Script Notes: Language

Language is a major symbol for the central conflict in Chris's life: the rural Aberdeen Scots of her family and community, strongly identified with the land, endurance, strong communal values ; and English - books, free imagination, learning, independence, opportunity, choice.

Scots language helps to bind the community together. Spoken English is always depicted as odd and difficult: the school inspector, the visiting politicians, Ellison's music-hall song. Scots who attempt English are soundly mocked: Mrs. Gordon and Maggie-Jean, the grocer at the conscription board, the Reverend Gibbon.

And yet: Grassic Gibbon writes in English, only using Scots when there is no equivalent. Sometimes this produces interesting results "braw" becomes "brave", usefully ironic describing Gibbon's uniform. But "chiel" as "Childe" is not quite so successful. The great achievement is the use of Scottish rhythm-patterns in the narrative, combined with the brilliantly conceived narrative voice, the Speak of Kinraddie, a personification of local gossip and rumour, satire, comedy and commentary. It is simultaneously perceptive, plain-spoken, intimate, ignorant and untrustworthy. The Speak's identity shifts constantly and effortlessly: sometimes it is Chris herself. It brilliantly exploits the Scottish use of the 2nd. person singular/plural - ie."you", sometimes in a very direct address to the reader, implying a shared set of values and understanding; sometimes it is the inner voice of a character speaking to themselves. The English equivalent, "one", has the opposite effect, distancing and depersonalizing

English used in Literature and poetry are frequently treated with marked suspicion: "What Katy Did" and "Rienzi" fire Chris's imagination: "Religio Medici" and "The Humours of Scottish Life" plainly do not. When Chris's school is impressed by her essay-writing, she is encouraged to write poetry - but in the style of Mrs.Hemans, a fashionable but not conspicuously talented writer.