MAY I take mild issue with David Hay's observation (Letters, September 30) regarding what he seems to believe is the Edinburgh dialect's somewhat "bool in the mooth" take on mince and potatoes as "mince and tatties"? Aye well, maybe ae? He maintains correctly though that the Weegies' earthier linguistic mash of the vegetable in question should be "totties". However, as a native of Edinburgh who left the nation's capital some 50 years ago, my longstanding affectionate appreciation of the Glaswegian dialect would lead me to suggest that the pronounced word is "taw'ies". I simply offer an attempted phonetical interpretation of the necessary glottal stop without which the west of Scotland dialect becomes slightly emasculated.

The written language, as ever, differs substantially from how it is generally spoken and why the standard language and its dialectical derivatives are subject to pervasive change over time, if your wont is to be a sometime language protectionist, or natural evolution if it is not.

Craig JC Wishart,

75 Brackenrig Crescent,

Eaglesham.

REGARDING correspondence and mince and potatoes/tatties/totties (Letters, September 29 & 30): I have, my sonnies, just returned from Dorset with a friendly farm butcher, shelves groaning with South Dorset mince just down the road. In Thomas Hardy’s time, Under The Greenwood Tree. Tranter Dewy in his "work folk way" might have said “mince and taties” (one t), whilst Mrs Dewy would have spoken more elegantly saying “mince and taters” and if she were trying to impress a guest such as Fancy Day then it would be “mince and pertatoes”. The varieties used would have been Early Flourballs or Thomson's Wonderfuls, the ones dibbled in by Temperance and Sobriety Miller, Far From The Madding Crowd.

In Auchtermuchty they are a staple diet in the winter and we just eat them without much fuss.

John Marshall,

36 High Road, Auchtermuchty, Fife.

THE lively correspondence on language in The Herald last week has brought delight to Peter Curran (Letters, October 2). I would politely point out that the series was not started by him, but by my letter on September 26 when I remarked on the report the previous day that researchers had found the split infinitive had almost tripled in spoken English in the past 30 years. He replied on September 27 and other letters followed on September 28, 29, & 30. While some referred to the original complaint, the Star Trek introduction, there was divergence into music and other areas, and some writers mentioned misuses that annoyed them. As for going boldly into the unknown, my baptism in adventures in space was at Saturday matinee serials in 1940 with Flash Gordon saving planet Earth from the wicked Emperor Ming.

Language evolves and some altered usage can be justified. Nevertheless, a number of changes are seen that are not for the better.

This extended correspondence has benefited me, too. I move a vote of thanks to The Herald's Letters Editor for giving it rein. With news daily of disputes, violence, and disasters in our troubled world, it has brought rays of pleasure.

Christopher Reekie,

12 Orchard Drive, Edinburgh.