LL-L: "Scots & Low Saxon" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 30.JUN.1999 (01)

Wed Jun 30 23:47:03 UTC 1999

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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Scots & Low Saxon

Dear Lowlanders,

Under "Resources (Scots)" I wrote on 29 Jun 1999:

> > A Scots Grammar, Scots Grammar and Usage, David Purves,
> > 1998. ISBN 0-85411-068-2. £ 7.99.

...

> I just got the book from the library.  I haven't really read it yet, but I can

> say at this stage that it is useful but very basic (perhaps a bit too basic to

> call it a "grammar"), and it can be used by anyone who can read English.

...

In the meantime I have been doing some browsing and have, with great interest,
read the introduction.  I would like to share some highlights with you in the
light of possible comparisons with Low Saxon (Low German) in Northern Germany
(and to a large extent also in the Netherlands as well as in non-European
enclaves).

As many of you know, I am quite fascinated by the oftentimes astonishing
similarities between the two cases, and I assume so are some among you, judging
by past responses to similar discussions.  Of course, there are some
differences.  Most importantly, Scots has (or ought to have) the ambition of
becoming one of the national languages of Scotland, a sovereign state/country.
In contrast, being used in a region that has long lost popular ambitions for
independence and that falls into two modern countries, Germany and the
Netherlands, all that Low Saxon can hope for is regional language status (which
it recently received) with tangible, real-life implementations (which is yet to
be achieved).  Striking similarities are found in the following:

(1) having been a national or power language that has fallen from grace in the
wake of the collapse of the former political and economic power bases (e.g.,
integration into an initially foreign state; in the case of Low Saxon also the
loss of lingua franca status with the disintegration of the Hanseatic Trading
League)

(2) being the language of a portion of an ethnic group, not the language of a
specific ethnic group

(3) denial of recognition as a language separate from the closely related
language of power, with widely espoused notions of "dialect" status  (Low Saxon
has overcome this officially [though not in the minds of many], while Scots
still needs to overcome it.)

(4) being traditionally treated as deficient, undesirable, uneducated varieties
of the power language, centuries of this mental conditioning (e.g., in
education) having resulted in low esteem and in resistance to language assertion
activism even among native speakers

(5) absence of standard varieties and orthographies, thus absence of unity,
educational problems, and increased risk of extinction

(6) language reform attempts largely oriented toward standards and conventions
of the respective power languages (e.g., orthographic adaptation to the power
language, power language influences on written styles)

Below you will find excerpts from Purves' introduction.  I ask you to read it
bearing in mind that in my opinion the following substitutions can be fairly
made:

Scots -> Low Saxon (Low German)
Scottish -> regional North German using Low Saxon
Scotland -> Northern Germany
English -> German
(_Lallans_ -> _Quickborn_ or similar periodicals)

I suppose corresponding substitutions can be made for Low Saxon in the
Netherlands.

I invite your input and discussions.

Best regards,

Reinhard/Ron

==

Purves (1996), pp. 1-5:

Since the Treaty of Union of 1707, generations of Scots have had to come to
terms with a situation in which they were taught English at school, and where
the way of speech natural to them was officially regarded as wrong by
definition, or as a dialect unworthy of use as a serious medium of
communication. The dilemma involved introduced a schizoid element into the
national psyche, for with many people, the 'true self' associated with the
complex of feelings and attitudes acquired at home in childhood had to be denied
in the interests of material advancement, in favour of a false persona.

A situation was created in the schools, which often continued throughout life,
in which Scottish children felt that what they really were was unacceptable, or
even something to be ashamed of, so that the sooner they divested themselves of
their identifiable Scottish characteristics the better. The psychological damage
caused by this self-hatred is incalculable and the existence of condemnatory
attitudes towards the natural speech of children at school has greatly
contributed to the erosion of Scots. In the circumstances, it is rather
surprising that Scots has survived so long, either as a means of self-expression
or of communication.

....

As David Murison has pointed out, the eighteenth century saw the disappearance
of Scots as a full language in which the spoken form was employed for every
purpose of life. This book cannot therefore be regarded as comparable with a
grammar of any language for which a full canon still survives. It has to be
viewed more as a list of grammatical features identified with Scots as it has
existed since the beginning of the development of the present literary
tradition.

....

Macafee has stated in an important paper: 'In grammar, more than at other
linguistic levels, modern written Scots tends to adhere to the model instilled
by literacy in Standard English.' This is a natural consequence of the
representation of Scots in the schools, over a period of generations, as an
incorrect form of English. The adherence by writers in Scots to the standards of
English grammar and orthography is not of course a modern phenomenon: it has
been a characteristic of writing in Scots since the sixteenth century. The
magazine _Lallans_, which is the journal of the Scots Language Society, is the
only publication which regularly appears in Scots. As such, it has provided an
important outlet for writers who want to try their hand with Scots. Since it
first appeared in 1973, the editorial policy, which was initiated by J K Annand,
has been to encourage prose writing in Scots with a view to extending its use in
areas where it has never been adequately developed. To write a review or
obituary or a piece of discursive prose presents a challenge even to writers who
are competent in writing verse or narrative prose in Scots.

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