LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.06 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 06.OCT.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: John M. Tait <jmtait at wirhoose.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.03 (06) [E]

Sandy wrote:

>I already suggested the solution to this 'problem', by saying
>that we need to build up a critical mass of suitable materials
>until the general populace does find itself 'ignited' with an
>awareness of this sort of thing.
>
>Books like Trainspotting and programmes like Chewin' the Fat
>are deliberately written in such a way as to be understandable
>by the English-speaking populace, and this is why they're widely
>popular. If you're promoting Scots as a language then whatever
>you produce has a built-in disadvantage because the written
>language isn't taught and so can be inaccessible even for many
>Scots speakers.

This is the big dilemma, isn't it? If you produce Scots which is not easily
understood at a casual level by English speakers, then it is dismissed as
'artificial' or such. Even linguists are guilty of a version of this
mistake. In English Phonology and Phonological Theory, Roger Lass lists
several examples of word forms such as _tap_, _labster_, etc, as examples of
vowel changes in 'earlier Scots'. But most of these 'earlier' Scots words
are familiar to me in everyday speech. This type of thinking - where 'braid'
Scots is regarded as relics of 'earlier' Scots - leaves the way for the
words 'Scots' to imply mainly the heavily Anglicised forms found in mostly
Glasgow and Edinburgh. In other words, people from areas where Scots is most
depleted regard this sort of Scots as 'contemporary' and the other forms as
relics. When these forms of Scots (equivalent, I would say, to Ron's
descriptions of Missingisch (sp?)) are written, it is rightly pointed out
that they are little different from English. The problem is exacerbated by
the fact that many of those who are at the forefront of Scots promotion
actually seem to be unfamiliar with 'braid' Scots, to the extent that they
are dismayed when they encounter it. Colin tells me that the SLRC produced a
document which stated that the 'braid' varieties of Scots are comprehensible
only to linguistic specialists!
>
>However, things like Colin's book gradually make better Scots
>more accessible, not necessarily immediately to the general
>populace but it has a good chance of raising the awareness of
>more educated people such as teachers, who might then be better
>equipped to point the way for others. This is the sort of thing
>that can provide and awareness of Scots as high culture rather
>than low.

This is true. However, there is the problem - which I keep going on about -
that most of the material available to educators is of the 'relexified
English' sort, and even those teachers who are favourably disposed towards
Scots, not knowing any better, are likely to uncritically use texts like
Robertson's book on the Parliament, or Telfer's Bruce and Wallace.

John M. Tait.

http://www.wirhoose.co.uk

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