Post by Adam Scott Clark

Scots is a language variety spoken in the Scottish Lowlands and in Northern Ireland. It is generally known in Scotland as Lowland Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, and Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland, to distinguish it from the variety spoken in Scotland. As it is difficult (likely impossible) to classify a language variety as a ‘language’ in its own right or a ‘dialect’ of another language, there has been some debate over whether Scots is a language or a variety of English. Whether a language variety possesses the status of language or of dialect is very often not a matter of linguistics but rather one of politics – consider for instance Danish and Norwegian, two very closely (and usually mutually intelligible) ‘languages’ that are considered ‘languages’ based on their association with independent and sovereign states and not based on their linguistic characteristics. If we consider Romanian and Moldovan, the issues over what constitutes a ‘language’ or a ‘dialect’ becomes even more apparent.

This post looks at how Scots is used in the Scottish curriculum, regardless of whether it is considered a ‘language’ or a ‘dialect.’ [Read more…]