It's Scots (or Lallands) rather than "English English". It should be
"auld lang syne", not "auld lane syne", and it means, literally, "old
long since" or, idiomatically, "a long time ago".
It is regularly mis-pronounced by the English, who seem to think that
"syne" should be pronounced as "zyne". In fact, it's pronounced exactly
the same as "sign". "Auld" is pronounced to rhyme with "bald" and
"lang", as you would probably guess, to rhyme with "sang".
Robert Burns wrote a song called "Auld Lang Syne" (based on an older
Jacobite song) which the Scots sing on various traditional occasions.
During the first verse and chorus, people stand in a circle holding
hands with their neighbours. During the second verse, they cross their
arms so that their right hand holds the left hand of the person on the
left, and vice versa. (Again, I'm afraid the English usually get this
wrong, and start off in the second-verse position.) The change in arm
position is made during the lines:
"And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!"
which means
"And there's a hand, my trusty friend!
And give me a hand of yours!"
| Quote: |
It's Scots (or Lallands)
|
Whoops, just noticed embarrassing typo. Of course it's Lallans, not
Lallands!
--
Molly Mockford
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety - Benjamin Franklin
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)
