Mither tongue

Are we ever going to get a rest from the endless back-and-furriting of the meaningless question over whether Scots is a "language" or a "dialect" (Letters, 13 March)?

Apart from the obvious fact that Scots cannot be a dialect for the simple reason that it exists in several different dialects, surely everybody should know by now that there is no simple two-way choice between language and dialect, and no single criterion for classifying a speech form as either one of these or something else.

It is more than 40 years since the American linguist Joshua Fishman categorised fully seven types of speech-form. These were standard language, classical language, artificial language, vernacular, dialect, creole and pidgin.

And even by the very clear guidelines which he proposed for distinguishing these, Scots does not fit unequivocally into any of the seven categories.

It seems that many people in Scotland have a lot to learn not only about their own national languages, but about language in general and how it operates.

DERRICK MCCLURE

Rosehill Terrace

Aberdeen