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Linguistic mix-up



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Published Date: 05 July 2008
Scots is a language which developed from Anglian, the northern dialect of Anglo-Saxon, which was spoken in the lands between the Forth and the Humber.
English is a language which developed from Saxon, a southern dialect of Anglo-Saxon, which was spoken in the Saxon lands of Wessex, Sussex and Essex etc.

Scots and English are therefore "cousin" languages. They share a common ancestry: Anglo-Saxon. This was a group of tongues brought from Europe by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and is the origin of Scots, English and several other Teutonic languages.

In the 1950s it was decided to rename Anglo-Saxon as "Old English". This linguistic hijacking is misleading, giving the impression that any word of Anglo-Saxon origin must "come from" English, and confusing the separate languages of Scots and English.

Anglo-Saxon could equally be considered "Old Dutch"; "Old German"; "Old English"; and "Old Scots". None of these countries existed when it was being spoken across Europe.

SUSAN F G FORDE
Causewayend Main Street
Scotlandwell, Kinross



The full article contains 174 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 04 July 2008 8:47 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

EWB,

UK 05/07/2008 11:37:28
Since James VI, the archetypal Scotsman on the make, headed south and presided over the publication of the King James Bible, which was introduced into the Kirk, Scots has steadily been on the decline.

To what extent can anyone claim that Scots is still a language today and that when those, who do not employ Standard English in Scotland today, speak their language it is Scottish English?

There's ane end to an anither auld sang.
2

Aqwes,

Edinburgh 05/07/2008 13:49:56
Scots is still alive and well (but not thriving) today in Scotland, especially in rural areas. Scots has increasingly adopted more and more English vocabulary (as have many languages around the world), but that doesn't make it English, or Scottish English, because adopting the English word "rope" doesn't mean that "rape" has disappeared, it's still a part of the language, all be it with a slightly altered meaning (home-made or old rope, as opposed to new or shop-bought rope).

There is a continuum in Scotland between Scots and Scottish English, with the opportunity to mix and match Scots and English words as apporpriate. Interestingly, Scots is changing in different ways to Scottish English. Most Scots dialects have lost word-initial "th" (as in "this"), and seen a softening of "th" (as in "thatch") to "h", but this change hasn't been reflected in Scottish English.

Even in our cities today, an urban Scots is spoken. Interestingly, the Norwegian language used to be called Dano-Norwegian, because it was an attempt to speak written Danish, combined with some special Norwegian words, phrases, and grammatical influences. Scottish English is in a clear parallel. It is an attempt to speak the prestige language, and is influenced by the vocabulary, phrasing, and grammar of the local, less prestigious language.

"That's me finished writing." <-- Brilliant Anglo-Scots, terrible English!
3

EWB,

UK 05/07/2008 16:24:26
Thank you for these interesting thoughts, #2.

As an oral medium, forms of Scots do survive, but to what degree is the spoken word transferred into the written medium, which would consolidate it? Am I being unfair to consider the Holyrood Parliament website in Scots a trifle tokenist and a wee bit of a joke? It's not quite Rab. C. Nesbitt-speak, but it's hardly a vibrant alternative to English.

For me, Scottish English means infusing Standard English with Scots words and Scots phrases, some of which an English person would not understand, just as I do not understand some expressions from American or Australian English until they are explained to me or I cannot understand their meaning from their context. However, is not the main written language in Scotland Standard English, which has a currency both within and outwith Scotland?

Did not even writers in the 1920s, when Hugh MacDairmid (James Grieve) tried to revive Scots with a synthetic form of his own, condemn the result as the language of the kailyaird? It is tragic since a language is a reflection of a people, but I cannot see Scots making a comeback.

I can understand why the Norwegian language used to be called Dano-Norwegian because the Danes occupied Norway for about 800 years and their language supplanted the existing Norwegian language and another language, though predominantly Danish, emerged fusing both languages. When Norway became independent in 1902, the new government introduced "Nynorsk" (New Norwegian), which was in fact Old Norwegian and spoken in the Lofoten Islands, but Norwegians find it hard. I do not know whether Swedish (Sweden ruled Norway for 100 years up to 1902) had an influence on Dano-Norwegian.
4

Pilrig.,

Livingston 05/07/2008 17:37:38
It is a language. Whether it makes a comeback, who knows ? But the days when it was regarded as mere slang are surely over, (with the exception of the daftie who runs the Taxpayers' Association). A few years back a sheriff rebuked a witness who answered with 'aye' rather than 'yes', surely this shouldn't happen today ? and if this sheriff takes exception to the way the majority of the is country speak, then perhaps he should emigrate.
5

Truely English,

05/07/2008 18:53:39
Scots is a dialect of English whichever way you look at it or maybe I should say English is a dialect of Scots if that makes it any easier.

We are one and the same people with the same culture with small natural differences.
Both our countries are joined together is so many ways.
6

Michael,

05/07/2008 19:53:38
More at www.scotslanguage.com
7

Beth Boyle,

NY 06/07/2008 06:33:14
http://www.billykay.co.uk/

Read his book- Scots, the Mither Tongue!

 

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