Next week sees the launch of the Elphinstone Kist – an interactive resource to promote the richness of the Doric dialect to schools across the North-east of Scotland.
A Reception is being hosted by Principal C Duncan Rice, University of Aberdeen, at the Aberdeen Art Gallery, on Monday, November 12, and various people who have contributed to the Kist will be coming along and reading poems and singing songs from their contributions.
The Elphinstone Kist was born of a desire to bring material written in North-east Scots (‘the Doric’) to schools. Many teachers had expressed a desire to do more work on Scots in schools, if only there were suitable resources.
As part of the Elphinstone Institute’s outreach programme, Sheena Blackhall, Scottish Arts Council Creative Writing Fellow, and Les Wheeler, Research Associate, have been regularly visiting schools in the North-east and were well aware of the schools’ requirements. The Kist was initially developed to meet these needs.
Ms Blackhall had the idea of a Kist of Doric materials that could be gathered and made into a little book for dissemination to schools in the North-east and it has taken three years to develop.
Ms Blackhall and Mr Wheeler began by writing pieces themselves, then appealed to friends, acquaintances and writing groups for more material. The results were overwhelming and the Kist includes contributions from everyone.
Mr Wheeler said: “The result was staggering. From all over the North-east, closet doors opened and Doric writers came tumbling out eager to expose their secret and the tremendous enthusiasm could not be doubted. The material did not all come from elderly maiden aunts and rheumy, octogenarian ex-ploomen. Subject matter covered more than the legendary Three Bs – bulls, byres an bothies. Housewives, school children, doctors, policemen, hairdressers, lawyers, ministers, farmers, receptionists, scientists, fishermen, engineers, tourist guides, teachers, gutters, electricians, oilmen, artists, bus drivers, lecturers… everyone, it appeared wanted to have their say and say it in Doric.
“It became clear that what had started as an exercise in augmenting the canon of Doric material available to schools had outgrown the Kist we had in mind for it. We had a distinguished selection of reminiscence material, some sound, thought-provoking material, much of it dealing with contemporary issues, and suitable for a much wider audience than we had first envisaged.”
The amount of writing collected outgrew the original plan. Dr Ian Russell, Director of the Elphinstone Institute, suggested that some of the material be transmitted on to the Internet as a means of giving schools easy access and letting the whole world in on the secret.
Mr Wheeler added: “The end result was a massive increase in our workload due mainly to the difficulties created in editing our Doric cornucopia. Spelling was a major problem…how many ways can you spell ‘tchaave,’ ‘tchave,’ ‘chaav’ or ‘chav’ or even ‘this’, ‘ess’, ‘iss’ or ‘es’. In the end, unless it was extremely idiosyncratic we accepted the authors right to spell words in his own chosen way.”
The Kist is a fully searchable resource, which can be downloaded for personal and educational use. It also includes work by the many writers who have been major contributors to the literary and linguistic heritage of the North-east - placing Doric in its historical context.
Doric does not exist in isolation, and must be related to the artistic and musical heritage of the region. Bothy songs, ballads and fiddle music have also been included on the site - and audio and visual clips are a feature of the website, providing a fuller picture. It is hoped that, not only the local community and alumni of the University, but also the Scottish Diaspora at large will log on to explore the cultural heritage of their ain airt.
The North-east Scotland Heritage Trust and the Education Department of Aberdeen City Council provided the financial backing for the project.
The site will continue to grow as more material is added. The web address is www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/kist and it will be launched ‘live’ on Monday, November 12. It is hoped that individuals will take an opportunity to explore, consider, digest and enjoy.
The Reception will take place from 5.30-7.30pm next Monday. A group of school children from Walker Road and Pitfour (Mintlaw) schools will be among some of the attendees who will read some of their contributions during the evening.
For further information contact: Angela Begg, Media Relations, on (01224) 272960.
Issued by Public Relations Office, External Relations, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen. Tel: (01224) 272014 Fax: (01224) 272086.
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.