Whit wey can thoo spaek wi a tongue at canno spaek thee?

Unco is a poetry and music project exploring the queer lexicon in Scots. A collaboration between the writer Harry Josephine Giles and the musician Malin Lewis, Unco delves into the Scots kist o riches to find ways that LGBT+ people can describe themselves in the language. Weaving together contemporary and traditional styles, these two artists are making an unco future.

Unco. Ramstougar. Ootwither. Stramullion. Twartie. Frazzie. Gyre. The Scots language has many ways old and new to describe LGBT+ experience. This project shows how, just as in any other language, queer Scots-speakers can play with the words they’re given to find a language for what was once unsayable.

The project launched on 29th November 2024 with a specially-commissioned free performance at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. A film of this performance is available to programmers on request. The publication is available for free pdf download and for purchase from Lighthouse Books.

If the wird is wrang, mak hid unco.