MAY I take issue with a passing comment in Richard Walker’s excellent article: his statement that the people who argue that the Scots tongue is not a language but a dialect are “quite entitled to hold that view” (Celebrating our culture can beat Scottish cringe, January 21).
It is true that the linguistic status of Scots is ambivalent, but this does not mean that it is a mere matter of opinion. There is no simple binary distinction between “language” and “dialect”: the status of a speech-form depends on a large number of factors.
It would be perfectly possible to argue that Czech and Slovak are dialects of the same language; the tongues heard on either side of the border between Germany and the Netherlands are so similar that it is meaningless to suggest that they change from dialects of German to dialects of Dutch when we cross the political frontier. The very points that supposedly show Scots to be a dialect of English equally well suggest that Gaelic is a dialect of Irish.
The key point, however, is that in all these cases the ambivalence is not simply nebulous uncertainty on which one opinion is as good as another: it is the result of observable facts. Scots is a language by some criteria and not by others: opinions may differ on what should be our social, political or educational attitudes regarding the tongue, but not on that simple fact.
Mr Walker is entirely right in pointing out that the virulent hostility expressed in some quarters to the National’s Scots columns, or to writers or performers who use Scots, is symptomatic of a profound malaise in Scottish society. Let us hope that the National contributes to countering it by reinstating the weekly Scots page (and the Gaelic one too) as soon as possible.
Derrick McClure
Aberdeen
IT may be of interest to Richard Walker to know that there are many clubs and dances, the length and breadth of Scotland, where people celebrate with great enthusiasm the traditional music of Scotland described with such derision by Richard; television ignores this fact, especially at Hogmanay.
I don’t deny that Celtic Connections has its place but it is by no means unique.
MD Clark
Midlothian
WHEN it comes to backing economic losers, the SNP and much of the independence movement are in a league of their own in wanting to drag Scotland back into the failing European Union with its declining share of world trade.
In a list of the top 100 European companies by value, none, not a single one, of those companies was formed in the last 40 years.
Also, consider that the EU, in its entire history, has never created an Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, Tesla or Twitter.
The independence movement is crippled by a poverty of ambition for Scotland, a lack of confidence and a huge dose of the debilitating Scottish Cringe.
Jim Stewart
Musselburgh
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with Bill Craig (Letters, January 20). If you think that the British Intelligence Services are not embedded in the Yes Movement then think again!
As an independence campaigner of almost 50 years and as a former member of the Royal Marines who served in Northern Ireland, I can assure you that any threat to the dominance of Westminster rule is met by a response that has no limits in terms of brutality or viciousness: Greenham Common, Animal Liberation, Greenpeace, Nuclear Disarmament, et al.
Be aware. Be very, very aware.
John Hunter-Paterson
Dundonald
ON March 6, 1988 three unarmed members of the Provisional IRA were killed by undercover SAS operatives in Gibraltar.
It was suspected that there were explosives in their hire car, but none were found.
Later, keys were found to another car which did contain explosives, but was this a set-up by the British state to cover its back?
There were many other suspicious murders in Northern Ireland during The Troubles in which British agents were implicated, such as the assassination of the lawyer Pat Finucane in 1989.
Prime Minister Thatcher was very much a confrontational leader and anyone who questioned or threatened her will was soon sidelined. I believe she would have had no hesitation sanctioning the murder of the three PIRA men or Willie McRae, and I believe the disappearance of his briefcase and burgled office point nowhere else but at the secret services.
A flavour of the way Britain’s dark undercover operations are carried out can be found in the 1987 book Spycatcher by Peter Wright, a retired MI5 agent.
Richard Walthew
Duns
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