a bit about the Scots language...
The Scots Leid, a Personal Keekby rableather @ Scotland 2005 From the Hamei ldae mi website at
http://www.rableather.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.html"Scots:- The collection of dialects deriving from the distinctive Scottis Language which was the official Language of government and literature until the end of the 16th century." Definition supplied by Jim Allen Tutor Strathclyde University, "
When I was little, back in the days when everything was black and white, my mother would cuff my ear for using, what she called, slang. She called anything I said, that was not strictly Queen's English, 'slang'. She went further, she sent me to elocution before school once a week for a year.
Now come forward in time to till about ten years ago, and to the days of full colour. I was in the fourth and final year of my teaching course and it was elective time. I had chosen to do 'Teaching Scots' as an elective. I looked the course specifications over and over and decided this wasn't really the course for me. I went to see the tutor and explained, " Ah dinna think Ah can dae this. Ah canny speak aw word aw Scots."
That was the first time I actually saw someone literally fall off a chair laughing. I just stood there gobsmacked, hadn't a clue what he was laughing at. I had to wait until he recovered enough to explain it to me. You see while I can speak standard English, I wouldn't have been allowed into Jordanhill otherwise, I only do it naturally for four reasons:-
# I do it when I teach, unless I am teaching Scots
# I do it when I am on the phone, to a non Scot
# I do it when I am drunk.
# I do it when my anger has past the red of passion and turned icy white.
I took the man's class and learned many things including the fact that Scottis is a proper language and not a bastardisation of English. Old English and Scottis have a common root but the Wars of Independence forced the Scots to rename their language Scottis from Inglis. These same wars, and the continuing troubles between my country and its near neighbour made trade difficult. So Scotland developed many trading links with Europe.
Language of course is a living breathing thing so it changes otherwise it stagnates. We moved away from Inglis and its subsequent development. We adopted words like ashet, advocate and gigot, brought over from the continent through trading links. Vocabulary that simply has no meaning in English was common in Scotland. Scots, not Gaelic, was the language of Government here.
Politics once again impacts on on the language and the Union of Parliament sounded the death knell for Scottis. No longer the language of government it became second rate and it all but died as a written language.
"...the very stuff of history. It is through written documentation that we mainly perceive our past ....to forget the language is to court disaster."( Witherington DJ in McClure JD (no date) p9)
It did however continue on in the tongue but was frowned upon. The following is from a fictitious account, the book Docharty, by William McIlvanney. While fictitious in nature it is an echo of the nature of many experiences by Scots children educated pre 5-14.
"What's wrong with your face, Docherty?
Skint ma nose, sur.
How?
Ah fell an bumped ma heid in the sheuch, sur.
I beg your pardon?
Ah fell an bumped ma heid in the sheuch, sur.
I beg your pardon?
In the pause Conn understands the nature of the choice, tremblingly, compulsively, makes it.
Ah fell an bumped ma heid in the sheuch, sur.
The blow is instant. His ear seems to enlarge, is muffled in numbness. But it s only the dread of tears that hurts. Mr Pirrie distends on a lozenge of light which mustn't be allowed to break. It doesn't. Conn hasn't cried.
That, Docherty, is impertinence. You will translate, please, into the mother-tongue. "
I would argue with anyone who doesn't relate to this that they were either educated outside Scotland or in a school where the English language indoctrination was particularly effective. Its a bit like saying ' I have never had trouble using Scots notes in England'. Its part of the culture.
So where does the language stand today? According to Murison in SCOLA (1980) (p8) approximately one third of the vocabulary is lost from one generation to the next. He claims (and this claim is backed up by Aitken 1973 p58) that the language will extinct by the turn of the century. This is more particularly true for urban areas than rural.
I have hit the teaching profession fairly heavily in this look at Scottis and rightly so. But I remember vividly one on my introduction language lessons four years before the 'falling off the chair' incident. The lecturer, head of the Primary Education no less, stood up and stated.
"In France, French children study French literature.
In America , American children study American literature
In England, English children study English literature
In Scotland .......... its different"
In Scottish primary schools we study Language, not English. We teach Scots in the local dialect. That for me, is Lallands, but it could be Doric, or even Glaswegian, depends where you live.
I speak the language I learned from my grandmother and grandfather. I speak the language I learned in the playground. It is all I have of my heritage. I can't conjugate a Scots verb, but there is no one left to teach me how to speak that way. However what I have is genuine, and there is nothing false in it.
No it doesn't sound like that which was written by James VI, in the 17th century. Shakespeare was writing in the same period. I have never heard a living English person speak naturally, the same way Shakespeare wrote .
"...it is undeniable that Scots exploits the possibilities of phono aesthetic expression.... to an extent that has no paralleled in Western European Languages." McClure J D 1988 (p54)
I have had a great deal of trouble sticking to Queen's English writing this. Phrases like 'cuff around the ear' do not adequately express what I actually mean. I meant she " skelped ma lug" It encompasses the onomatopoeic qualities of the skelp while portraying the visual aspects of the lug. English, frankly doesn't have those qualities. I used the word 'gobsmacked' but thats no where near as effective as 'dumbfoonart'. I find I can more adequately express myself when speaking in Scots, but I have to revert to English to make myself understood.
I have been accused of speaking 'faux Scots'. I have answered that by explaining where Scots came from, where MY Scots came from and finally by showing that the language has developed. Can I suggest that had my accusers been more able to utilise, what for them is obviously a bastard language, they would not have had to revert to French to describe my Scots.
Oh and there was one more thing I learned in Jim Allen's class, there is no 'g' at the end of Scots verbs which in English would end in 'ing'. So its bletherin no blethering, loupin no louping, keekin no keeking. Yi' ve bin tellt noo!
