A Glesga grannie haes bene tellt bi Glesga Counsil at she maun lee hur hame o 34 yeir fur tae mak wey fur athletes dwallins fur the Commonwalth Gemmes. Mrs Margaret Jaconelli o Dalmarnock in the Eist Enn o Glesga haes lost a lang legal fecht wi the Counsil tae stey in hur ain hous, a twa bedruim flat. Aa the ither houses in the close an in the streit is nou staunin tuim an is buirdit up, but Mrs Jaconelli is an awner-occupier an wull no be decantit bi the Counsil onless thae pey fair upmak.
The faimlie says at nou the Counsil daesnae gie thaim onie services, ther nae scaffies reddin the middens an nou thae dinnae hae a recognysed post-code an cannae receive the post. The faimlie trews the Counsil is daein aa hit kin tae force thaim out.
Mrs Jaconelli says at the siller offert bi the counsil isnae enou fur tae lat her an hur faimlie pey aa thair flittin costs an tae bye thersel anither hous o a seimilar size wiout a new mortgage. An hit daesnae stert tae pey hur fur the fash hit’s aa gied hur. Efter warkin fur monie yeir fur tae pey hur mortgage aff, Mrs Jaconelli disnae see hou she maun git anither an pey guid siller ti the bank ilka month – juist sae’s Glesga Counsil wull kin pit on whit is, in the een o monie local fowk, nae mair nor a fantoush jollie at wullnae dae naethin sonsie fur tae help the local communities monie problems.
A local indwaller at daesnae want tae be named sayed: “Ther nae guid permanent jobs gaunie be creatit, no fur fowk fae roun here, juist mibbie sum unskilled an temprarie wans. Aa the Gemmes is gaunie dae is tae build expensive flats at naebdie in the Eist Enn wull kin afford kis thae got thair jotters efter the Gemmes wis ower. We juist get kicked out an nuhin chynges. Aa this is benefitin sumdie, but hit’s no us.”
Tae stert wi, the Counsil offert juist £30,000 ti the Jaconellis. The Counsil haes nou sayed at hit haes eikit the offer ti £90,000. Bi the wey o sum reports in the papers but, the faimlie is wantin upmak o £360,000. Mrs Jaconelli haes na-sayed this.
The Counsil wis gied a compulsorie purchase order but a lang series o legal acciouns bi the Jaconellis gart the Counsil tae haud hits haun. Offeicials frae the Counsil ettilt tae herrie out the faimlie at nuin on Thursday, but nae accioun wis taen efter laayers fur the Jaconellis gied notice thae haed appeilt tae the Court o Sessiouns in Embra.
Afore gaein inti the Court o Sessiouns Mrs Jaconelli said: “Me and my family have worked all our lives for what we have. I still maintain that this council is trying to steal my house from me.”
But Lord Uist grantit the Counsil’s requaist tae owerrule the appeil, an gied permeissioun fur the eviccioun tae gae aheid. The Jaconellis wis served wi an eviccioun notice bi Counsil offeicials juist afore nuin yistreen.
Last nicht the Counsil haed stull no cairried out the eviccioun, sayin at ther wis monie weans in the hous. A representative frae the Counsil sayed: “It has not been possible to complete the eviction of Margaret Jaconelli. The number of children in the flat makes it extremely difficult to gain entry. We will make no further comment on how we will carry out the eviction.
“We have today made a one-off offer to Mrs Jaconelli to take part in mediation on Monday, after she leaves the flat. Sadly she has refused that offer.”
Mrs Jaconelli says she is wullin tae hae mediacioun wi the Counsil fur tae sort the problem, but the Counsil is wantin hur an hur faimlie to gie up thair hous aforehaun. Mrs Jaconelli trews at hit’s no richt she maun gie up her hame furst, kis than the Counsil hauds aa the cairds an ther naethin tae mediate sae the Counsil wull kin dae whit thae want. “I want to have mediation but without having to vacate,” she sayed, “I think that’s the reasonable way.”
Last nicht around a dizzen polis guardit the streit, whyle friens an faimlie o the Jaconellis stuid protectin the wey inti the close. The Jaconellis is no fur flittin. Nou the Eist Enn o Glesga waits tae see whit happens whan the blin force o Glesga developers rins inti a force o naiture – a beilin Glesga grannie at’s steyin whaur she bydes.
Wurds ye mibbie no ken
flit – move house
dwallin – property, dwelling
tuim – empty
upmak – compensation
scaffie – rubbish collector
redd – to clean, to clear
maun – must, have to
een – eyes, plural of ee ‘eye’
fantoush – dressed up, fancy
sonsie – fulfilled, satisfied, substantial
get yer jotters – get sacked (from a job)
eik – increase, add
herrie out – force out, evict
wean – West Central Scots for child, pronounced wain, spelled wean because it’s a contraction of wee ane ‘little one’
beilin – angry, furious
A note on Scots spelling: -ey and -ye. At the ends of words, these spellings represent the pair of vowel sounds found in the words Fife vs. five. If you have a Scottish accent, the vowel sounds quite different in the two words. The vowel in Fife is shorter and more clipped sounding than the vowel in five. These vowels are diphthongs, which means that when pronouncing them the tongue shifts in position in the back of the mouth. (Other vowels are ‘pure’ vowels, where the tongue is held in the same position.) In the vowel in the word five, the tongue starts in the position for saying ‘a’ is held for a fraction of a second then moves towards the position for ‘e’. In the word Fife, it starts in the position for saying ‘uh’, and immediately moves towards the position for saying ‘ee’.
Before consonants their distribution is predictible, we pronounce the long “aye” sound before the consonant sounds v, z, r or th (as in this, then, not as in thin thank), but the much shorter and more clipped “aye” elsewhere. Because this is predictible, it doesn’t need to be reflected in the spelling.
However at the ends of words these two vowel sounds make a difference in word meaning in Scots, so we need different written symbols for them. -ey is the symbol for the short clipped “aye” vowel of Scots wey, pey, gey etc. -ye is the symbol for the more drawled and longer “aye” vowel – crye, pye, whye etc. This also allows us to distinguish the word pairs ey ‘always’ and aye ‘yes’. This distinction does not occur in non-Scottish English (and doesn’t constrast word meaning in Scottish Standard English), but it’s important in Scots. English spelling can’t handle this important Scots vowel distinction.