Lowland Scots : language, politics and identity

• Main Author: Hardie, Kim
• Published: University of Edinburgh 1997
• Subjects: 320
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.652090

This work looks at the present day situation of Scots language and whether or not there is a link between attitudes towards Scots and nationalism in Scotland. An outline is given of the history of Scots, which was once the most widely used language for administrative as well as literary purposes in Scotland, indicating which factors contributed to its demise. The result of this demise is that today people are very uncertain about the status of Scots and whether to see it as a language or a dialect. An investigation as carried out in Edinburgh to find out to what extent people are familiar with what is meant by Scots language and to see how important it is to the formation of a Scottish identity. The results of this investigation were very interesting as they showed a link between people's knowledge about the concept of Scots language and their political opinions on the Constitutional Question in Scotland. The results demonstrated a difference in attitude and perception between the group informants classified as being in favour of independence and those in favour of the Union. There was a clear discrepancy between the answers of the Independence group to the first part of the Questionnaire and the third part. This discrepancy was not as noticeable in the answers of the other two groups (Unionists and Devolutionists). It also seems to be linked to the perception of the identity of the concept "Scots language".