Re: Ping Dr Glenallen - re Glasgow

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:32:03 +0100, "Glenallan" <robt.black@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


<gyansorova@xxxxxxxxx> wrote
This house maintains that Weegie is not Scots at all but mearly a
dialect of English.


Whether or not Scots is a language or not is a topic that has
been well aired in the past on this ng, always, with a somewhat
unsatisfactory outcome. I have noted with interest the various
responses to the current threads and the views expounded.
I am particularly in sympathy with the assertion that Glaswegian,
unique as it may be in its colourful expression of the English
language, is just that. It is English overlaid with a variety of nuances
from many sources. I am therefore convinced that it is not a 'Scots',
language, whatever that may be.

Glaswegian, to my mind, is a collection of similar regional dialects
that reflect a variety of standpoints ranging from what we commonly
call 'class' through to 'culture', all of which testify to a local
'received' modification of standard English. It is the comprehensive
regional dialect of English spoken by some two million people
in and around the Glasgow conurbation. I would add that slovenly
and uneducated speech, in any language continues to be slovenly
and uneducated speech.

But anyone with an ear for the music of language will know that
there are many exponents of this dialect who can hold their
own in the theatre of life with total equality to any other
form of expression of the English language.The cultural strength of
this regional dialect rests in the confidence of its speakers,
and their lack of self-consciousness in its use.

I can only leave others to speak to the 'Doric' as a language
or dialect, for to be frank, I have seldom heard it use, and
I can attest to personal difficulty with the language of Burns,
the poet, but that does not make it Scots, nor even a language.
I am inclined to believe that, because all of these (dialects) are
born of English_not uniquely kindled up from elsewhere_they
are and must be English, as English as the thousand other
dialects of the UK and Ireland.

English is perhaps the post fluid and dynamic
language of the world, but you know that already. ;-)

Glenallan
----------

Not withstanding, Scots and English are separate sister languages
derived from Old Northumbrian. Following the Norman Conquest of
England, English took on a vast Norman-French vocabulary in addition
to the poriginal Northumbrian, and that is why there are so many
duoplicatge words in English, while Scotland, remaining unconquered,
did not. To claim that Scots is a form of English is as inaccurate as
saying that it is derived from Gaelic; which admittedly it did borrow
from, heavily.

Typical duplicates in English:

Begin (Northumbrian - No)
Commence (Norman French - NF)

Looking glass (NT)
Mirror (NF)

Stab (No)
Pierce (

The Highlander
Tilgibh smucaid air do làmhan,
togaibh a' bhratach dhubh agus
toisichibh a' geàrradh na sgòrnanan!
.

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