Langauge chynges...

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Hello aw, how ye hae been makkin the maist o this...this...simmer? Na, that's no the wurd, canna be... Ah, weil - I howp ye hae been makkin the maist o white'er fowk want tae cry this time o year.

Jist a wee thocht - I wis bletherin awa wi a frein o mine about Scots an tryin tae get him tae jyne the Scots Leid Forum (http://scotsleidforum.proboards100.com/index.cgi) an he wis sayin hou he thocht that Scot wis aince a language o its ain langsyne, but that nou it's jist a dialeck o Inglis. Nou, this is sumthing I hae heird aff o mair nor him, but his reasonin wis orra, tae say the least. He said that he coud unnerstaun modren Scots whan fowk spoke it, but he coudna unnerstaun aulder Scots whan he read thaim (thinkin o the likes o Henryson, Dunbar an sae on).

Nou, I can see that the hinmaist five hunner year or sae coud be a bairrier o sorts tae fowk unnerstaunin thaim, but daes that mean that Scots isna a language onie mair? Efter aw, I mind at the schuil I fun haird enou tae unnerstaun Shakespeare, an the King James Bible (1611) is still hair for monie native Inglis speakers tae read - an I still canna read Chaucer sae weil either. Daes this mak Inglis onie less o a language? O course it disna, but naebody wad e'en conseider thinkin it wad, syne, as onie gowk kens richt weil, langauges chynge ower time - an thon's whit wey I'm no daein this blog in Anglo-Saxon, ne'er mind Pechtish.

Nou, thon's aw stuff awbodie kens, but it jist gart me think - dae fowk think o Scots (or "guid" Scots) as bein sumthing froze in time an ne'er tae evolve as aw ithir leids dae? An is thon time that faur aff, an thon leid sae remote that we canna unnerstaun it an needna fash wirsels tryin tae? I dinna ken, whiles it feels like ye' jist bangin yer heid agin a waw...

On a brichter note, I'm daein mair wark wi the SLC Bebo jist nou, sae gin ye hae an acount ower there, reinge for "Scots Language Centre" an jyne up.

Sang o the week - Shetland Fiddle Diva by the Sting Sisters.


Aw the best, an God keip ye.

Dunc

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