Marianne Taylor's excellent article on Scots and German expressive words shows that our native language is alive and well and still up for a bit of competition ("Scots v German?
Which is wurst?", The Herald. March 17).
However we'd better all get practising because Education Scotland has got its Scots language co-ordinators in place (see the scuilwab at http://www.scuilwab.org.uk/sections/view/2/400 "Scots Language Coordinators are noo in place at Education Scotland. Bruce Eunson, Diane Anderson, Katrina Lucas an Simon Hall are coverin aw local authority areas an supportin a hail range o initiatives an developments").
Changed days from when I used to get the Lochgelly for using "Doric" in class. The littlins will be having conversations that leave their parents in the dark. I suggest Marianne Taylor gets some night classes organised.
A fascinating part of using Scots is that the Facebook generation in the north-east, where Scots is still at its most vibrant, just spell out words as they say them; difficult to fully destroy a language, it appears.
Anyway, I've always maintained that English is just a dialect of Scots and would still sound like Scots if William the Conqueror's men of the Chancery hadn't suppressed it for 300 years (insisting on Norman French) and then forced it through that terrible aberration, the great vowel shift.
Alan B Riach,
7 Newland Avenue,
Bathgate.
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