LL-L: "Language planning" LOWLANDS-L, 26.FEB.2001 (05) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 26.FEB.2001 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Andy Eagle [Andy.Eagle at t-online.de]
Subject: LL-L: "Language planning"

Colin wrote:

> My suggestion of "composite Scots" was only that, a suggestion,
> and there may be better alternatives such as those that have since
> been suggested here. However, I do think we need to lose the
> description "synthetic" because, to many people nowadays, it just
> means "bogus".

A gree wi ye on that ane!

Andy Eagle

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From: Colin Wilson [lcwilson at starmail.com]
Subject: LL-L: "Language planning" LOWLANDS-L, 23.FEB.2001 (01) [E]

At 07:24 23/02/01 -0800, Ian James Parsley wrote:

>because it will be unbelievably confusing to try to
>teach people Modern Scots without some written
>material, and that written material must be consistent
>(you can change the system after a generation, but
>it's no good tampering with it every year). This means
>a form of 'Composite' or 'General' Scots is required
>urgently, and that it must be agreed with Scotland
>otherwise we'll end up having to do our own materials
>on either side of the North Channel

I understand Ian James Parsley's argument here, although I don't
necessarily agree with every point of it. It is possible to
teach a laanguage without a set standard: one obvious example is
Scottish Gaelic, where a set orthographic convention is taught,
but in other respects teachers and pupils use local language
features freely.

However, if the Ulster Scots lobby choose to approach the Scottish
authorities about this, although I wish them well I suspect that
they would find that the Scottish Education Department (does
anyone know whether the name has changed since self-government?)
has neither the interest nor the budget to co-operate in such a
venture.

However, one step toward the existence of a 'Composite' or 'General'
Scots was taken a few years ago, when Alasdair Allan wrote his
Ph.D thesis (1998) on the whole issue of language planning for Scots,
and devoted a large part of the work on the question of
"standardisation" (perhaps we'd better say "composition"). I had
the chance to read it in an unfinished form, and on that basis I
can say that anyone with an interest in this area could do much worse
than start by reading Allan's thesis.

*********************************************************************
  Colin Wilson                  the graip wis tint, the besom wis duin
                                the barra wadna row its lane
  writin fae Aiberdein,         an sicna soss it nivver wis seen
  the ile capital o Europe      lik the muckin o Geordie's byre
*********************************************************************

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