The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #32146 Message #420823
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
19-Mar-01 - 10:15 AM
Thread Name: Help: Need help with Scottish dialect
Subject: RE: Help: Need help with Scottish dialect
"Jockey" is a general term for a countryman or rustic; in this case he presumably lives or works on a moor. "Busk and gang": "Get ready/dress and go" "Kail an' cakes fu' dainty": "plenty of cabbage and oatcakes". "But and Ben": a two-roomed cottage, literally "outside and inside"; kitchen and "inner" room. "fu' genty" is "very neat (and) tidy". A "mailen" is a farm.
John of Brisbane posted an extensive Scottish Glossary here about a year ago, which you will find useful. There's a discussion of the song, with a verse that Jean Redpath omitted, here: Lassie with the yellow Coatie: Note