LL-L "Language varieties" 2003.01.06 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
 S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2003.01.05 (14) [E]

Dear all,

Glenn wrote:

"Just to go off on a tangent and to be contoversial -
do you think that some times more emphasis is given to
stressing Scotland's Celtic heritage rather than it's,
dare I say, Anglo-Saxon one?"

No. While I would appreciate Glenn clarifying what he means by "more
emphasis" being given to "stressing Scotland's Celtic heritage" (i.e., in
what? Tourism? National symbols? Academia? Populist conceptions of
nationhood?), I believe that a kind of balance has been achieved between the
Celtic and Anglo-Saxon strands of Scottish identity, with the Anglo-Saxon
form being slightly more dominant because the vast majority of Scots now
live in the Germanic-speaking South rather than the Celtic-speaking (or
until recently Celtic-speaking) Gaidhealtachd areas.

Populist and stereotypical perceptions of Scottishness (the two are
intertwined) tend to stress the Scots language (or some mangling of it) but
Celtic culture (or some mangling of it, i.e., tartan, the Highland clans,
whisky, etc.). There are few Scots who would deny the vitality of Robert
Burns in defining Scottishness yet hardly any would mention the Book of Deer
or any number of Gaelic poets, who seem to be treated as localised Highland
and Island wonders. I think this conception of Scottishness also excludes
Orkney and Shetland and their Norse hertage to a lesser extent, too.

Scotland is unique in Europe insofar as it is (or was) a nation of two
national cultures, the Anglo-Saxon (Scots) and the Celtic (Gaelic),
completely different from each other in history, performance, economy,
lifestyle and trajectory. The Highland Line (or some version of it), as we
all know, was a ethno-cultural border for a thousand years. The result of
this, however, was that the Scottish state was run from, by and in the
interests of the "Inglis" speakers in Edinburgh. Only in the Middle Ages was
the Scots language called such - prior to that, as I have stated, it was
"Inglis". (This does not imply that "Inglis" speakers thought of themselves
as English; after all, English is the primary language of Ireland these days
but the nationality is Irish.) The consequence was that, until the 18th and
19th Centuries, Scottishness was defined in exclusively Anglo-Saxon terms
and Gaelic-speakers were considered "Irish" (particularly if they were
Catholic).

Populist, stereotypical representations of heritage rely on half-informed
bastardisations of true histories. While it is undeniable that the "Gaelic =
Scottish" equation came to the fore in the 19th Century, it was a new
development, an offshoot of Romanticism and a yearning for closeness to
"noble savagery". Despite such flirtations, conceptions of Scottish heritage
remained driven and defined largely in Anglo-Saxon terms, as the situation
seems to be today, while acknowledging the existence, if not the place, of
Gaelic/Celtic heritage within a larger, predominantly Anglo-Saxon Scottish
whole.

Therefore it is misleading to propose that Celtic enjoys a cultural high
ground comparative to Germanic in Scotland. Even the Highland Line has
shifted, with recently Celtic/Gaelic territory now considered fundamentally
Lowlands rather than Germanicised (i.e., Dumbarton, Ayr, Fife). No. The sad
fact is that Celtic is still very much a romanticised minority culture in
Scotland, even if it is a minority culture alongside Scots within an
aggressively Anglicised Scotland. Scots-speaking Scots should not dismiss
their very long history of undermining Celtic (and Norse) in Scotland,
particularly when it is realised that the two-culture model of Scottish
nationality is so beautifully (and peacefully) unique in Europe.
Scots-speaking Scots should not try to fudge the issue of the suppression of
Gaelic culture and lifestyle in Scotland by claiming that, somehow,
perversely, bizarrely, impossibly, Gaelic, no matter how precarious its
continued existence, no matter how depopulated Gaelic-speaking areas have
become, rules the roost today. It is not the case, and never has been.

Tapadh libh,

Criostóir.

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