leaflet and he was the one who kept say- "oh well, get her to come down and ma- make recordings." F606: Mmhm F209: Then, of course, the museums who are hosting the project, as well as the Forestry Commission, they have, because of the Representations of the People's Act and all the rest of it, recording people is not erm like it was in the old days, the Linguistic Survey, you've //got to// F606: //No.// F209: [cough] you've got to tell them you're doin it, you've got to get, record them actually sayin "Ma name's Pauline Cairns, //I come// F606: //Mmhm// F209: from Scottish Language Dictionaries. Is it okay if I record you?" And most time, they nod, and it makes me feel like the CID when you say "For the tape, //please". [cough]// F606: //[laugh] Yeah.// //[cough] [laugh]// F209: //"Oh aye, hen" [laugh]// And, so what has happened, as I say it's snowballed, and I have to trot down there, and then one neighbour tells the other neighbour and then another neighbour gets quite indignant, because wee Jocky so-and-so kens mair Scots nor we- than Big Sandy. And Big Sandy's wife's, wife's cousin kens mair nor anybody in the hail district. And er it's absolutely fascinatin. And to think, I mean one guy I spoke to, this is just interestin no //from a linguistic// F606: //[cough]// F209: or anything point of view. F606: Mm F209: His family had lived on the same site since the sixteen-forties. F606: Uh-huh F209: And it was this beautiful house. He had a picture of it on his wall, just beside his chair. And he was in his early seventies, so goodness knows what he would have been in the sixties. And his, this little house, it was absolutely beautiful, you know, like the sort of house you draw when you're a a kid, with the door and the four //windows an the slidy-doon roof.// F606: //Mm// F209: And I said to him, "But, couldn't you have kept the house?" cause of course when the Forestry Commission comes in and just b- buys up the land, razes everything to the ground, an F606: Mm F209: And apparently once a week since the nineteen-sixties, [inaudible] nineteen-sixty-three, sixty-four, He goes up, to the place where his house was, and it was just left there. F606: Mmhm F209: The house actually was left. And now it's, the the walls are about three feet high. //And that's all that's// F606: //S-// F209: left of it after somethin bein there for over four hundred years. F606: That's terrible. F209: And you're like, even in the sixties, the Forestry Commission must have realised they were doin somethin extremely silly. //You know?// F606: //Yeah, I would// think so, yeah. F209: But, and, that's only one of them, I don't know and perhaps I should, presumably that's what Ruth's doin, is findin exactly how many //families// F606: //Mmhm// F209: and how many people were displaced by the forest, an F606: Mm F209: how, erm I mean certainly the economic erm effect on the area, I think, was absolutely monumental, cause you had all these workers comin in from the outside, //an// F606: //Mmhm// F209: it all spiralled down because there was one lot of people displaced but another lot of people came in, you know, Irish navvies and things, //to// F606: //Yeah.// F209: to er, you think about building a forest, you know, you plant a forest, but there was lots of buildin work an roads //to be laid an// F606: //Mm// Mmhm F209: all sorts of, cause it was hill farmin, basically. F606: Yeah. //Uh-huh// F209: //Erm// //S-// F606: //No, I think in that// period, they just knocked things down in the name of improvement. Like, that's when they knocked George Square down, //and then// F209: //Mm// F606: half of Glasgow went an. //But,// F209: //Yeah.// F606: I mean, it's a shame when it's a family home like that. Yeah. F209: Yeah. An I mean that was just one, as I say I don't know how //many of them.// F606: //Mm// F209: But the the trickle-down was amazin, because a lot of the the farms, the other farms, the ones that were left in the area, they went into bed and breakfast. F606: Mmhm F209: Because of course, all these Irish navvies, th- they couldnae go back to erm [tut] Kilmarnock or wherever F606: Mmhm F209: they they needed places to stay, so the farms that were left, they got quite a lot o money //because these// F606: //Yeah.// F209: guys were bein paid, at the time an absolute fortune. You know, they were gettin thirty an forty pounds a week, which was unheard of I mean even yer Edinburgh lawyer would have thought that was a good wage //then.// F606: //Mmhm// F209: [cough] And these guys were just gettin a fortune. F606: Yeah. F209: And of course the peo- th- this caused resentment with the people who'd been turfed out their farms because they're like "Hm, we've got our money, but they're still gettin money." //[laugh]// F606: //Mmhm [laugh]// F209: So, it's it's it's been a fascinatin if exhaustin exercise. But what I have discovered is a lovely wee hotel in Strathaven, //which is// F606: //Mmhm// F209: super. F606: [inhale] F209: And eh, it's quite nice to go down there, an go down on the Friday, and it's like a wee holiday, F606: Yeah. F209: come back on the Sunday, //so it's quite// F606: //Uh-huh// //Good.// F209: //It's quite nice.// F606: [tut] Thank you. This work is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. 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Information about document and author: Audio Audio audience Adults (18+): For gender: Mixed Audience size: 1 Audio awareness & spontaneity Speaker awareness: Aware Degree of spontaneity: Spontaneous Special circumstances surrounding speech: Participants were asked to talk about work connected with Scottish Language Dictionaries Audio footage information Year of recording: 2005 Recording person id: 606 Size (min): 6 Size (mb): 29 Audio setting Work: Recording venue: Office Geographic location of speech: Edinburgh Audio relationship between recorder/interviewer and speakers Friend: Professional relationship: Speakers knew each other: Yes Audio speaker relationships Friend: Professional relationship: Audio transcription information Transcriber id: 718 Year of transcription: 2005 Year material recorded: 2005 Word count: 920 Audio type Conversation: Participant Participant details Participant id: 209 Gender: Female Decade of birth: 1950 Educational attainment: College Age left school: 16 Upbringing/religious beliefs: Atheist Occupation: Lexicographer Place of birth: Musselburgh Region of birth: Midlothian Birthplace CSD dialect area: midLoth Country of birth: Scotland Place of residence: Edinburgh Region of residence: Edinburgh Residence CSD dialect area: Edb Country of residence: Scotland Father's occupation: Painter Father's place of birth: Portobello Father's region of birth: Edinburgh Father's birthplace CSD dialect area: Edb Father's country of birth: Scotland Mother's occupation: Printer Mother's place of birth: Musselburgh Mother's region of birth: Midlothian Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area: midLoth Mother's country of birth: Scotland Languages: Language: Scots Speak: Yes Read: Yes Write: Yes Understand: Yes Circumstances: Work, home and everyday use. Participant Participant details Participant id: 606 Gender: Female Decade of birth: 1940 Educational attainment: University Age left school: 18 Upbringing/religious beliefs: Protestantism Occupation: Academic Place of birth: Edinburgh Region of birth: Midlothian Birthplace CSD dialect area: midLoth Country of birth: Scotland Place of residence: Glasgow Region of residence: Glasgow Residence CSD dialect area: Gsw Country of residence: Scotland Father's place of birth: Leith Father's region of birth: Midlothian Father's birthplace CSD dialect area: midLoth Father's country of birth: Scotland Mother's place of birth: Edinburgh Mother's region of birth: Midlothian Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area: midLoth Mother's country of birth: Scotland Languages: Language: English Speak: Yes Read: Yes Write: Yes Understand: Yes Circumstances: All Language: Scots Speak: No Read: Yes Write: No Understand: Yes Circumstances: Work