8 ms·
I really enjoyed this article. Scots is certainly a language of its own - to hear it in the wild you must venture out of the more populous areas (Inverness and
by s0l1dsnak3123 8y ago
I really enjoyed this article. Scots is certainly a language of its own - to hear it in the wild you must venture out of the more populous areas (Inverness and Aberdeen are exceptions) of Scotland and into the highlands and rural areas. It is also used much more by older, poorer or more isolated demographics within Scotland: as a farmers' son, I met many Scots-speaking people when I went to the market with my father.
People who claim Scots is "just an accent" don't know what they're talking about.
- klipt 8y ago> People who claim Scots is "just an accent" don't know what they're talking about. Such definitions are largely political. "A language is a dialect with an army and navy"
- dboreham 8y agoActually "with poets", no?
- raesene9 8y agoI'd say it's a dialect, not a language. It's more than an accent for sure, for starters scotland has a load of different accents not just one, as I'm sure many teuchters going to Glasgow have found out the hard way. But I find it difficult to get to the idea that people "speak scots" in rural areas. I've lived and worked in Scotland my entire life and in 40+ years, not once has someone start speaking in a language I didn't get in general conversation... not once, and I would not regard myself as multi-lingual. There's local terms that are used for sure, "you ken" But that's not a language, that's a variety of local dialects.
- falsedan 8y agoI expect they’re code switching to match your expected communication preferences based on the normal class/environmental signals.
- raesene9 8y agoI do hope you're joking/trolling at this point. No they're not. I've worked in factories in Cumbernauld, I've worked in universities in St Andrews, I've worked in banks in Edinburgh, I've worked in accountancy offices in Glasgow, I've worked in hospitals in Dumfries. I've visited pretty much every part of the country, and no-one has ever "code switched to match my expected communications preference" This idea that Scottish people are some generic blob who speak "Scots" just isn't true to the real diversity of the country. Aberdonians, Glaswegians, Edinbuggers, residents of the Kingdom of Fife, Teuchters and all the rest have different accents and different dialects but they don't speak different languages.
- rjsw 8y agoMy maternal grandparents retired to rural Aberdeenshire, they were both born in Aberdeen itself. I don't remember any of the local farmers speaking in a way that I couldn't understand so my vote is for dialect too.
- teh_klev 8y agoThere's an affectation in addition to the "Scottish Cringe" you're quite clearly spraying all over this discussion thread..."Proud Scot....but..."
- raesene9 8y agoNot at all, I'm attempting to reflect the reality of life in Scotland as in my lived experience, as opposed to academic notions of language and identity. There's no "but" at the end of my being a proud Scot. There is a debate about the validity of Scots as a unified language that's used in day to day life, and some romantic notions that we speak in some other language when "foreigners" aren't around. The reality of Scotland is that in my opinion we're a diverse set of regions, not some unified mass that speaks a distinct language, that's not a lack of pride speaking that's a pride in exactly that diversity (also I don't want to be put in the same bucket as edinbuggers :) Assuming from your profile that you're scottish, would You say that Edinburgh people spoke the same dialect as people from Glasgow. Would you say that we speak a different language to people in Carlisle or Newcastle?
- sleavey 8y agoNot so much of the highlands speak Scots. Here is a map [1]. Indeed, the Wikipedia article states it is sometimes called "Lowland Scots". [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ScotsLanguageMap.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ScotsLanguageMap.png
- psergeant 8y agoPeople in Aberdeen might well get upset if you collapsed Doric into just being Scots.