tae finWalcome til the Scottish Pairlament wabsite

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/vli/language/scots/index.htm

Just read it out aloud..

sceptre

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Just read it out aloud..

Aye, well that's Scots for you.

SeeYouJimmy

isnt that the strange language that the unionists in the north invented as a response to "the growing threat of irish"

ChipZilla

I'm surprised they had any money left for a website after all the money they pissed away on that parliament - a snip at £431m. Talk about the Bertie-Bowl - sheesh! And a survey yesterday showed that the majority of Scottish people believe the politicians have accomplished nothing since devolution. They should set up an exchange program with their Irish conterparts...

cujimmy

SeeYouJimmy wrote:

isnt that the strange language that the unionists in the north invented as a response to "the growing threat of irish"

No it isnt, its Scots an old lowland Scottish language. What you refer to is in fact "Ulster Scots" and far from being an "invented" language is in fact an officially recognized regional language of Europe, which dates back to the 1600s

ChipZilla

More on the subject of the website here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/09/scots_parliament_in_scots/

And a bit on the language here:

http://www.lallans.co.uk/information/eng.html

Scots descends from a northern form of Anglo-Saxon brought to the British isles by settlers from the area around Denmark between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. This language is first directly attested in Scotland in the runes carved on the 8th century Ruthwell Cross near Dumfries. Over the centuries the forms in southern and northern Britain drifted apart because of social and political differences. By the 14th century people in Scotland and England were aware that they spoke different versions of what had originally been the same tongue. Now two sister languages, English and Scots, began to emerge. The Language in Scotland, was, by the 1490s, increasingly also known as Scots and was the lingua franca of all social classes. From the 1370s until the political union with England in 1707 Scots was the language of state and education. Closer political ties with England during the 17th century led first to the emergence of an anglicised from of Scots and by the end of the 18th century to a distinction between an English-speaking nobility and a Scots-speaking population. The English of the new British state was now the de facto official language while Scots was denigrated as peasant speech. Slowly Scots was excluded from schools. By the 1940s the Education Department thought that Scots had no value "...it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as a suitable medium of education or culture". The 1872 Education Act insisted on the use of English in the class.

cujimmy

Whatever you say about Scots or Ulster Scots try getting your tounge around Doric, as in the following report from yesterdays BBC Scotland

Doric set to 'dee the business'
Doing business in the Doric dialect has been brought up to date thanks to an Aberdeen software company.
MandOS has produced a tongue-in-cheek guide to common business and computer terms in the pithy native tongue of north east Scotland.

It translates phrases like process flowcharts to "the wye tae dee things" and completion checklists "ticketyboo tick lists".

The firm said Doric translations showed business concepts in a new light.


FIT IT'S A' ABOOT
Departments: bourachies o' fowk
Value: foo mony or foo muckle
Quality: fit wye a thingmie's fit for fit it's suppose tae fit
Business risk: onything that can mak' an erse o' fit ye're trying tae dee
Draft: nae quite feenish'd
Task sequence: fit's deen next

The MandOS software allows users to customise the language they use in documents to incorporate Doric.
The distinctive Scots dialect of the north-east has a rich history of poetry and songs, as well as being spoken across the region.

A company spokesman said: "People sometimes take themselves and what they do too seriously and sometimes they don't succeed in making themselves clear to others.

"This has a serious side: it can be demotivating, even dangerous, depending on the process in question.

"Our 'translation' may just possibly help to make some of the concepts more understandable."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3640862.stm

Published: 2004/09/09 11:28:40 GMT