LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.12.08 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 08.DEC.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Colin Wilson <lcwilson at btinternet.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.12.05 (06) [E/S]

At 19:35 05/12/02, Gary Taylor wrote:

>I'm currently doing my duty and working my way through
>Colin's Scots language learner, and at the same time
>teaching myself Welsh - mainly cos I don't want to be
>an ignorant Brit that doesn't know any of the other
>languages from his country of origin.
>
>One thing that I've noticed through learning them
>side-by-side is the use of the 3rd person singular
>with plurals when the plurals aren't a pronoun.
>
>I'm presuming that this is similar in Scots Gaelic -
>also being Celtic.
>
>My question is, is this an influence of Gaelic on
>Scots, or is this feature an inheritance from the Old
>Northumbrian dialect from which it descended? Also,
>are there other such grammatical influences from
>Celtic in Scots?

First of all, it goes without saying that I'm glad another
contributor to the list has found my book of interest!

To try to answer the question: it's actually impossible to make a
direct comparison (in this respect) of Scots with modern Scottish
Gaelic. With the exception of the verb "to be" the latter language
has lost its simple present tense, so we can't compare it with the
present tense in Scots.

However, if the feature of Scots mentioned above is due to influence
from Gaelic, one might expect to see something similar in modern Irish
Gaelic, which is more conservative in this respect and does still
have a simple present tense. To my knowledge, even in Irish Gaelic,
there is no distinction of the kind that exists in Scots; and the
same verbal conjugation is used in the 3rd person present tense
irrespective of whether the subject is a pronoun or another noun.

As for other grammatical influences, I think the most obvious possibility
is the compound present tense (for example, "I am going" instead of
"I go"), which is used in English as well as Scots. To my knowledge,
this tense exists in all of the Celtic languages; but the only Germanic
languages in which it exists are Scots and English, suggesting that
this structure is a Celtic loan.

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 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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