Scots Wikipaedia

[george7]

That's fun... but how many people actually speak Scots?

[Fougasse]

That's fun... but how many people actually speak Scots?

You would be surprised just how much it is still spoken in the some of the rural areas, e.g. Ayrshire. Like other dialects/languages it has suffered from modern communication and transport, but much still remains. I moved from Glasgow to Ayr when I was fourteen, only thirty miles or so, and had to expand my vocabulary and grammar very quickly to keep up. The town itself wasn't too bad, but I went to school with many kids from the smaller country towns and villages who spoke very different English from me.

[thescot]

That's fun... but how many people actually speak Scots?

I used to be a consultant for a software company, and one of our clients had a plant in Ayrshire. It was a great gig, going to Scotland and Northern Ireland on someone else's dime.

Anyway, the team in Scotland had a very attractive young lady who led it, and another young guy from the plant.

Honest to God, I couldn't understand about 1/2 of what he said. I pulled the young lass aside one day and said, "I don't mean to sound rude, but I really have trouble understanding him. Can you help me whenever I give you that blank expression?"

She answered, "To tell you the truth, I can't understand a lot of it myself."

He was a great guy, but he spoke another language from me.

[skauwt]

That's fun... but how many people actually speak Scots?

"A recent Scottish Executive survey estimates that there are 1.6 million active Scots speakers in Scotland today" quote from this site http://www.scotland.org/about/histor...ure/scots.html

[Paul]

That's fun... but how many people actually speak Scots?

me! me!

[gilmore]

That's fun... but how many people actually speak Scots?

Not nearly enough