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Resources for Lowland Scots? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Silvance5 Groupie United States Joined 5495 days ago 86 posts - 118 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French | Message 1 of 69 10 May 2010 at 3:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I thought it might be neat to study Lowland Scots, but I can't seem to find any resources on it anywhere. Has anyone here learned it? Where did you get your resources?
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 69 10 May 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can try the Luath Scots Language Learner (printed by Luath) for a start, or the Saltire Society's A Scots Grammar for starters.
The Luath book is based on the Doric dialect, and it makes the (rather insulting) claim that this is because it is the only living dialect of Scots remaining. Nou ah wuidnae cry the ithers strang, but they're no deid yet! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6473 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 3 of 69 11 May 2010 at 12:08am | IP Logged | ||
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One problem you'll encounter -- you might already be well aware, but I'm pointing it out in case you aren't -- is that Scots tend to look funny at foreigners who learn their language. They have a tendency to see their language as just bad English, even though of course this isn't true at all. This has the rather unfortunate implication that, if you speak to somebody in Scots but you don't appear to actually be from Scotland, they might make the mistaken assumption that you think they can't speak proper English...
I'm not speaking from experience or anything, though; it's just what I've heard. It makes enough sense, though... although I'm sure the situation isn't nearly as extreme, compare a middle-class white person who decides to learn Ebonics. Edited by furrykef on 11 May 2010 at 12:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 69 11 May 2010 at 12:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I recognize the problem mentioned by Furrykef. I recently visited Scotland for a few days, and I noticed that most locals spoke English with a broad Scottish accent. I have been writing in something like Scots a few times in my log, but the Scottish people I heard used English words rather than typical Scots words and expressions. And therefore I also avoided these expressions, - though I did move my pronunciation slightly towards Scots without any negative reactions.
The resources I have found are all on the internet: Wikipedia in Scots and a number of homepages, plus the excellent on-line dictionary at www.scots-online.org which gives the words not just with a simple one-word translation, but with a lot of alternative translations and examples which have been absolutely indispensable for me while I strived to learn the basics of Laeland Scots. For other sources you might try to do a google search with some unmistakably Scots terms like "winnae" (or "will nae"), "frae" and "tae". On youtube I have been listening with unmitigated glee to the salacious ramblings of Billy Connally, but there are also other Scotsmen there. Edited by Iversen on 11 May 2010 at 12:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| polywannabe Newbie United States Joined 5316 days ago 35 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 69 12 May 2010 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you haven't already, I would highly recommend both the movie and the book entitled:"Trainspotting" - The book in particular as it has many chapters written in Scots. It's a fun read because you have to sound out the words to know what they actually mean. Also, there is a short Scots/English dictionary at the end of the book which also contain some slang terms.
Please note that on Wikipedia they refer to the language depicted in the film as "Highly anglicised Scots" - but I think it's still a fun way to get your feet wet in Scots. Hope this helps 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lingvolingo Bilingual Diglot Newbie United Kingdom http:/lingvolingo.bl Joined 5413 days ago 8 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Lowland Scots* Studies: French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 6 of 69 16 July 2010 at 1:20am | IP Logged | ||
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For listening practice you could look up youtube for 'Rab C Nesbitt','Chewin the fat' and 'Still game'. These are comedy series all situated in Glasgow in the order of their production date. The language varies from English with a Scottish accent to Scot's phrases and words such as 'wean' [child] and 'gonnae no dae that' [don't do that]. Please note however that there is a lot of very strong language in all of them. Edited by lingvolingo on 16 July 2010 at 6:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 7 of 69 17 July 2010 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you try to speak Scots, you may run the risk that Scots think you're making fun of them, or are doing an impersonation of Scotty in Star Trek, or perhaps Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
The biggest obstacle to Scots being accepted as a language in its own right is the widespread perception among Scots that it is "bad English". TV comedy programmes often involving rather grotesque characters like Rab C. Nesbitt don't make it any more respected. Trainspotting includes many passages in Edinburgh dialect, which could be called "highly Anglicised Scots", I suppose. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5783 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 8 of 69 17 July 2010 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Its not just bad English however it is just different English. They look at anyone learning the 'Scots language' funny for good reason. If you want to learn English of a different dialect rather than boring standard London or American English though then be very careful, particularly with some like Scots. They have a habit of exagerating their differences and saying they use all sorts of altnerative words where as said, people would tend to just use a more universal word. Take church for instance. Scottish people would say they're going to church. They'd only say kirk with reference to the nickname of the church of scotland. Its rather sad really, with the London-centric media and the globalised world regional dialects are becoming less and less distinct. Northern British is also steadily being pushed ever further north- there's a old film from around 1960 called This Sporting Life set in Yorkshire however the people speak something more akin to what you'd hear in Newcastle than modern Yorkshire. I just hope this doesn't continue and the line can be held at the north east. Edited by Tyr on 17 July 2010 at 6:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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