[lg policy] From Creole to Scots, all our tongues need preserving, says top linguist

[Harold Schiffman]

 From Creole to Scots, all our tongues need preserving, says top linguist
January 16th, 2016 - 12:28 am Robbie Armstrong
<http://www.thenational.scot/author/robbie_armstrong>
 2 comments

FEW people know more about the power and influence of minority languages
than linguist Hector Poullet, an expert on the Creole tongue of the
Caribbean.

The softly-spoken 75-year-old is a source on Creole in the French overseas
department of Guadeloupe.

You could say he wrote the book on the language, co-authoring one of the
world’s first Creole dictionaries and helping to introduce it into the
school curriculum.

This week, Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland launched a free online
resource for children. Gifting Every Child includes Scots songs and Gaelic
lullabies, providing an introduction to the traditional arts for the
classroom or family home.

“All of the world’s languages are like a kaleidoscope – every single one of
them is multiform and each one must be protected,” Poullet says.

Scots, Creole or Catalan – it makes no difference. He compares countries
with a dominant language, like English in Scotland, to having a castle.
“Minority languages are the ramparts, while the dominant one is the keep.
Battering the outer defences,” he says, “only serves to weaken the whole.”

There is a common thread between Poullet and Scots. Both he and Matthew
Fitt – the weekly Scots columnist for The National – have worked as
translators for the Asterix comics, providing the first translations into
Creole and Scots respectively.

Unimaginable fifty years ago, few question Creole’s status as a language
today. The efforts of linguists and writers such as Poullet have played no
small part, as they’ve tirelessly championed Creole over the decades in
spite of French language policy. (The country has yet to ratify the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.)

Guadeloupian children once saw many the back of a parent’s hand for
speaking Creole. Once considered little more than a dialect of the lower
classes, many used to argue that it wasn’t a language at all – rather a
bastardisation of French. These attitudes exist in Scotland today, where
many deny that Scots is a proper language. A mere dialect of English, they
say.

Yet all languages loan and borrow; transactional exchange is essential for
their development.

Just as a lot of Scots comes from English, much of the English lexicon was
loaned from Anglo-Norman, which borrowed from French in turn.

Creole, meanwhile, was born out of slavery, and took 80 per cent of its
lexicon from French. The rest came from English, Spanish, Portuguese and
Hindi – as well as incorporating African and Arawak words. Scots has
borrowed happily too, taking words like midden, muckle, bairn and hoose
from Old Norse. Like Creole, Scots is now also taught in schools, as part
of the Curriculum for Excellence.

Unlike Creole, Scots enjoys the benefits of the European Charter for
Languages, which exists to respect the “right to use a regional or minority
language in private and public life”.

Such measures are essential, though legal treaties and government funding
are but the first steps. Artists, writers and musicians provide the real
catalyst for change. It is they who fight stereotypes and start a dialogue
with their work. Their writing and poetry has helped drive a re-evaluation
of Scots and its role in society today.

Scots is an integral part of our culture – it differentiates us, sets us
apart and makes us unique. Literature, learning resources, lullabies –
everything is crucial in promoting and preserving our diverse linguistic
landscape.
“Allowing a language to die out is like sitting idly by and watching an
endangered animal become extinct,” Poullet says

http://www.thenational.scot/culture/from-creole-to-scots-all-our-tongues-need-preserving-says-top-linguist.12451

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