Former solicitor nominated for Scots Language Award

A former Peterhead solicitor is one of a raft of Aberdeenshire locals who have been recognised for their incredible contribution to the Scots language.

Gordon M. Hay, who formerly worked at solicitors Stewart & Watson in the town, is up for Scots Book o the Year for his work translating the Bible.

Gordon won the Scots Bairns Book of the Year at last year’s Scots Language Awards and is the first person to translate the Bible into Scots.

He was ‘elated’ earlier this year after finishing his epic 17-year project to translate the Old and New Testaments into Doric.

Gordon’s efforts have been recognised with a nomination at this year’s awards.

Gordon completed the translation of the New Testament back in 2012 after spending time on the translation in between work ‘when he had a moment spare’.

However, once he retired, he was able to dedicate more time to completing the vast undertaking, and then opted to take on the translation of the Old Testament – three times the length of his first project!

The final Old Testament translation is 758 pages long and has over 570,000 words, representing an impressive piece of scholarship.

Gordon will be facing stiff competition for the award from Jo Gilbert and Doric Books CIC.

Jo is a spoken word artist and writer whose debut poetry collection WFT is normal anyway? was released in August last year. In recent years they have worked on a number of projects and commiss ions with Stanza Poetry Festival, Aberdeen Performing Arts, Look Again Fe stival, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums and the National Theatre of Scotland.

Doric Books CIC was founded by authors Aaron Gale and Jackie Ross, with the aim of sharing and promoting stories in Doric so people, especially children in the north east, could read in their local dialect of Scots.

The awards, which were first started in 2019, celebrate the importance of Scots language within arts and culture but also within daily life, education, and business.

Voting for this year’s Scots Language Awards is now open runs until Sunday, September 10.

You can cast your vote at www.scotslanguageawards.com.