The scope of Scots

May I comment on head teacher Isabel Lind’s interesting idea that Scots should be taught in schools and count as a foreign language (your report, 13 January).

The definition of a foreign language is a tongue that is not mutually understandable with a neighbouring tongue.

I would say the bulk of Scots understand the various dialects without actually using them.

An exception might be Doric, that variety of English spoken in the north-east and unlikely to be understood by any Scot who has never had contact with the area.

This dialect could almost be considered a foreign language, with not only its complex sound changes and unique vocabulary, but its own grammar.

But in common with all other Scots dialects, it is not standardised. Speakers just write it with whatever idea of transcription comes to mind and the reader is left to figure it out.

How would you teach the writing of Scots when the linguists themselves are not agreed on its phonology?

And which of the hundreds of varieties of Scots would you select to be the standard? Who would do the teaching?

A teacher might be more cognisant of another variety than the standard. Many teachers normally use standard English [Scottish variety] and their rendering of Scots sounds inauthentic.

The attempt to start teaching French from infants stage in the 1960s fell through, after much money had been spent on the project, because there were insufficient teachers qualified both in teaching French and in lower school methodology.

The learning of a language that is very different from one’s mother tongue provides a different means of thinking and is said to increase intelligence.

I doubt a dialect would have the same effect, though the use of Scots is a powerful teaching tool for those who never hear standard English.

In the north-east it is used authentically among educators themselves and as a medium of instruction sometimes even at tertiary level, I understand.

I agree, however, with Ms Lind’s view that loss of our Scots dialects is loss indeed, though preventing this by teaching is fraught with difficulty, what with our increasingly diverse population structure.

Margaret E Salmond

Dunbar Street

Aberdeen