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I tried to read this page https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns, and really struggled. Is it just meant to be

by LandR 6y ago

I tried to read this page https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns, and really struggled. Is it just meant to be regular wikipedia pages but written in some awful slang?

agency 6y ago
No, it is not just “some awful slang” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language
detaro 6y ago
Why do you expect to be able to read a page in a language/dialect you apparently don't speak? And then take that as a sign that it's not a real thing?!
- LandR 6y ago
  Well, I'm Scottish, I've been Scottish all my life! Lived in Scotland all my life.. That page is mostly nonsense.
  - detaro 6y ago
    And I'm German and lived here most my life, that doesn't magically mean I speak all the dialects/languages that exist here.
    - soneil 6y ago
      Scots is usually fairly intelligible, at least to the Scottish. Essentially, Scots branches off from middle english in a slightly different direction. But vernacular Scottish - the language you'd expect to hear day to day on the streets - is modern English with borrowings (both in content and grammar) from Scots. And the scale of these borrowings goes a long way to define how "thick" we perceive the various accents as. So this leaves Scots with a few interesting traits. It can be easily mistaken for "just slang", because huge amounts of Scottish slang are near-direct borrowings. And this goes both ways, where the more slang you've been exposed to, the more you can pick out in Scots without actually knowing it. This leaves it being nowhere near as "foreign" as Gaelic, for example. (It also helps that Robert Burns was dragged out annually at school, leaving Scots as least as recognisable as Shakespearean English.) I'm not arguing that the Scottish "just know" Scots by default, or even that half of those who claim to know it, actually do. But there is a lot more exposure to it, or at least parts of it, than many people realise. It does turn out to be surprisingly recognisable (although I will admit, very jarring to see it written).

by LandR 6y ago

agency 6y ago

No, it is not just “some awful slang” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language

detaro 6y ago

Why do you expect to be able to read a page in a language/dialect you apparently don't speak? And then take that as a sign that it's not a real thing?!

LandR 6y ago
Well, I'm Scottish, I've been Scottish all my life! Lived in Scotland all my life.. That page is mostly nonsense.
- detaro 6y ago
  And I'm German and lived here most my life, that doesn't magically mean I speak all the dialects/languages that exist here.
  - soneil 6y ago
    Scots is usually fairly intelligible, at least to the Scottish. Essentially, Scots branches off from middle english in a slightly different direction. But vernacular Scottish - the language you'd expect to hear day to day on the streets - is modern English with borrowings (both in content and grammar) from Scots. And the scale of these borrowings goes a long way to define how "thick" we perceive the various accents as. So this leaves Scots with a few interesting traits. It can be easily mistaken for "just slang", because huge amounts of Scottish slang are near-direct borrowings. And this goes both ways, where the more slang you've been exposed to, the more you can pick out in Scots without actually knowing it. This leaves it being nowhere near as "foreign" as Gaelic, for example. (It also helps that Robert Burns was dragged out annually at school, leaving Scots as least as recognisable as Shakespearean English.) I'm not arguing that the Scottish "just know" Scots by default, or even that half of those who claim to know it, actually do. But there is a lot more exposure to it, or at least parts of it, than many people realise. It does turn out to be surprisingly recognisable (although I will admit, very jarring to see it written).