Find at least two examples in “To a Mouse” of the following pronunciation patterns for Scottish English:...Please help me..please.

Question

Find at least two examples in “To a Mouse” of the following pronunciation patterns for Scottish English: (a) Final consonants are dropped, and (b) the letter o is replaced by either ae or a. 

 TO a Mouse..

Background

Before Robert Burns published his poetry, works of literature were almost always modeled on the classics, in which structure, grammar, and vocabulary were polished and complex. Robert Burns ignored these conventions and boldly put poetry in the hands of the people, writing in their language, Scottish dialect, and using common folk as subject matter.

Wee, sleekit,1 cow’rin’, tim’rous beastie,

O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi’ bickering brattle!2

I wad be laith3 to rin an’ chase thee

Wi’ murd’ring pattle!4

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion

Has broken Nature’s social union,

An’ justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startle,

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles,5 but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun6 live!

A daimen icker in a thrave7

’S a sma’ request:

I’ll get a blessin’ wi’ the lave,8

And never miss’t!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!

Its silly wa’s9 the win’s are strewin’!

An’ naething, now, to big10 a new ane,

O’ foggage11 green!

An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin’,

Baith snell12 an’ keen!

Progress reading.strategyThou saw the fields laid bare and waste,

An’ weary winter comin’ fast,

An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter13 past

Out through thy cell.

That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,

Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!

Now thou’s turned out, for a’ thy trouble,

But14 house or hald,15

To thole16 the winter’s sleety dribble,

An’ cranreuch17 cauld!

Progress reading.check
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,18

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

Gang aft a-gley,19

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promised joy.

Still thou art blest, compared wi’ me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But, och! I backward cast my e’e

On prospects drear!

An’ forward, though I canna see,

I guess an’ fear!

        Please help Please.. I have been going through the question more than 10 times, but I didn't get it..I also puted the poem..Please help me..Thank you so much. 

Answer 1

No worries — this can feel tricky if you haven’t looked at Scots dialect before. Let’s break it down carefully.

The question is asking you to find examples in Burns’s “To a Mouse” where the spelling shows Scottish English pronunciation patterns:

(a) Final consonants are dropped

In Scots spelling, Burns often leaves off the -g or -d at the end of words:

1. cow’rin’ → “cowering” (the final -g is dropped)
2. murd’ring → “murdering” (again, -g dropped)
3. strewin’ → “strewing” (-g dropped)
4. comin’ → “coming” (-g dropped)

Any of those are good examples — you only need two.

(b) The letter o is replaced by ae or a

This shows up where standard English would use “o,” but Burns writes it differently to reflect Scots pronunciation:

1. mousie / mouse → “mousie” becomes mousie, and later “mice an’ men” uses o’ (“of”) → showing o pronounced short as a sound.
2. a-gley → Standard English “awry” or “askew.” Here the o sound is replaced with ae → “a-gley.”
3. maun → Standard English “must.” The “o” in “must” is rendered with an a in Scots spelling.
4. canna → Standard English “cannot.” The o is replaced with a.

ANSWER: In “To a Mouse,” Burns shows the Scots pronunciation by dropping final consonants, as in “cow’rin’” (cowering) and “murd’ring” (murdering). Another pattern is the replacement of the letter o with ae or a, which shifts the vowel sound. For example, in “a-gley” (askew) and “maun” (must), Burns uses Scots spelling to capture how these words were pronounced locally. These features highlight how Burns brought everyday Scottish speech into poetry, making his work feel authentic and accessible.

I hope this helps, and gives you some understanding of how to find these in the future as well. Please reply if you need any further help or clarification.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth R.