I myself spent at one point a school year in Great Britain and became fascinated by Oor Wullie. Later, I decided to make it the subject of my PhD thesis. 10 This study, entitled “The Scottishness of Oor Wullie”, looks at a range of questions. It investigates, for example, the dynamics of the stereotypes, along with the linguistic changes and the mechanisms of the great success Oor Wullie has been enjoying now for so many years. Given these premises, the thesis analyses phonological, morpho-syntactic and lexical features in Oor Wullie in the context of the changing topics between 1936 and 2004. jingo, A. int. and n.’ , Oxford English Dictionary https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/101343?redirectedFrom=by+jingo#eid40393170(Consulted 19 October 2020). People such as Nicola Sturgeon, Ewan McGregor, Andy Murray and Amy Macdonald have appeared in the strip over the years. [8] In December 2016, Nicola Sturgeon featured Oor Wullie on a Christmas card, with the original illustration being auctioned for charity. [11] All in all, the expressions jings, crivvens and Help ma Boab are true landmarks in Oor Wullie, linguistically and culturally. In a corpus of 224 comic strips, jings is the most often used of the three. Jings shows a clear increase in use in the 1980s. It was then that the editors of the comics apparently felt obliged to increase somewhat the Scottishness in these stories. Not only was the language made to sound more Scottish (by using older expressions less common today); certain components were also added that were seen as typically Scottish. Now Wullie had a West Highland Terrier; he went hiking in the Highlands, and often attended traditional Scottish celebrations. This publishing policy, however, was changed in the late 1990s, as the Oor Wullie editors seem to have felt that this strategy was focusing too much on traditional Scottish symbols. In an attempt to attract more younger readers, the Scottish English was now slightly diluted. Oor Wullie in the digital age As with Oor Wullie, Watkins left the location of the strips unnamed, although the Broons' tenement is located on Glebe Street, a commonly used name in many Scottish towns. However, as originally written, Watkins' use of words and phrases more commonly associated with the east coast of Scotland, such as bairn for child, as opposed to the west-central wean, [2] suggests he was using his own immediate environment. (He lived in Broughty Ferry). [3] He worked in Dundee and the Broons' dialect is mainly Dundonian. Since the 1990s, however, The Broons has been set in the fictional town of Auchenshoogle.

Hobbs, S., ‘Oor Wullie Goes to School: A First Look’. Microfilm. Paisley Coll. of Technology, Renfrewshire (Scotland). Dept. of Applied Social Studies, 1987. Watkins drew the strip from his Broughty Ferry home until his death in 1969. For five years after Watkins' death, D. C. Thomson recycled old strips in the newspaper and annuals, fearing no adequate replacement could be found to match Watkins' unique style. In these repeated strips, some particularly Scots words were replaced (e.g., 'ahint' became 'behind') and the pre-decimal coinage was updated. Mike Donaldson is the current artist, succeeding Peter Davidson. BBC Radio Scotland presenter Tom Morton was the scriptwriter until 2006 when Dave Donaldson took over. Morris Heggie, former editor of The Dandy is the current writer. Annual of 1962, p. 51 (“‘Push-buttons modern? Dinna be Silly! – They’re older than the hills!’ says Wullie!”). Most of the humour derives from the timeless themes of the "generation gap," stretching the money as far as possible, and the constant struggle for each family member to live in a very small flat with the other nine Broons. In the end, the family always support one another, getting through life with a gentle good humour as they argue amongst themselves.Michael Stubbs, ‘Society, Education and Language: The last 2,000 (and the next 20?) years of language teaching’ (p. 3), in Change and Continuity in Applied Linguistics, edited by Hugh Trappes-Lomax (Clevedon: BAAL and Multilingual Matters, 2000), pp. 15–34. hey or high jingo’, Oxford English Dictionary https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/101343?redirectedFrom=by+jingo#eid40393170 (Consulted 19 October 2020). Jings! That wis a narrow escape!” 13 The exclamation slips out of Wullie’s mouth quite frequently. Needless to say, Wullie has sometimes been criticised for using the swear word jings. In a story from 1948, 14 Wullie’s mother scolds her son rather harshly, saying: “I’m fed up hearin’ you say ‘jings’ and ‘crivvens’ – jings, it’s awfy language – how can ye no try tae stop it?”

The not-so-changing face of Oor Wullie on his 80th anniversary". BBC News. 8 March 2016 . Retrieved 27 October 2021. Everybody knows Oor Wullie – Oor Wullie! Your Wullie! A’body’s Wullie! This is the well-known tagline on the cover of every annual collection of the Oor Wullie comic strips. Wullie, the fair-haired eight- or nine-year-old boy who lives in the fictitious Scottish town of Auchenshoogle, is the hero of many hilarious situations, getting into trouble with the authorities as he goes to school or church. With its nostalgic “Scotticized” language – and outfits – one simply must like Wullie. And this is the way it has been now for a remarkably long time. a b "Oor Wullie marks 80 years since first appearance in The Sunday Post". The Sunday Post. 8 March 2016 . Retrieved 27 October 2021. With time, the Scottishness of Oor Wullie so very prominent in the earlier issues has been toned down in the more recent issues. This, however, does not mean that Oor Wullie has become less interesting or that it is not just as playful today – with new digital means of communication.

jing, n.’, Scottish National Dictionary, Dictionary of the Scots Language, https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/jing_n1 (Consulted 19 October 2020).

Following the 80th anniversary in 2016, additional annuals of Oor Wullie were issued for 2016 and 2018, breaking from the biennial pattern. Crivens, Crivvens’, Scottish National Dictionary, Dictionary of the Scots Language https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/crivens (Consulted 19 October 2020). urn:lcp:broonsoorwullie10000unse:epub:3ef211ff-45c1-4482-8eb4-83104aabbfe9 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier broonsoorwullie10000unse Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t7fr8s307 Invoice 1652 Isbn 0851166334jing, n.’, Scottish National Dictionary , Dictionary of the Scots Language, https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/jing_n1 (Consulted 19 October 2020). John Corbett, Language and Scottish Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), p. 188. The Broons were portrayed in a sketch on the BBC Scotland comedy show Naked Video. Tony Roper was cast as Paw, Gregor Fisher played Maw, Elaine C. Smith portrayed the Bairn, Jonathan Watson appeared as Joe, and Louise Beattie appeared as Horace, with the other family members (and Oor Wullie) mentioned in passing. The sketch revolved around Paw's naivety in the modern world and his inability to move with the times, not even realising that his entire offspring are the product of an affair Maw was having with a farmer. Nowadays, the use of this word has become obsolete in English. However, jings or by jings is occasionally still in use in Scots and Scottish English. In its first recorded usage, by jing was shown to have been a swear word. The expression by jing was, for example, included in the poem “Halloween” by Robert Burns from 1785. 22 Similar occurrences of jings have also been noted in Australian English, even today. The Macquarie Dictionary defines jings as “A remark or whinge of derision when one is told one cannot have what one wants (i.e., go to the pictures, swimming, have money etc.): Jings! Also, jingies” – this is exactly the meaning evident in Oor Wullie.” 23

Horace Broon – A bookish and bespectacled teenage schoolboy forever trying to learn French or poetry by rote amidst the chaos of a do-it-yourself chimney-sweeping mishap or other domestic turmoil. He is quite pompous and likes to think of himself as an example to the twins, but recently seems to aspire to be like Joe (for example, purchasing muscle-building equipment). However, he is nowhere near as popular with girls as Joe. Horace is seen as a young teenager in the early years of secondary school. However, during the 1990s, his appearance was that of someone slightly older.Hoyer, A., 2007, The Scottishness of Oor Wullie. PhD Thesis, Ruprecht-Karls Universität, Heidelberg (Microfilm). Although Wullie's hometown was unnamed in the original Watkins strips, it has been called Auchenshoogle since the late 1990s. [7] Maggie (Margaret) Broon – The beautiful, glamorous daughter with blonde hair and fashionable clothing. She has a steady stream of beaux and is bitterly envied by the drab Daphne. In the later editions, Maggie became a model, and a weather girl. Despite their rivalry over men, Daphne and Maggie share a close bond and Maggie even stands up for Daphne when she is taunted; notably in one strip, she flirted with a man in a bar and threw the drink he had bought her over him as revenge for his hurtful comments toward Daphne. jings’, Macquarie Dictionary https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/aus/word/map/search/word/jings/The%20Riverina/ (Consulted 19 October 2020). help, v. 2. Phr.: help ma bob’, Scottish National Dictionary, Dictionary of the Scots Language https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/help (Consulted 19 October 2020).