the adventures of eric in scotland

The last few weeks we've been studying fiction and poetry written in urban Glaswegian dialects, and while I've had a tough time making sense of it, I can't help but feel worse for the two study abroad students from Germany and Austria, who are working hard enough without dealing with the word "if" spelled three different ways within the span of seven lines. It's so interesting, though, because its construction is based entirely on the sound of the language, not the words, if you know what I mean. I literally can't make heads or tails of it on paper until I read it aloud in my head, and even then I'm in the dark when it comes to all the colloquialisms, so I'm like, "What's a 'daft kunt'?" Well, okay, I know that one. But if you click here you can look at one of Tom Leonard's poems, then listen to him read it aloud.