Scots and Scottish Gaelic?

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Scots and Scottish Gaelic?

• Will Scotland care?

2
Scots or Scottish Gaelic?

• Scotland had and has traditionally been home to
  two languages
• The Celtic language of the Highlands and Islands-
  Scottish Gaelic.
• The Germanic language of the Lowlands, and east
  of Scotland- Scots (Lallans).
• Today we are going to talk about Scots.

3
Scots

• Scots, which has no official status, is still
  spoken by about 20 of the Scottish population,
  mainly in the Lowlands.
• It is also known in Ulster where it is known as
  Ulster Scots.
• It has various names including
• Lowland Scots, Lallans, Scots Leid, Braid Scots,
  Doric, Teri, Buchan Claik.

4
Listening to Scots

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vcENbkHS3mnY

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Scots

• There is no real standard for Scots, so many
  local variations exist.
• Because of its unofficial status, it is usually
  thought of as a dialect (series of dialects).
• Mainly Aberdeen and the Borders.
• Some, however, prefer to think of Scots as a
  language in its own right.

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Attitudes towards Scots

• The 2010 Scottish Government study of public
  attitudes towards the Scots language found that
  64 of Scottish people dont really think of
  Scots as a language.

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Origins of Scots

• Scots is an abbreviation for Scottis (ie
  Scottish). This term has only been used since the
  15th century.
• Before that the word used was Inglis (Scottis
  before the 15th century meant Scottish Gaelic!).
  Erse was also used to mean Scottish Gaelic.

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Origins of Scots

• Scots developed from Northumbrian Old English, a
  speech form that became established in southern
  Scotland after the 7th century. (SE Scotland).
• Everywhere else used Scottish Gaelic, or
  Brythonic (Strathclyde).
• By the 15th century this situation was completely
  reversed. Scots became the predominant language
  in the south of Scotland.

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Scots

• Early towns in Scotland favoured the spread of
  Scots. French which had been the language of the
  courts declined.
• Between 1610-1690s some 200,000 Scots speakers
  settled in Ulster (NE Ireland).
• A more standardized form of English was also used
  in Scotland after 1707 (Act of Union).

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Scots today

• In Scotland today those who speak Scots are able
  to use it in a range of speech forms that
  includes broad Scots and standardized English.
• This is known as a diglossic situation. It can
  also be called code-switching.
• The colour of ones language can cross many
  hybrids.

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Scots Today

• Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between
  English-influenced Scots and Scots-influenced
  English.
• This of course leads to disputes about whether
  Scots can be classed as a language in its own
  right.

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Scots Today

• The government of the United Kingdom now accepts
  Scots as a regional language and has recognized
  it as such under the European Charter for
  Regional or Minority Languages.
• The Scottish Executive (government) has made a
  similar declaration

13
Scots Today

• The Scottish Executive recognizes 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.
• More later on the Scottish Governments stance on
  Scots.

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The Northern British and their languages

• Following the 1707 Act of Union, many Lowlander
  Scots considered themselves to be Northern
  Britons rather than Scots.
• This of course indicates that the Act of Union
  was instrumental in constructing a new identity
  for the peoples of the Britain (especially those
  in the Celtic regions!).

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The Northern British and their languages

• Many of those who lived in Edinburgh and Glasgow
  did their best to rid themselves of Scots (the
  language). Not only in the spoken language but
  also in their written English.
• Famous Scottish thinkers of the time like David
  Hume and Adam Smith went to great lengths to
  eradicate their Scottish accents.

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The Northern British and their languages

• This was the beginning of the class distinction
  between who mainly spoke Scots and those who
  sought to speak a standardized form of English.
• This was largely going to be true until the
  beginning of the 20th century.

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Scots writing

• Yet, Scots had been a medium for writing. Much of
  the best of this Scots writing derives from the
  15th century (Royal Court in Edinburgh).
• William Dunbar, Robert Henryson, Gavin Douglas,
  David Lyndsay.

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William Dunbar c1465-c1530

• He hes done petuously devour,The noble Chaucer,
  of makaris flour,The Monk of Bery, and Gower,
  all threTimor mortis conturbat me.The gude
  Syr Hew of Eglintoun,And eik Heryot, and
  Wyntoun,He hes tane out of this cuntreTimor
  mortis conturbat me

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Scots writing

• In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuies Scots
  as a literary language saw a revival.
• The name which especially comes to mind is that
  of Robert Burns (Burns Night etc).
• His writing was a hybrid of Scots and English
  very often, no doubt partially reflecting the
  norms of his day (1759-1796)

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Writing in Scots in the early 20th century

• The novelist Sir Walter Scott also brought
  conversations in Scots into his work. 19th c.
• In the 1920s there was a renaissance in the use
  of Scots, focussed especially on the poet Hugh
  MacDiarmid.
• His most famous poem was A Drunk Man Looks at a
  Thistle (1926).
• This showed that Scots could be used for high
  literature.

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Hugh MacDiarmid1892-1978
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A Drunk Man Looks at a Thistle- first lines

• I amna fou' sae muckle as tired - deid dune.
• It's gey and hard wark coupin' gless for gless
• Wi' Cruivie and Gilsanquhar and the like,
• And I'm no' juist as bauld as aince I wes.
• Archaic and obscure words, to create an
  integrated Scots literary language.

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Scots

• http//www.scotslanguage.com/
• http//www.mithertongue.co.uk/shop.php?viewpagep
  age67

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Scots in the Twentieth century

• Writing Scots waned by the 20th century (although
  it was still widely spoken).
• In the 1930s children were
• physically punished for speaking Scots
• The Scottish Education Department in the 1940s
  stated that Scots was not the language of
  educated people.
• The language itself went through important
  changes, especially in urban
• centres.

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Using Scots- Wir Ain Leid

• Well into the 1950s, children were still punished
  for speaking their mithertongue.
• During all of the 20th century there were small
  numbers of writers who employed Scots.
• Translations, (1983 New Testament by William
  Laughton Lorimer).
• Novels/Films (Transpotting by Irvine Welsh)
• Cyberpunk- ButnBen A-Go-Go (Matthew Fitt)

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Scots in the Twentieth century

• Successive generations have adopted more and more
  features from Standardized English.
• In the opinion of some speakers, Scots was a form
  of slang.
• More recently (post 2000), some changes have
  taken place in the attitudes of people to Scots.
  (pluralism in society).

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Spoken Scots in the Media

• http//scottishaffairs.org/backiss/pdfs/sa21/sa21_
  Cormack.pdf
• Comedy Programmes (TV) Stand-up Comics (The Big
  Yin Billy Connolly)
• Drama programmes (TV)
• Interviews with members of the public

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Billy Connolly

• Connolly sometimes uses Scots freely in his
  routines.
• He has also written plays in Scots, eg An Me
  Wi A Bad Leg Tae.

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Attitudes to Scots

• What on earth are we Scots going to do about our
  'mither tongue'? On the one hand, most of us
  would like to see the Scots tongue survive, and
• strongly resent the idea that it's a 'low' form
  of speech fit only for comedians and servants.
  Yet on the other, we seem unable to stop
• ourselves from laughing like idiots every time we
  hear a few words of Scots used in a public place,
  so strongly have we come to associate it
• with the uncouth, the ill-educated, the
  infantile, and the unmentionable

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Attitudes to Scots

• It would not be difficult to find a way of
  speaking Scots which would become the central
  form of the language, and in fact this process
  has been happening with Gaelic as its media use
  has expanded.
• Ie, a need for a standard

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Attitude of the Scottish Government to Scots

• http//www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/03/18
  094509/2
• March 2011
• See recommendations.

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Scots in the 21st century

• No education takes place through the medium of
  Scots (compare this with Scottish Gaelic), but
  Scots is now integrated into English classes.
• Scots can be studied at university level.
• Perceptions of the language.

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Scots for school kids

• http//www.scuilwab.org.uk/
• Songs for children in Scots.

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Hogmaney Song in Scots

• http//www.scotslanguage.com/books/view/60/734