Research at the University of Glasgow, in connection with the new Scots thesaurus, has shown, according to Dr Susan Rennie, that our ancestors liked "to talk about the weather"("Scots say snow 421 ways", The Herald, September 23). Not having Irving Berlin’s White Christmas to sing , they clearly spent a lot of time thinking up words for snow.
Today's Scots have obviously inherited that facility for making the meteorological conditions a top topic of conversation from our forebears. We like to jaw about the snaw, to complain about the rain, to grizzle about the drizzle, and to greet about the heat. If to have a blether about the weather were to become an Olympic sport, the Scots would be on the rostrum as gold medallists.
Ian W Thomson,
38 Kirkintilloch Road,
Lenzie.
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