To Help you understand the Scots so you wear the kilt with Pride

[BigJockStewart]

To help you understand the Scots people then it gives you pride to wear the kilt of your fancy


One of the strongest claims a people can make to nationhood is that they have their own language. It has been said that a nation is a dialect with its own army. For a people whose political independence exists only in the past, a unique tongue used among themselves is both a cultural safe deposit box for the present and a potential rallying point for the future. Scotland is unlike other countries in this respect, since English, its present first language, is the native tongue of numerous other states around the world.

But Scots are right to seek assurance of their separate identity in their language, for Scottish English is unique, and very different from the English of England, America or Australia. There are two ways that varieties of the same language can differ. The first is in pronunciation: What kind of accent does a person have? The other is in dialect. What words, and what ways of forming sentences, are unlike those of other English speakers?

Scottish English and the English of England developed from the same medieval mixture of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French. Scottish English was well on the way to becoming a separate, standard form of speech--as different from that spoken in London as modern Norwegian is from modern Danish--when a dramatic political and religious upheaval swung it back into line with London English.

There is no such thing taught in Scotland's schools as a "correct" Scottish way of speaking or spelling. Scottish speech and writing are not taught at all in Scottish schools. On the one hand, most modern Scots have the desire and instinct to use at least some Scottish vocabulary and grammar. On the other hand, the TV, radio, movies and books from England and America tell them that to do so marks them as unfashionable or socially inferior.

Most native Scots retain a distinct accent. Although there are common elements, accents differ widely from region to region. The amount of dialect vocabulary and grammar used also varies according to upbringing. The wealthy, people who went to college and people in white-collar jobs tend to use English that is closer to that spoken in London.

Some Scottish words and expressions are used and understood across virtually the whole country. Among them are: dinnae, cannae, willnae (don't, can't, won't), wee (small), aye (yes), ken (know), greet (weep), kirk (church), breeks (pants), lassie (girl), bairn (child), flit (move from one home to another), bonny (pretty), chap (knock), and bide (stay).

Other phrases, though using internationally recognizable English words, reveal their Scottishness not just by accent but by grammar. Scots, for example, will say "Are you not going?" or "Are you no going?" rather than "Aren't you going?" And "I'm away to my bed," often replaces "I'm going to bed."

Beyond these well-used everyday words and expressions, every Scot has his or her extra Scottish vocabulary. In its heyday, the Scots tongue produced enough unique words to fill dictionaries as hefty as any Webster's, and many of these terms survive in one way or another. Scottish writers dip into the pool at will, enriching their English, often finding words for which there are no equivalents in any other language. Gloaming, for instance, means more than just "sunset"; it implies the whole light and atmosphere that envelops a landscape as the sun goes down. The speech of most older Scots is scattered with a selection of such expressions, and varying in degree from family to family, the younger generation follows suit.

There is a haphazard uncertainty about this passing-on process, which makes for awkward gaps in communication not just between the generations but in other relationships. Examples: A Scotswoman comes home from work one day and says, "I'm absolutely wabbit." Her friend will probably know wabbit means "exhausted," but may never have used the word before. A retiree complains to a young veterinarian about her cat: "He just sits there a' day, spanning his thrums." A perfectly normal way of saying "purring" to the elderly lady, but the veterinarian--who has lived in Scotland all his life--doesn't know what it means. A Scots schoolboy reads the first line of a poem: "She canna thole her dreams." He has never heard anybody use the Scots word thole, meaning "endure," and has to ask the teacher about it.

These daily crises in the survival of Scottish English are partly compensated for by the variety of dialect words and phrases that survive in the regions. Glaswegians, for instance, call children weans, not balms. People in the northeast say quine instead of lassie for "girl," and replace "how" and "what" with fa and fit. Dundonians, as the inhabitants of Dundee are called, don't say aye for "yes," but eh. Orkney and Shetland have a deep wellspring of dialect words from their Norse past: Faans is what Shetlanders call a snowdrift; haaf-fish and tang-fish are Orcadian for the two different species of seal that frequent their islands.

Until very recently, the use of the Scots language in public life and in school was frowned on. Ever since Scotland was joined to England, efforts have been made by well-intentioned teachers and pro-London writers to make Scottish speech conform more to the southern pattern. But in the past fifteen years a resurgence of nationalist feeling and a growing respect for writers who use Scots of any kind in their work has given Scottish English a fighting chance. Joy Hendry said in 1985, hailing the publication of a new Concise Scots Dictionary:
" Today, the position of the language couldn't be much worse in many ways, with fewer and fewer people actually speaking it in any reasonably pure form. . . . Yet survive it does.... Like predictions of the apocalypse, forecasts of the demise of Scots in X years have proved false; the beast refuses to die, though weakened by the blood-letting of centuries. ."

[Raptor]

Keep the lessons gaen, manie!
My ol' mither (& me as well) hailed from Aberdeen, but as I've lived in Australia since I was two, I've developed a bit too much of a "she'll be right mate" attitude. As the brother in law is a Shetlander, he loses me at times, so any help as to fa 'e senile old fool is saying has tae be helpful!

[Pour1Malt]

guid oan ya!

the ainly thing ai'll disagree wi' is the tearm "Scottish English" instead o' "Scots"..


"Scots" is a weel recognised language in it's ain richt.

walcome tae the rabble!

slainte mhath

[Mike1]

Moved from Kilt Board Newbie to Off Topic.

Before this one heads off in the wrong direction (and why would I ever think that??), we also need to bear in mind those who proudly wear the kilt that really don't care to learn about Scotland's people, history and culture. Simply stated, understanding the Scots is not a prerequisite to wearing a kilt with pride.

[Pour1Malt]

,.... Simply stated, understanding the Scots is not a prerequisite to wearing a kilt with pride.

aye- but malt whisky IS a prerequisite tae understandin' the Scots...

[brandycr]

Moved from Kilt Board Newbie to Off Topic.

Before this one heads off in the wrong direction (and why would I ever think that??), we also need to bear in mind those who proudly wear the kilt that really don't care to learn about Scotland's people, history and culture. Simply stated, understanding the Scots is not a prerequisite to wearing a kilt with pride.

They are those that wear the kilt to tie in with heritage just as many that wear it simply for the look ,feel or liking of it.With that said people need to understand and realize many people see the kilt and automatically think Scotland.The thing I like about xmarks is I can read a thread or not just like I can leave a post or not .I dont remember the post saying you had to be a scot to wear the kilt and be proud anywhere in it.I thought it was about the language of the Scots and the variations of that language over time and area.I really do not see how it could offend anyone.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

guid oan ya!

the ainly thing ai'll disagree wi' is the tearm "Scottish English" instead o' "Scots"..


"Scots" is a weel recognised language in it's ain richt.

I've also seen & heard the term "Inglis" used to describe the Scots language, especially in medieval and early modern documents.

[highlander_Daz]

I agree Jock however if you travel over this fair land there is so much variation its impossible to come up with a "standard" for Scots English, also in the north of England there are many words and phrases that are common to both peoples "bonnie" "nay" "geet" "thy" are all claimed by Lancashire folk as their own, Id love to see more research into the distinct way that folk speak, regional dialects are dying and merging all the time, which is a shame, but languages constatly evolve all the time, I was recently in Wales and the Welsh are passionate about the Welsh language-even non Welsh speakers are passionate that signs are bi lingual, as far as "scottish" English goes its simply English by any other name, English is a language made up of words from other languages anyway and all the hullabaloo about "preserving" it is nonsense - its a foreign language to this country which weve adapted to suit, Id prefer to see resources and effort made into preserving and increasing awareness of scottish Gaelic. I know there are some sources that claim that Scottish Engish is a language of its own, Pleople aer free to belive that if they wish and its a debate that will run and run, The welsh have their own version of Englaish as well but choose to promote Welsh, without getting political I hope Salmond wiil address this.

be safe

[Cawdorian]

From the Highlands of North Atlanta Georgia USA!

I'll have to say that drinking single malt while wearing the kilt is a very enjoyable experience.

On second thought drinking single malt in any attire is an enjoyable experience.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

as far as "scottish" English goes its simply English by any other name, English is a language made up of words from other languages anyway and all the hullabaloo about "preserving" it is nonsense - its a foreign language to this country which weve adapted to suit, Id prefer to see resources and effort made into preserving and increasing awareness of scottish Gaelic.

There is no such thing as the "one" Scottish tongue. Gaelic itself came to Scotland in what, about the fifth century, correct? English (Inglis) came in a few centuries later (about the eighth, I believe). So yes, one is slightly more recent than the other, but sitting here in the year 2007, does it really matter if one language has been in Scotland for 1600 years and the other for only 1300 years?

Gaelic used to be spoken in Scotland over a much broader area than it is today, to be sure -- just look at a Scottish map and see all the place names with Gaelic roots in "non-Gaelic" areas and that will show you how wide spread it once was. But even then, there are some regions of Scotland in the borders especially where Gaelic was never spoken. To the people whose anscestry is there, Gaelic is the foreign language. Scots is the "Mither Tongue."

Scotland has a very unique cultural and ethnic mix. The Scottish people have been cobbled together from Pict and Gael, Anglo-Norman and Norse, and this is reflected in their language as well as their culture.

I think it all needs to be honored.

Aye,
Matt