The Gaelic (Gaidhlig) and Doric and Lallans.....

[DavidWW]

The Gaelic (Gaidhlig) and Doric and Lallans

© David W Webster December 2005


Oh dear! - what have my Victorian ancestors done !!????

They created this myth that the _national_ language of Scotland was/is The Gaelic
(notice the important definate article <g>). It's not and never has been apart from
a limited period in between the 9th and 11th centuries, - a Gaelic-speaking court,
supported by the Columban church, gave patronage to makers of literature at the
highest levels of society.

Scottish Gaelic is closely related to the Manx and Irish forms. All Scottish Gaelic dialects
are mutually intelligible, and written Irish can be understood to a large extent.

Scottish Gaelic, closely related to the Irish version, was only ever spoken by the
Gaels who moved from Ireland to Scotland in the 4th century AD, initially extending the
ancient Ulster Kingdom of Dalriada (Dàl Riada) to Argyll. Just to get very confusing here,
the reason why I'm called Scots is that the Roman name of that tribe was the Scottii - they
came from Scotia Major - an old Roman name for the island of Ireland and moved to
Scotia Minor - an old Roman name for Scotland.

Various other population movements left them mainly in the Scottish Highlands
and the Isles, and The Gaelic itself was not widely a native language outside
that area, except perhaps for the very southwest - i.e. Wigtownshire - there were
still some native Gaelic speakers there in the time of Robert Burns.

In today's Scotland less than 1% of the population are native Gaelic speakers. In the
2001 census the figure was over 92,400 people (just under 2 per cent of the
population) but based on the that number "having some Gaelic language ability"
as opposed to being native speakers. Almost half of these people lived in Eilean Siar,
Highland or Argyll & Bute. Around ten per cent of Gaelic speakers live in Glasgow
(Glaschu), and there are smaller, but significant concentrations in Edinburgh
(Dùn Eideann) and Inverness (Inbhir Nis). But when the definition of "native speaker" is
used the 2001 Census reports only 56,560, a fall by 9,000 from the 1991 census.

There are still small Gaelic-speaking communities in Canada, particularly in Nova
Scotia (Alba Nuadh) - approximately 4,000 native speakers use the language on a daily
basis, concentrated in Cape Breton Island (Eilean Cheap Breatainn). Other speakers
can be found in Australia (Astràilia), New Zealand (Sealainn Nuadh) and the USA
(Na Stàitean Aonaichte).

Scotland's predominant main language has been Scots, or Scottis, our form of english.
I read an article by a top line philologist some years that summed up things rather well.
He maintained that the Scottish and English versions of english were sufficiently
different in the 1500's and 1600's and they were continuing to move apart, that
had it not been for the Union of Crowns in 1603 and the Union of Parliaments in
1707, i.e. had the countries remained separate, then Scottish english today would
have the same relationship to English english as Norwegian and Danish to
Swedish - closely related but distinctly different.

Finally, there are several names for the Scottish form of english, among them
Lallans (Ayrshire and surrounds) and The Doric (Aiberdeen and the N East)

I lived in Sweden for 6 years and one of my biggest difficulties derived from the fact
that when I learnt how to pronounce Swedish I would very often react that a certain
word had an exact or near exact equivalent in Scots but that the overlap of meanings
remaining was minimal. That said there are still many words in the Scandinavian
languages that retain almost direct equivalents in Scots, never mind some interesting
grammatical constructions that were belted out of us at school, but may well be the
correct old Scots way to say things. My all time favourite is the construction "I am going
for to 'do something' ", where there is the exact Swedish equivalent "Jag ska för att 'göra ...
någonting' ".

In the last few years there's been a slow but ever increasing interest in the old forms
of Scots. Sad to relate, however, while Ulster Scots - the form of old Scots that arrived in
Ulster with the Plantation, - and has survived to the present day more effectively than
Lallans or Doric, - is an official language of the Northern Ireland Assembly along with
english and erse, - Irish gaelic, - the Scots parliament only has two official languages !!

David

[Andy]

I've heard that BBC Scotland employs over 2100 people who work on the Gaelic programmes.

This is about 1 person for every 45 Gaelic speakers. If "Auntie BEEB" worked on proportional representation they would have to employ over 1.2 MILLION people for the English programmes!!!!!

[Russell]

David
I hate to say it but sometimes the language spoken by the Scottish Parliamentarians is hardly comprehensible by the everyday Scot so lets keep to just two. That way the people of Scotland can revive and preserve 'our tongue'. Its great to hear Scots from around the world renewing their linguistic heritage on the forum. In the future (soon) our computers will come equipped with a microphone and speakers and we will be able to genuinely hear others. Till then we on TalkingScot will have to do our bit! Or perhaps gang oor ain gait!

Russell

[joette]

My Granny was a proud speaker of what she called "Auld Scots" She spoke very clearly & enuciated every word.She used what we at school & elocution was called "slang" eg sreeck of day" for dawn.She was the product of a Perthshire Father/Dumbartonshire Mother.
My parents brought us up to speak properly-what is that? I think we should endeavour to be understood by those around us & to use techinical langauge where neccesary.
It tickles me pink to hear my friends/children use my language variations & I too use some of theirs.
Within the family we have another language eg plout,plout when we don't believe we are being told the exact truth about something.This has evolved over the years & I am sure sometimes we sound like we are speaking in code.

[Russell]

Problem is Joette

On the east coast around Edinburgh & Lothian when you 'plout' something it is usually a skelf that has gone septic and needs dipped in hot water.
You end up with a 'loupin'or 'gowpin' finger. If it gets even more painful its 'stounin'. - A deep, throbbing pain? Nah We can use one perfect word.

When I worked as a nurse in Casualty (A & E had not been invented then!) we had to translate these descriptions to the junior doctors who were often from overseas or strange places like Milngavie (Mulgeye tae freends).

We can't afford to lose these fine descriptors and I always made sure my kids knew the difference between 'family' words and older Scots.
"Not sure? Go and look up the dictionary" Not only got them reading, it made sure they recognised the difference between Scots and English.

Russell

[StewL]

A funny thing happened a few years ago here in Perth. I was in a pub in the city, and the barman working that day, was a young chap from Faifley, who gave me a bit of information about how the street I lived in had changed from tenements to semi-detached? Unfortunately he was flying back to Scotland that evening as his working holiday was over.
As I said I was raised in Dalmuir/Faifley until we emigrated when I was nearly 11.

A short time later I was talking to another Scot who worked up north in the mining industry, and while his wife was away shopping we got talking.

As I had just about lost the accent, he became a bit miffed when after a while the accent returned, fortunately he accepted that it had "returned" when talking to a native But he did comment that after listening to me talk, he thought I was from Airdrie, not Dalmuir/Faifley as he had lived there for a while. As I spent a lot of my time with my mothers family in Clarkston Airdrie not Clarkston Busby I wasnt aware of such a difference in accents between the two places. Is the accent so different between such a relatively short distance.

Reading the posts brefreshes the memory of the many words we used everyday (had many a skelf)

[CatrionaL]

I wasnt aware of such a difference in accents between the two places. Is the accent so different between such a relatively short distance.:

Hi Stew

Don't know about Faifley and Airdrie, but there are obvious differences in accents and use of words amongst the three Border towns I know best, Galashiels, Selkirk, 6 miles away and Hawick 12 miles away. "Ee" and "yow" for "you" is an example.

The other day I was helping out in the bookshop I used to work in. I answered the phone and a lady from England was on line. After responding to some of her questions, I handed her over to the manageress. A remark was made about how well the French personnel spoke English. The manageress replied: "They don't. That's just Catriona speaking with a French accent."

Catriona

[DavidWW]

....snipped ............
The other day I was helping out in the bookshop I used to work in. I answered the phone and a lady from England was on line. After responding to some of her questions, I handed her over to the manageress. A remark was made about how well the French personnel spoke English. The manageress replied: "They don't. That's just Catriona speaking with a French accent."

Catriona

Gonnaenodaethat ... it was only via a supreme effort that my keyboard wasn't covered in my mouthful of coffee ...............

David

[CatrionaL]

[Russell]

Control yourself David

You could have become a bright spark

It was only the auld alliance kickin in

Russell