LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.03 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 03.OCT.2002 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: John M. Tait <jmtait at wirhoose.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2002.09.30 (06) [E]

Sandy wrote:

>It doesn't follow.
>
>All your examples do is establish a trend - you also have
>to establish why this trend should persist. Although
>languages may be dying out wholesale, languages exist in
>many different situations and have a lot of individuality.
>Just because a population is declining doesn't mean all but
>a few will survive. It could even be said that trends are
>made to be broken because they carry the seeds of their own
>destruction, in the form of the idea that quantity produces
>quality. An increasing trend is a question of something
>being piled on steadily until something changes - a pile of
>child's bricks is just too high and finally topples over,
>the people rebel against the latest minor tax increase
>because some personal wealth threshhold has been crossed.
>On the other hand the qualitative change that finally
>results from a persistent trend can be productive - a
>critical mass is reached and things can begin to happen.
>
>Diminishing trends can be more predictable - instead of a
>critical mass being reached, the thing can get insupportably
>small and disappear. This is probably what raises concerns
>about language death.
>
>However, your examples also seem selective, in the sense
>that they all indicate diminishing trends. There are also
>increasing trends in Scots, particularly with written
>Scots - although a lot of the Scots written in the 20th
>century has been poorer quality than ever before, the
>"Lallans Movement" still established the idea that Scots
>doesn't have to be written as a dialect of English and in
>fact only really works if it isn't. The later 20th century
>also saw the publication of Lorimer's New Testament, which
>is in what might be the best Scots ever written.
>
>Although it seems as if Lorimer has been largely ignored,
>it actually represents a serious trend-breaking possibility.
>It certainly lays low the old idea that Scots is only suited
>to the writing of humour and reminiscences. How do we know
>there isn't some brilliant young writer with a reasonable
>Scots-speaking background who's capable of integrating the
>lessons in Lorimer with his own background to produce
>outstanding works in Scots that will be so good that people
>will want to read it in spite of not being familiar with
>written Scots?
>
>This sort of thing has happened before. Fergusson and Ramsay
>were writing very good stuff, and when a relatively uneducated
>genius like Burns came on the scene, there was Fergusson and
>Ramsay's Scots diction for him to study and become familiar
>with how to write Scots. Burns wasn't really recognised in
>his time, but within a century his works were on the shelves
>of most Scottish households, beside the King James Bible. The
>effect of even a single book like this shouldn't be underestimated
>in the preservation of a living language - I myself remember
>pulling the Burns book from my parents' bookshelf at an early
>age and finding out for the first time that Scots could be written.
>
>Although this is about written Scots, I think that there may
>come a time when there's a critical mass of written Scots,
>after which many more people will start writing it, and as a
>result, speaking it better and in wider social circles. A
>qualitative change like this depends on a critical mass being
>reached. This is why I think ScotsteXt is important: whereas
>before only a few books have been readily available in Scots
>(mainly Burns and Lorimer - don't miss the fact that although
>Lorimer seems to be ignored, he always sells well enough to
>stay in print) now there are hundreds. It's not just the
>enjoyment of being able to read all those texts, it's also
>the statement that Scots has a huge literature, and the study
>resources being available for any writers who may want to
>continue this great tradition and extend the literature.
>
>The 20th Century saw the publication of the SND and now we
>have Colin's book as the latest addition to the critical mass.
>Think of what we have now that we didn't have until relatively
>recently:
>
>Huge ten-volume language dictionary;
>New Testament in extremely high-register Scots;
>Major text book for learners, with tapes;
>Large body of Scots literature readily available worldwide;
>Parliament that might yet be persuaded to provide decent
>    translations of its bumph into Scots;
>And so on.
>
>As Ron has pointed out, the existence of the Internet opens up
>many new possibilities for breaking trends, no matter how long
>they may have been established. You can either go down the
>plughole with the prophets of doom, or you can seize the
>opportunity and try to rescue at least your own language!

There remains, however, the problem that most of the things you cite as
advances in Scots are totally unknown to the vast majority of the
Scots-speaking population. Those who do know about these advances are
perhaps just as (more?) likely to be monolingual English speakers, because
they inhabit the educational echelons where these advances are recognised.
What Scots speakers are more likely to come across are (a) Trainspotting,
and (b) Chewin' the Fat and similar programmes, both of which reinforce the
image of Scots as the language of (a) drug addicts, and (b) persons, shall
we say, of less than average intelligence. This leaves the problem which my
illustrations (um!) illustrate! The identification of Scots with 'low'
culture - an identification largely perpetrated by middle-class speakers of
English - reinforces rather than counters the tendency for English to be
associated with advancement and 'niceness'. And much of the 'Scots' produced
specifically in order to advance Scots and to prove that it can be 'nice' -
such as James Robertson's book on the Scottish Parliament - may be 'nice',
but unfortunately isn't Scots.

John M. Tait.

http://www.wirhoose.co.uk


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