Re: The whole dialect business


Michilín wrote:
> On 23 Nov 2005 11:45:33 -0800, "Iain" <iain_inkster@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> >I thought long and hard about this, and concede that the Scots dialect,
> >if spoken in its entirety, is a language.
> >
> >But it hardly is. Sometimes Dutch is more similar to Standard English
> >that Robert Burns, but although that sort of vocab' lives on, it is not
> >as dense nor prolific as once it was.
> >
> >In demographics, the odd person who says "wee" or "ken" is counted as
> >speaking the Scots dialect.
> >
> >I would say rhyming slang is a language if it was applied to every
> >second noun, but it is only ever spoken piecemeal.
> >
> >Ye ken? Even the prepositions and common words perfectly twin Standard
> >English words in their usage. Scots' only real grammatical difference
> >in terms of validity rather than idiomacy is probably "for to", as in
> >Middle English.
> >
> >~Iain
> >
> On the contrary there are many more, including the instantly obvious
> difference between the English "I won't" and "I wouldn't" versus the
> Scots "I'll not" and "I'd not" and all the variations thereof.

No no -- That's just preference. "I'll not" is grammatically correct
Standard English -- A Scottish way of using Standard English.

~Iain

.

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