Category Archives: dialects

Burns night: supper, poetry and an ode to a haggis

By admin | Published: 25 January 2010

As a Scot – and an Ayrshire Scot at that – Robert Burns and his poetry have always been important to me and I’ll be raising a glass to his ‘immortal memory’ tonight as Scots the world over celebrate Burns night. The unofficial national bard of Scotland (and voted the greatest ever Scot in a TV [...]

Also posted in Scottish, literature | Leave a comment

Translation: to Bengali or not to Bengali?

By admin | Published: 15 January 2010

Our production manager Sanjoy Roy highlights a common confusion about Bengali usage The Bengali language is the language of Bengal, right? Well, not wrong – but it’s not as simple as that. In the UK there’s quite a lot of confusion about what Bengali is, so I’ll try to clarify that here. First, let me illustrate the [...]

Also posted in Bengali, London, translation | Leave a comment

How would you answer “Fit like ma loon?”

By admin | Published: 9 October 2008

Me I stood and let my jaw drop, wondering what language it was. In fact it turned out the question was in English. Or at least the variant of it spoken in the north east of Scotland. I was asked the question when introducing myself to a family I was to stay with in a [...]

Also posted in English, language | 1 Comment