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Communication technology has undoubtedly had an effect on the Scots language, but I think that education is a far bigger factor. For generations, children have
by jdietrich 8y ago
Communication technology has undoubtedly had an effect on the Scots language, but I think that education is a far bigger factor. For generations, children have been taught exclusively in English and chastised for using Scots. Like Welsh and Cornish, Scots was a victim of linguistic imperialism.
- mc32 8y agoI think at times it’s difficult to separate imperialism from economic dominance. Sometimes these things are due to economic might (for example Brazilian Portuguese is more influential than peninsular Portuguese, however, Brazil is hardly the imperialist in this scenario) Is it imperialism or economic influence which might make an edinburger accent more prevalent in Scotland?
- mcroft 8y agoI think the point on linguistic imperialism was referring to things like the Welsh Not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Not
- arethuza 8y agoI can remember a girl in a class when I was at school in the late 70s being asked a question by a teacher and she clearly had been day dreaming a bit so replied "fit?" (i.e. "what?"). The teacher got very angry and threw a wooden blackboard cleaner at her head which just missed by a few cm. I can also remember some kids getting far worse treatment in primary school for slipping into dialect (e.g. one chap who mispronounced something was told by the teacher to look at the blackboard more carefully so he went right up to it and the teacher went behind him and slammed his head into the blackboard). [Edit: I should have said "loonie" rather than "chap" - a "loon" being a boy, a "loonie" a young boy - similarly "quine" and "quinie" for girls and young girls - aye it's a sair fecht ;-)]