LL-L: "Web resources" LOWLANDS-L, 09.JAN.2000 (06) [E/S]

[Lowlands-L Administrator]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 09.JAN.2000 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/~sassisch/rhahn//lowlands/>
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 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Web resources

Dear Lowlanders,

Ole Stig wrote:

<...>

> At the address
>
> http://www.olestig.dk/skotland/welcome.html
>
> you'll find a one-hour radioprogramme on Scots and Gaelic and language
> endangerment, first broadcast in Oct 99.

<...>

> Use instead:
> http://www.olestig.dk/skotland

<...>

Bravo, Ole Stig Andersen! Bravo, Radio Danmark!

The supposed English version is not available. I can only access the Danish
versions.  ("Desværre ikke fundet !")

Nevertheless ...

I am very much impressed by your contributions to spreading the word about Scots
and also about the language situation in Scotland in general. I had the most
wonderful time listening to the recorded radio program tonight here in Seattle,
USA. (I did so while cooking and burnt something because I was so captivated by
the program and didn't pay enough attention to what I was doing. Never mind!) It
was a marvelous half hour or so of listening. Radio Danmark, with which I was
madly in love in my late teens in Northern Germany, just went up a couple of
notches on my personal radio popularity meter, not only for expending the time
and energy to tackle this language issue but also for doing so in an exemplary
fashion, with fine, elegant reporting and smooth editing, all based on sound,
in-depth research. Bravo indeed!

On behalf of the subscribers of Lowlands-L, please allow me to thank you and
congratulate you on a job well done in introducing Scots and its struggle to the
Danish-speaking world. I hope Lowlands-L was of some help with your research.

Thank you also for mentioning Low Saxon (Low German) in the program. I would
probably not be the only one on this list who would be delighted if you
considered doing a similar job reporting about our language sometime. There are
much ignorance and many misconceptions about it in Denmark and elsewhere,
including in Germany and the Netherlands where it is used. After all, Low Saxon
used to be used and may still be used in Southern Jutland, its ancestors of the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance exerted tremendous influences on the development
of Danish, and its northernmost dialects have noticeable Danish/Jutish
substrates. As for its history and current status, you'd have an easy job.
Pretty much all you have to do is "translate" the Scots situation. The two
languages have a lot in common in many respects.

I also enjoyed your introductory piece posted on the web, Ole Stig, even though
it is only that, introductory. I hope you don't mind me posting my translation
below for the benefit of our subscribers who do not understand Danish. This is
only an excerpt, only of the part dealing with Scots. (Please let me know if
there are any errors.)

Again, thank you so much for a marvelous job and for sharing it with us.

Best regards and wishes,

Reinhard "Ron" Hahn
Administrator, Lowlands-L

***

A THRASHING FOR SCOTS

After Gaelic, it was the Scots' turn to become the main language of Scotland. In
the 5th century, Scots was the spoken and written language of the Scottish
state. When Great Britain came to be established in 1707, Scotland's government
moved to London, and Scots lost its political status to English. And even when
Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns, was writing in Scots -- "Should auld
acquaintance be forgot" among other things -- the language was being rapidly
reduced to a purely spoken one, to the status of an everyday colloquial
language, not something one could use in school, for example.

In several centuries -- until the beginning of the 1980s -- Scottish children
were under threat of corporal punishment for talking Scots in school. From
having been an independent language used by people on all social levels Scots
had descended to the status of being considered a dialect of English, a dialect
used by ignorant peasants, fishing folk and laborers, not by genteel people. As
recently as in 1993 a man was arrested for having spoken Scots in court
proceedings, for contempt of court.

CONFUSION BETWEEN SCOTS AND ENGLISH

The most recent British census asked if people spoke Gaelic but not if they
spoke Scots. In the meantime, a government study conducted in 1996 has shown
that it may be as much as 30% of the population, i.e., 1.5 million people.
Furthermore, Scots has far more speakers than has Gaelic -- in excess of 20
times more -- but it may be harder to recognize, indeed even among Scottish
people themselves, who tend to confuse it with English with a Scottish accent.

Scots has virtually none of the resources that are now channeled in the
direction of Gaelic. There is no radio or TV broadcasting in Scots, it is,
generally speaking, not taught in school, and it is not at all used as an
educational medium. There is a Scots renaissance underway too, led by singers,
poets, movie and theater people. But Scots, the language with many speakers and
low status, enjoys nowhere near the public support that is afforded Gaelic,
which has far fewer speakers but at the same time carries greater symbolic
weight.

***

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