Oan behauf o the Scots leid: A Socratic dialogue

DUGGIE: Hey Shuggie min, ah hear ye’re no awfy happy aboot the wey Scotland deals wi the Scots leid.

SHUGGIE: Ay, and it’s no juist aboot the low status o the leid, it’s aboot the weys we promote it. Ye’ve said yersel ye were struck bi the lack o young fowk at the annual Collogue o the Scots Leid Associe or the Scots Language Society as maist fowk (sadly) refer ti it.

DUGGIE: Fair enow, but ah meant nae criticism o the Associe itsel, faur less its organisers (forby, ither organisations concernt wi Scottish culture, but no wi the leid as such, hae their problems in attractin younger participants). Eftir aa, Shuggie, ye’ve goat tae gie credit ti fowk wha pit in a loat o time and effort, withoot ony remuneration, oan behauf o the leid, no juist the SLA but the ither organisations devotit ti the cause.

SHUGGIE: Deed ay, Duggie, and there ye’ve pit yer finger oan whit’s the maitter. Twice! First, whit fir shuid Scots hae tae rely oan unpeyed labour whan the promotion o comparable European leids is rin oan a professional basis wi salaried posts? I hinna bin able readily tae obtain a mair up ti date figure, but the Romansch leid in Switzerland aroun 2002 wis fundit tae the tune o three million francs (thon’s gey near twa and a hauf million pund) – an thon’s sma chainge compared wi whit the Ulster Scots yins get. Scots in Scotland haes tae scrape by at best and haud annual bashes in dreich Kirk Ha’s, the whilk are chaip but they’re no gaun tae attract young fowk are they?

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Forby, and saicent, ye’ve mentioned an omnigaddrum o Scots leid organisations, and ah cannae faddom why they dinna wark mair thegither, pool their resources. Shair, there’s a loat o sharin o info on Facebook athort the various organisations, but no aabody’s oan Facebook. There remains ower muckle fragmentitness. We need a mair systematic, co-ordinated approach that still respecks the pluralism o different groups and indiveeduals that want tae dae their ain thing, an approach that cuid indeed gently help thur organisations become mair effective.

DUGGIE: Ye talk aboot the lack o salaried posts in Scots. Mind, tho, that we hae hud “offeecial” Scots makars wha hae been employed as sic, an luik at the fowk wha hae warkt fu-time fir Scots, either veteran academics like Derrick McClure or new appyntments like Michael Dempster at the Scots Leid Centre.

SHUGGIE: Ah’m the first tae honour thaim, forby mony ithers ah hinna mentiont, but a loat o the joabs in Scots arenae lang-term and dinnae provide a reasonable livelihuid.

DUGGIE: Let’s retour tae that issue o young fowk no engaged in Scots. Mibbes we need tae catch thaim young?

SHUUGGIE: A loat o that is heppenin. Up in Aiberdeen, the ceety makar Sheena Blackhall gangs frae yin primary schuil til anither wi her guitar and an ample kist o poems, sangs and tales in whit we cry the Doric register o Scots. Moira Dalgetty has wark-in-progress owersettin Aesop’s fables inti Glaswegian, in the process introducin oor young anes tae a pan-European tradeetion as weel as tae a Scottish means o expression. They’re juist twa examples that shaw, respectively, whit can be duin fir the bairns o the east and the weans o the west. See that: twa braw words fir children. That’s the variety we suid be celebratin. (Russian has twa words fir “truth” – pravda and istina.) But again we’re needin some kindae coordination o information o whit’s heppenin up and doun the laund, ower and abune whit’s currently available oan social media.

DUGGIE: But hou can we sustain aa that inti young adulthuid?

SHUGGIE: Let’s luik again ayont the organisations that hae the word “Scots” in their name, aa the time honourin, as ah say, whit thur bodies accomplish. Ah’m no shair hou faur the Scots lobby is awaur o hou young fowk actually yuise the leid in their evriday lives, in face-tae-face conversation, lat alane social media. Mibbe if ye telt thaim they were speikin somethin cried Scots they’d say that wis news tae thaim – like Monsieur Jourdain in the Molière play bein telt he wis speikin prose, and he gets aa excitit aboot it: “I’ve been speakin prose aa my life and I didnae ken it til nou.” Gin we made mair o this effort tae tak Scots intil primary schuils then young yins wid suin jalouse they hud a braw leid that they didnae ken they hud! Leistweys, they hudnae bin telt this leid wis somethin they cuid uise an be prood o!

DUGGIE: Ye’ve talked o wark in primary schuils but whit aboot the later levels o teachin?

SHUGGIE: In saicondary schuils it’s patchy, and bedevilled wi bureaucracy gin no ootricht hostility; it depends on committit individuals like Willie Hershaw when he wis at Beath High. In “retirement” Willie conteenues tae wark fir Scots leid and culture in the wider communities o central Fife, and that’s includin folk o schuil age.

DUGGIE: Tae appeal tae young adults, I juist weesh I kent hou we cuid be mair proactive in attractin thaim withoot soondin patronisin.

SHUGGIE: Agane, a loat’s heppenin aareadies, and agane the Scots lobby isnae aye awaur o it. Fir exaumpil, there’s Margaret Bennett at the Conservatoire in Glesga, and in her events in ither airts o Scotland, wha hus her students singin in Scots as weel as in Gaelic, makkin the maist o her dual inheritance, encouragin the flow o whit Hamish Henderson, her umquhile colleague, cried “the carrying stream”. We need a wheen mair lik her!

Amang younger Scots leid activists, ah cuid mention the likes o Alistair Heather and Carla Woodburn. Twa bonnie fechters – wha ken the score!

DUGGIE: Ah’m shair there’s a wheen mair aspecks o Scots practice we cuid discuss, and ah ken yer ain interests in ither European leids and in translation. Thon’s fir anither time. Cuid ye sum up whit we’ve dealt wi sae faur?

SHUGGIE: Aye – gin we hud a fraction o the siller that’s flusht doun thon lavvy cried Brexit, we cuid transform the situation. But Scots desairves mair nor a fraction!