Knowledge of Language

Ayrshire

This dialect of Scots is spoken across Ayrshire from Girvan in the south to Kilbirnie in the north and Cumnock and Muirkirk in the east. Its sounds and vocabulary vary depending on where you are in Ayrshire. Rich and expressive, its most famous speaker was Robert Burns, who chose to write Scots poetry in his own native dialect.

Ayrshire folk are still writing in the dialect today. This is a poem by Douglas Bell, a P7 pupil at Greenmill Primary School in Cumnock, read by Ayrshire poet Rab Wilson.

Soacks by Douglas Bell

Plain soacks, fancy soacks,
Multi-coloured weans’ soacks.
Guid soacks, din soacks,
Fit for the bin soacks.
Haill soacks, torn soacks,
Cannae fin its neebor soacks.
Mither’s soacks, faither’s soacks,
Sisters’ and brithers’ soacks.
Nike soacks, umbro soacks,
Cacket wi muck soacks.
Soapy soacks, dreepin soacks,
Wavin fae the line soacks.
Holey soacks, schule soacks,
Rollin doon ma leg soacks.
Spottit soacks, strippit soacks,
Kept aside ma drawers soacks.

Listen to the poem read by Rab Wilson.

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