There’s not really a good picture for this one. Ain is the adjective form of own, like “This is my own house”, as opposed to awn or yaw, which is “I own this chocolate bar”. It is believed to have come from Norse itself, which is the old language that Scots and English have in common.

Ain is used quite often in poetry for things that are close to your heart. For example, these two lines are from “My love’s in Germany” Hector MacNeill from Scotland in 1794, which is written from the perspective of a girl waiting for her love to come back from war.

He may ne’er come o’er the sea,
To his love in ain country,

Our country, meaning Scotland. The young man was fighting for the UK, naturally, but it was referred to as England. The Scots had lost any serious political power by this time and were at the mercy of King and of Parliament. They fought who the English chose to fight, not themselves. Check the date and see that this is not long after the American’s Colonies had refused to pay increased taxes for England’s depleting war chest.

Pronouncing this word, particularly if you’re from the Great Lakes region like I am, is tricky. It rhymes with the word “vain”. I don’t know if the spelling is related. The best trick when learning a foreign language is to find something in English that rhymes with it. Scots makes this easier than most languages because there is ample literature that is a mix of the two. For example, these lines are from “Land of the Leal”, which I’ll go over in a later post.

So fair the well my ain, Jean
This world’s cares are vain, Jean.

It’s a little known fact that Chaucer, one the greatest English writers and author of The Canterbury Tales, was thought to be a less than great poet because his words didn’t rhyme at the end of stanzas. His meter also seemed a little off at times. Then it occurred to someone to ask, “He was working in the 14th century, maybe they pronounced things a little differently?” Reworking his poems showed his meter and rhyming to be nothing short of perfect, and his work finally got its due. An open mind is critical to a happy life, or at least to not looking stupid.