Broad Scots vs Scottish Gaelic (how much, schools, shop)
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Is one of these languages viewed as more Scottish than the other? I know they are both languages of Scotland, but do people view one or the other to be the "real deal" culturally while the other is just sort of an also ran?
99%+ of English people at least wouldn't recognise a single word of Scottish Gaelic spoken to them (I'd be one of them, though I could recognise the written language). A lot won't even have heard of it or would assume it to be extinct. Broad Scots is "the real deal" that I culturally associate with Scotland, though when I've watched things like Neds or Rab C Nesbitt with a lot of broad Scots dialect I've pretty much needed subtitles! Once a few years back when I was working in a corner shop and we had two customers talking to each other in really broad Scots dialect it took a good half-minute of overhearing their conversation for me to even recognise it as a form of English, at first thinking two white people speaking a completely unfamiliar language must be from eastern Europe
Besides English, or the Scottish dialect of English, there are also two totally separate languages that are indigenous to Scotland.
Scots, sometimes also known as Lallans, is a Germanic language that is spoken across southern, central and north east Scotland. Like Dutch, it is closely related to English, but an entirely separate language and not normally mutually intelligible with English. It has a long literary history and was the de facto official language of Scotland before the Act of Union in 1707 – viz. Robert Burns. However, in modern times English has been the usual written language of Scotland and the usual language for all high-status functions (education, church, business, etc). Usage of Scots nowadays is restricted to informal, oral usage largely among the working class – however in this context it remains vigorous and probably still has several million native speakers. It is also highly fragmented into local dialects, ie Scots in Glasgow will be very different from the version spoken in Dundee or Aberdeen. Paul805 provides an excellent example of the Dundee dialect! The dialects of the Shetland and Orkney islands are so different as to be sometimes considered separate languages from Scots in their own right. Again, they are very rarely written down – the usual written language of the islands is English.
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language closely related to Irish and more distantly to Welsh or Breton. Its relationship with English is very distant – about as close as English and Russian. It is a regional language of Scotland, and is now restricted to the Outer Hebrides islands and parts of the Inner Hebrides and isolated pockets on west coast. Even in its heyday, it was never the language of the whole of Scotland – it was never spoken in south, east or far north, for example. It only has around 80,000 native speakers. However, in contrast with Scots, it is a written language as well as a spoken one, and nowadays is considered appropriate for high status functions. Road signage in Gaelic speaking areas is bilingual, and schools and local government operate in the language.
To answer you question, mainstream "Scottishness" identifies more strongly with Scots, or the Scottish English spoken by the middle and upper classes. Gaelic is a minority culture within Scotland – it would be unusual for someone from Edinburgh or Aberdeen to have much to do with it. However Gaelic speakers still very much identify as being "Scottish", despite the language I don't believe they consider themselves to be a separate ethnic group.
The dialects of the Shetland and Orkney islands are so different as to be sometimes considered separate languages from Scots in their own right. Again, they are very rarely written down – the usual written language of the islands is English.
The Shetland dialect interests me, though I've never been there and don't know how widely it's spoken in everyday life. The Shetlands were a part of Norway for centuries so a lot of Norse words and Norse-sounding spellings survive in the dialect. Listening to the poem below I can barely even get the gist of it; I've seen poems in Shetlandic written down and there are some words I only understand because I happen to know some Norwegian. Paul, how much of this would you understand as an actual Scots speaker?
I can only understand English and the region dialects of Scotland which are just English in a strong accent with some words said differently I am as clueless about Scots and Scottish Gaelic as anyone in England! I can understand what he is saying in that video that is just English in a different dialect, I know it would be hard for non Scottish people to understand though.
See if you can understand this Dundonian speaking lol.
thier is no indiginous language in scotland in the way thier is in wales or in ireland , scotts galic is nothing but a mangled version of the irish language while spoken in an unfathomable accent
Some voice recognition software (perhaps for the iphone?) could not understand the English language as spoken in Scotland by many Scots. It had no problem with the English spoken elsewhere.
Last edited by goldengrain; 03-24-2012 at 07:17 PM..
I can't understand Jamaican English, Strong fast Irish English, certain South African English, some strong southern states English etc and why should I, I don't come from these places they can talk like they want just like us Scots can. It is just like Americans can't understand strong English accents. We aren't gonna change it to make it more universally understandable, it the way we talk and our culture!
I can't understand Jamaican English, Strong fast Irish English, certain South African English, some strong southern states English etc and why should I, I don't come from these places they can talk like they want just like us Scots can. It is just like Americans can't understand strong English accents. We aren't gonna change it to make it more universally understandable, it the way we talk and our culture!
Well, we have a choice.
Which is best for all of us; each country/district ultimately developing its own language from the English root, or, having some sort of standardized English taught in schools that all try to adhere to?
Ultimately, we all probably benefit more from understanding each other.
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