Scots language: Encyclopedia II - Scots language - Status

Scots language - Status

Whether the varieties of Scots are dialects of English or constitute a separate language in their own right is often disputed. Before the Treaty of Union 1707, when Scotland and England joined to form the (United) Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be a language other than English [1].

The British government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, in independent—if somewhat fluid—orthographic conventions and in its former use as the official language of the original Scottish Parliament. Since Scotland retained distinct political, legal, and religious systems after the Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. For instance, libel and slander, separate in English law, are bundled together as defamation in Scots law.

Since the Union, perceptional and language change (see below) have resulted in Scots being regarded as a group of English dialects or at best a group of dialects closely related to English. There is no institutionalised standard literary form. During the second half of the 20th century, enthusiasts developed regularised cross-dialect forms following on some historical orthographic conventions, but these have had little impact. In the written Scots language, local loyalties usually prevail, and the written form is usually Standard English adapted to represent the local pronunciation.

No education takes place through the medium of Scots, though English lessons may cover it superficially. This is often not much more than reading some Scots literature and observing local dialect. Much of the material used is often little more than Standard English disguised as Scots, which has upset both proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)" [2] whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation." [3]. On the one hand, this can be seen as revealing the institutionalised disregard for the idea of treating Scots as a language on par with English. On the other hand, it can be be seen as a teaching method to get around the fact that the pupils, the teachers, and the teachers' parents alike have been taught in school that Scots is 'bad spelling' and thus, that pupils will self-censor any Scots that they do know. Scots can also be studied at university level. Nowhere in the education system is the objective to produce people able to read, write, and speak Scots as an autonomous alternative to English, thus confirming its de facto status as a series of local dialects of English.

The use of Scots in the media is scant and is usually reserved for niches where local dialect is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night, or representations of traditions and times gone by. Serious use for news, encyclopaedias, documentaries, etc. rarely occurs in Scots, although the Scottish Parliament website offers some information in it. Official attitudes vary widely, as may be seen by contrasting the sober BBC Ulster and the patronising and anachronistic BBC Scotland approaches.

It is often held that had Scotland remained independent Scots would have remained and been regarded as a separate language from English. This has happened in Spain and Portugal where two independent countries developed standardised languages. Portuguese originating from a common Galician-Portuguese language, which itself originated from a common Ibero-Romance language shared with Castilian Spanish. On the other hand a situation similar to that of Swiss German and standard German might have occurred. Equally the present situation might have occurred where the social elites and the upwardly mobile adopted Standard English causing institutional language shift. A model of Language revival to which many enthusiasts aspire, is that of the Catalan language in areas spanning parts of Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, particularly as regards the situation of Catalan in Catalonia itself.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Status", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki