Scots should spik up for oor mither tongues
Scotland has always been a multilingual country - although two major home-grown languages, Gaelic and Scots, have been marginalised for centuries. Schoolchildren were told not to use the languages they spoke at home in the classroom, and they were sometimes beaten for doing so. Both children and adults were shamed for using oor mither tongues.
That shaming cast a long shadow. It helped to undermine the confidence of Scots and their belief that Scotland could ever again be a normal independent country. The term the “Scottish cringe” refers to the deference to England that was fostered by this language bar - both culturally and politically.
But there are signs of hope and a desire to reclaim these rich and unique Scottish languages for the first time. Census figures released earlier this year show a growth in both languages. This resilience and sign of self-belief is something to build on.
Both Scots and Gaelic have found songs and poetry vital in the battle for survival. So it is cause for celebration that Scotland’s new Makar, the national poet, Peter Mackay, speaks both Gaelic and Scots - Mackay is also fluent in Spanish.
But there is more to be done. Part of moving towards independence is building back up Scotland’s sense of itself as a country with a rich culture and heritage, a sense of civic and national pride.
Promotion not preservation
Poetry and song are a repository of Scottish culture but it is time for Scotland to go beyond this to get used to hearing and using these languages in daily life. Scots have to be able to get beyond the shame and the feeling that they should not speak the language of the home and the heart in public.
That means creating opportunities for people to use and share their chat in social settings, without feeling pressure to switch to the King’s English, because we still think it is the proper way to speak, or because monoglot English speakers don’t like it. They should be a regular part of what we hear and see on Scottish media. In fact, globally, it is unusual to be a monoglot, most people use more than one language on a daily basis.
There are so many missed opportunities to recognise that Scotland is a multilingual country. For example - the BBC Scotland show “Shetland” features a Scandinavian family in the current series who get subtitles. But the Shetland characters never speak Shetlandic, one of the most distinctive variants of Scots, another being Doric (Spoken in the North-East). All their dialogue is in English. Surely if subtitles can be used for some characters they could be used for at least Shetlanders? The recent Scottish TV comedy “Only Child” with Gregor Fisher doesn’t feature any Scots words or Scots dialogue at all.
On the plus side though, Scots poet Len Pennie is now presenting an arts segment several times a week on BBC Radio Scotland’s Afternoon Show and she regularly uses Scots and showcases artists working in both Scots and Gaelic.
Embrace Burns Night and the Mòd - but keep that spirit going all year round
Burns Night on January 25 is an opportunity to celebrate not just the poet and his life, but also the Scots language that he did so much to foster. Rabbie rejected the idea that only English was fit for the drawing room and he helped preserve many folk songs and tales as well as writing great works in it like ‘Tam O Shanter’.
For Gaelic, the Royal National Mòd is one of the biggest Gaelic cultural events when musicians, dancers and Gaels from across the world get together to share their love of the language and heritage.
But outside of these events and others like them, Scots need to change their mindset. They need to take off the mental gag, relax and allow the craic to flow.
The census shows growth in some areas - but not all
The proportion of people in Scotland who reported that they had any skills in Gaelic and Scots both increased between 2011 and 2022.
- Gaelic increased from 1.7% to 2.5%
- Scots increased from 37.7% to 46.2%
In 2011 there were 1.9 million people with any skills in Scots; this had increased to 2.4 million by 2022. For Gaelic, there were 87,000 people with any Gaelic language skills in 2011, this had increased to 130,000 by 2022.
In 2011, for both Scots and Gaelic, those who could speak, read and write the language account for the highest number of people, 1.2 million and 32,000. By 2022, Gaelic had seen an increase of 12,000 to 44,000. However, 50,000 fewer people reported being able to speak, read and write Scots.
For Gaelic the proportion of those under 50 with any skill has increased while for Scots it has decreased. This could be explained by the increase in Gaelic education provision and increase of independent learning, such as through online resources.
Duolingo shows the appetite to learn
As of December 2023, 1.8 million people have started learning Scottish Gaelic on Duolingo, with 519,000 currently actively learning the language. The course grew by 17% in 2023, up from 12% in 2022. Most learners say they are interested in Gaelic culture - with a third of Duolongo Gaelic students based in the USA.
Monoglots can push everyone else into speaking only English
But for the first time, the 2022 census showed Gaelic speakers are a minority in the Western Isles. That adds to the already existing issue of trying to hold space for the language to be used in daily life.
It is all too common for monoglot English speakers to complain when Gaelic is used in a social setting. They argue that it excludes them - but this means that if there is one person who speaks only English in any situation, the whole company will have to speak English.
What is the origin of the Scots language?
Some people, such as Labour “peer of the realm” George Foulkes query whether Scots is a language and claim it is a dialect of English. There is obviously a political story here—some make the same complaint about other languages that share the same roots. But Scots has its own literature, history, and linguistic form. It is recognised as a language by the Council of Europe. As the saying goes: “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy.”
Scots began as a variant of Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Northern as opposed to Saxon or southern. It was called Inglis, or English, even in Scotland, until the 16th century. Scottish originally meant Gaelic. Inglis gained a footing in Scotland in the 10th century.
As time went on, Scots went in a different direction from English. One difference was vowel sounds - mair and more, hame and home, muin and moon, guid and good, coo and cow, hoose and house. And verb endings - tells and telleth. During the ninth century, Scandinavians invaded along the northern seaboard and their speech influenced Scots. For instance, the hard k in kirn and kirk instead of churn and church, birk for birch. Another Scandinavian trait is the Scots preference for a plain g instead of dge, brig, rig. The word ‘bairn’ is close to the Norwegian word for child.
The fact Scots was coming to be spoken by people who once spoke Gaelic affected the pronunciation, accent and vocabulary. Think of all the Gaelic words that are either a survival of the pre-Scots period or were borrowed later. Loch, glen, bog, linn, craig, cairn, brogue, crine, (to cower). Gab, skail, partan, whisky, kebbuck, peat.
Scots also shows a lot of European influence. French was a strong influence, through the Auld Alliance - words like ashet and gigot. Fash for anger or annoy, the laddie’s game of bools, Rooser for watering the flowers, the gean or cherry tree, bajans or bejants for the first year students at St Andrews or Aberdeen, corbie, creesh for fat, coup for overturn, jaliouse for guess...and a whole lot more.
The Netherlands also left their mark on Scots. At various times craftsmen were brought over to Scotland to develop industries. And they brought with them words like croon, crouse (cheerful and well content), dub for puddle, the scone you eat, loon for boy, fozy etc.
The political independence of Scotland when it became one country gave Scots its base. Then another important factor was the development of a national literature, especially with Barbour who wrote an epic poem about Robert the Bruce, The Brus, just a year or two earlier than Chaucer’s wrote his Canterbury Tales.
The most famous lines of the poem are these:
A! fredome is ane nobill thing,
Fredome mais man to haf liking;
Fredome all solas to man gifis:
He lifis at es that frely lifis!
(Freedom is a noble thing/ freedom makes man to have liking/ freedom all solace to man gives/ he lives at ease that freely lives).
What is the history of Gaelic in Scotland?
Some argue that Gaelic is not truly a national language of Scotland but that is a misconception. Place names in Central Scotland, the Borders and Fife have Gaelic origins. Even Ibrox apparently comes from Gaelic origin Àth-bruic, thought to mean Badger ford.
But it was mainly spoken in the Highlands and Islands. It was the common language of Dal Riata, the kingdom that was made up of Ireland and much of the northwest of what is now Scotland, which was a thriving sea kingdom from about 500 CE to the ninth century.
Gaelic culture could have been wiped out when the Vikings ruled the area - but later Somerled, who became the first Lord of the Isles, united the Gaelic clans of the Hebrides and parts of the mainland against the invaders. In a battle fought at sea on January 5, 1156, Somerled and his men in a fleet of 80 Birlinns or Hebridean galleys defeated the Norse king. After that Gaelic culture and language flourished in the area until after the Union of Parliaments in 1707.
Subsequently, education authorities actively discouraged Gaelic and pushed the young towards speaking only English. The Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, set up in 1709, was said to have been "outwardly hostile" towards Gaelic in its work educating young Gaels.
The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 introduced compulsory schooling for children across Scotland but excluded the teaching of Gaelic. This was hugely damaging to the use and promotion of the language. It told teachers to ban Gaelic in schools and playgrounds.
Following the act, children caught speaking Gaelic were belted.
The Irish have seen the promotion of Irish Gaelic as part of their road to independence - as the famous phrase by Irish revolutionary Pádraig Pearse goes: “Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam”, a country without a language is a country without a soul.
Conclusion
There is a lot for Scots to celebrate when it comes to oor mither tongues of Scots and Gaelic. The census of 2022 marked a watershed when the numbers who have some understanding of both languages increased. That is a sign of hope. It offers something to build on for the future - when Scots can be confident about speaking and using all the languages of the country they live in. Why should we be shamed for using oor mither tongues?
When we talk about taking pride in our history and culture, some equate that with chauvinism. But to quote Jimmy Reid, the Labour activist and proud Scot: “An old Welsh miner told me that a man who cannot love all that's good in the culture of his own nation is incapable of respect for all that's good in the cultures of other nations. In other words, a healthy nationalism spawns a healthy internationalism.”
It is obviously impossible to cover the story of these languages, their marginalisation and the efforts so many folk have made to support and foster them over centuries in a short article.
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