Letter: Language choices

Martin Conroy's letter regarding Gaelic (24 December) and in relation to that tongue urging us, "let's start speaking our language" was amusing.

Writing as he does from Oldhamstocks, a name with the strong Anglo-Saxon associations of the spoken language of Bernicia, the pre-Northumbrian nation that included the whole of south-east Scotland in the (very) early Middle Ages, it seems clear he does not know what "our language" is.

The languages of late pre- historic and early historic Scotland were those of the Picts, which is almost entirely unknown, and Old Welsh, the language of the Lowlands at that time (also called Cumbric) in which the earliest work of literature penned in the British Isles was composed. That work was Y Gododdin.

The language of the Irish was not "our" language at that time. In fact, the language that next entered the arena in Scotland was the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon tongue. Gaelic, as the language of government of Scotia, was imposed on the Picts and Britons. It was never the spoken language of the south-east of Scotland.

Thus, if Mr Conroy, writing from his Bernician fastness, wishes us to speak "our language", he should either learn Old Welsh or continue to speak English. If he chooses the former in preference to the latter, he will probably find a similar number of speakers of Old Welsh to the numbers of speakers of modern Gaelic in this part of Scotland.

ANDREW HN GRAY

Craiglea Drive

Edinburgh