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Molgrips is correct if you lose a language a whole culture goes along with it.
The success of the campaign to promote Gaelic has not caused the parlous state of the Scots leid.
I was brought up to speak "properly " in the classroom and when meeting "important"people. Yet at hame and amang freens we aye spake Scots. It's that attitude that the Scots leid was incorrect or for less "important" people that has led to it's current state
Scots is in a slightly different position to Gaelic
I was brought up to speak “properly ” in the classroom and when meeting “important”people. Yet at hame and amang freens we aye spake Scots. It’s that attitude that the Scots leid was incorrect or for less “important” people that has led to it’s current state
In the classroom, there are more and more pupils in Scottish classrooms with English as an additional language. Whilst trying to come to terms with that, casual use of Scots language could provide an extra unneeded challenge. Scots words also vary dependent on locality. For occasions such as job interviews perhaps something more universal is more appropriate.
From the survey I mentioned it appears that a challenge Scots has as a language is that many Scottish people dont even consider it a language. They think Scots is 'Rabbie Burns' and 'ah cannae unerstone it, so ah dinnae really ken Scots'. This attitude needs turnt on its heid. Perhaps teaching some contemporary Scottish literature with modern social commentary would be better and more interesting in school.
It's like learning to play the violin at a young age and being given stale classical music to play. That appreciation may come later but it must be possible to retain youngsters playing instruments or gaining an appreciation for language without harking back a few hundred years for source material.
You say that but that is exactly what is being done to Scots.
That's the point I was trying to acknowledge earlier, about Scots being a language with its own heritage and culture. I've read that it's comparable to the differences between Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, however it may seem more appropriate to compare to the situation in Switzerland (as I understand it) where people are taught High German in schools however they speak Swiss German at home. Or at least it would be if Switzerland and Germany were part of a union...
Scots may be a dialect or a language but the point as made above is that it's considered improper, rather than the 'correct' way of speaking. I do wonder if or how things could change. But there are many different language situations all over the world, we only have an Anglophone perspective. For example in Finland after a certain level subjects like science and engineering are taught in English simply because of the availability of things like textbooks and support material in specialist areas. So I could imagine a hybrid approach where sciences etc being taught in English whilst using Scots for humanities or literature.
As I said it’s not an either/or situation, there is not one language that was spoken in Scotland and I’m not sure there ever was.
That's true in most countries - even England until relatively recently. Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Finland even Canada all have multiple languages in different areas that aren't reciprocally understood.
@ Athgray agreed. Mind ye It's guid fun at oor hoose Mrs gordimhor fae Aiberdeenshire and me fae Ayrshire kin jist about mak oot whit/ fit the ither yin's meaning ath oot resorting tae Inglis nor Gaelic
there is not one language that was spoken in Scotland and I’m not sure there ever was.
There could well be in future though, and not just in Scotland but worldwide. The way young people communicate now has changed dramatically over the past 20years to the point that a number of young people find being spoken to by strangers/not well known people offensive. Not unusual now for people to have best friends they have never met and never actually spoken to. Who knows what the next 20years holds.
@ Athgray agreed. Mind ye It’s guid fun at oor hoose Mrs gordimhor fae Aiberdeenshire and me fae Ayrshire kin jist about mak oot whit/ fit the ither yin’s meaning ath oot resorting tae Inglis nor Gaelic
Funny that. I got a new phone before Christmas. It has Bixby on it, the Samsung version of Alexa. She causes a stooshie in oor hoose. I am the only person she can't understand. She picks up my 4 year old daughters ramblings but struggles with my requests. I did try the posh Cockney voice the Scottish woman does in the famous YouTube clip with Alexa and that did work better.
Presumably those who think Scots is not a language in its own right would have clearly understood the "English" of the fishing villages along the Moray coast of not that many years ago. 🙂
Dialects can be hard to understand even if they are the same language. The line between dialect and language is pretty blurry, that's why linguists are still undecided about Scots.
Scots is recognised as a distinct language in the UK:
Notwithstanding the UK government's and the Scottish Executive's obligations under part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the Scottish Executive recognises and respects Scots (in all its forms) as a distinct language, and does not consider the use of Scots to be an indication of poor competence in English.
It also has it's own vocabulary and manner of speaking with words borrowed from languages other than English.