A Moray group dedicated to keeping the Scots tongue alive have launched a poetry competition to commemorate the life of a famous north-east author.
Keith’s Traditional Music and Song Association (TMSA) are marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Murray’s birth this weekend by asking the next generation to get creative while “spikkin” native.
The only criteria for entries is that they have to be written in Scots and must be “inter-generational”.
Born in Alford in 1864, Murray — most famous for his Doric poetry collection, Hamewith — did much to validate the use of the historically scorned dialect between 1900 and his death in 1941.
TMSA committee member, Marguerite Cruickshank, said the inspiration for the competition was to preserve a language that is “part of our identity”.
She said: “It’s the language that most of us were brought up with.
“Well over 1.5 million people officially speak Scots, and roughly 42,000 people in Moray still speak it.
“What I’m trying to do is get the words handed down from generation to generation.”
TMSA member and Keith Primary School music teacher, Joyce Dawson, added: “As children are one of the most important elements of taking the language forward, the idea is that they enlist the assistance of parents or grandparents in writing either a poem or story in Scots, so that the youngsters will learn Scots words in the process.”
The closing date for entries is November 22, and the winning entry will be announced on St Andrews Day.