Billy Kay has long delighted and fascinated audiences with his accounts of Scots across the world, and also with examples of the Scots language being spoken in the most unexpected places. This month Billy will be speaking at both the Stirling Literary Society (18 January), on Burns and his influence on the language, and will also be the guest speaker at The Princess Daskova Russian Centre based at Edinburgh University (21 January), the latter talk being based on his BBC Radio series broadcast in December and still available on iPlayer.

Among the various aspects of Scottish influence abroad, Billy has shared with us some stories of the language. In one story a Scottish traveller in 19th century Siberia went into an orthodox church and was somewhat alarmed when a huge priest with a long red beard bore down on him while sprinkling holy water. On seeing the man was terrified the priest suddently said “….Dinnae fash yersel. It’s jist a puckle watter an’ll dae ye nae hairm!”  Another account tells of D Mackenzie Wallace who travelled the Caucasus in the 1870’s and discovered the existence of Shotlandskaya Koloniya (‘Scottish Colony’) near Paitigorsk. There he found an old Circassian man to whom he spoke Russian and told him he was looking for fellow Scots. The man then replied “Od, man, I’m a Scotsman tae!” Wallace replied that, although he certainly spoke Scots, he looked Circassian. The man replied, “Weel, weel, you’re no’ far wrang. I’m a Circassian Scotsman.” It turned out he had been adopted by the Scottish missionaries some forty years before and called himself John Abercrombie.

If you would like to hear more from Billy Kay about Scots and their culture abroad please check the SLC events calendar for more details.