Fair fa' thy honest, sonsie face. . .

. . .emm, or happy Burns Night, anyway. Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, an occasion which gives the world an excuse for indulgence in haggis, good whisky, and bagpipes (also, preferably, good). Since I am myself, a bit short on haggis and whisky, and, where bagpipes are concerned, am confined to a studio apartment on a rainy evening, I shall conduct my attention to the following:

1.) Neeps and Tatties
This is the traditional accompaniment to a Burns Supper haggis; it consists of rutabagas and potatoes, mashed. I am not clear on whether they are generally mashed together in a single presentation, but I have done it that way myself in the past, and added some finely minced onions. As you can see, I am, in essence, advising the addition of a boiled rutabaga to your usual mashed potatoes. It might make you wonder just why you don't see droves of people buying rutabagas and turnips in the market.

2.) A return to Old Norse-English relations and, consequently, another quote from Baugh's A History of the English Language:
"Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, in the ballad of that name, 'bigget a bower on yon burn-brae,' employing in the process another word of Norse origin, biggen (to build), a word also used by Burns in To a Mouse: 'Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!. . .And naething now to big a new ane.'"

3.) Related to the previous paragraph, it seems that the further north you go in England, the more Old Norse influence you find on the language (this from a person who has never been in England at all, mind you), until you get to Scotland, and find Norse-isms quite rampant. Many people question the classification of Scots as a dialect of English, claiming, instead, that it is a language in its own right. I hasten to add I am not advocating that it is only the Norse influence that made Scots so singular, however, there is certainly a Norse element there. Google Books offers the entire text of a 1900-era volume on the subject.