Poll figures hide truth about our language

YOUR report on the government-sponsored poll of attitudes to Scots (15 January) omits several important facts. Some 70 per cent of the people questioned in the poll claimed to speak Scots at least sometimes, including 43 per cent who spoke it "a lot" or "fairly often". More than 80 per cent gave positive answers to questions on whether they saw Scots as an important part of the national heritage and a valuable aspect of Scottish culture. Definite majorities agreed that i

What is disheartening is the endless rehashing of the question of whether or not Scots is a language. There is no conclusive answer, for there is no single criterion by which a speech form is classed as a language or something else.

The relevant fact is that Scots is the native tongue of a great many Scottish citizens, including schoolchildren, and – apart from the indisputable facts of its historical and cultural importance – therefore should, as a matter of good educational practice (to say nothing of human rights) have an official and definite place in the educational system as well as in the arts and the media.

DERRICK McCLURE

Rosehill Terrace

Aberdeen

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The mother tongue of the overwhelming majority of British people is English. For Scots, the only puzzle is why "Scots" is English.

Medieval kings of Scotland addressed their subjects in order of importance, as "Francis, Inglis and Scottis". Normans ruled the roost, the Inglis of the rich south-eastern shires were their main support, and the Scottis were uncouth Gaels who, if Hollywood is to be believed, wore kilts and painted their faces blue.

So no self-respecting Francis or Inglis subject of the kings of Scotland could possibly want to speak "Scottis". Nor did he.

The term "Scots" didn't appear until as late as 1494. Previously our Angles ancestors spoke "Inglis" and why it changed to "Scottis" isn't clear but seems most likely to have been due to a growing nationalism, the very same thinking that persists among us today.

Most of us speak the language our mothers taught us. My mother would often say "You've a good Scotch tongue in your head so use it!" But was mother right?

Well, when we remember our childhoods our mothers were blessed with huge common sense, but also had a huge baggage of folk prejudices totally out of place in modern society.

So with language. Devonshire folk speak differently from Yorkshire folk, just as Glaswegian used to be incomprehensible to folk from Edinburgh. But we're not different people. We all speak English. In truth, English was my Scots mother's mother tongue, whatever she chose to call it.

ROBERT VEITCH

Paisley Drive

Edinburgh