Quote Originally Posted by OC Richard View Post
The trouble with Burns' poetry is that it's written in a dialect of English that few speak, can read, or understand.
I would just like to correct a misconception in that Scots is not a "dialect of English" but it is, in fact, closer to the truth to describe English as a "dialect of Scots". Both languages have a common root in the Anglo-Saxon language which was the prevalent language in southern and south-eastern Scotland when the people of Northumbria or Bernicia as it was then known settled in those parts, bringing their language with them. Subsequent invasion by the Normans as well as other Scandinavian "Viking" settlers resulted in both languages evolving separately but Scots remained the language of the court until the union of the crowns and is still prevalent in the language of the Scottish legal system. So, please, do not dismiss our language as merely some aberration of English. Despite the best attempts of the Establishment to stamp it out it has managed to survive the last 400 years or so in many people's everyday speech and I hope it will do so for many more years to come.