Scots Languages, some sites of interest???

Much thanks for your help, Aon! This all gets pretty confusing to me, but it probably isn't at all if I was there to hear it all like you. Really enjoyed talking to you yesterday, btw!

me too
I'm sure you can make it someday, I think it's not as expensive getting a flight from America to here than getting a flight to America from here.

Btw, Rose, Lallans is not Gaelic, if you were under the impression it was. It is more a form of English (Catriona, I only explain, don't hit me *laughs*) than Gaelic.

Hi Aon! Oh I knew that Lallans was not Gaelic. I was just trying to see it in writing the difference between the two languages. That's why I wrote "How are you?" in English and then "Ciamar a sibh " in Gaelic and wondered what the three words would look like in Lallans. I was just trying to get an idea of Lallans. I think I understand now. Many thanks again!

CelticRose
How are you - might be written (or spoken, as Lallans is more a spoken language nowadays than a written, one - although many of us are trying to change that!)

Hoo's yersel? or How's yourself?

You should look at the poetry of Robert Burns and Robert Ferguson, amongst others... they write in Auld Scots.

Okay I totally get it now! Sorry to be such a boob! I was trying to make Lallans/Doric, etc., into something it wasn't. I have two Scottish acquaintenances who are from and live in Scotland now. One of them from Dundee I believe speaks that way in the Lallans, just never knew that is what he is speaking. The other is from Glasgow and makes fun of him for speaking that way and told me that Scots don't really talk like that! So that is a lot of the part of the confusion here with me. Thanks again!

Both of your friends are 'right' - Celticrose...

For instance, I do not speak Lallans most of the time - I speak standard English.... (otherwise how would my students - many from England, Europe and other points of the compass - understand what I was saying?!)

However, most Sots use Lallans words in common speech. It is more the construction of our sentences (ie the grammar) that shows we are Lallans speakers. For Aiberdeen (Aberdeen) it is the Doric - oh and Glasgow? Well, most Scots would tell you that Weegies speak their own language, distinct from the rest of us!

I am passionate about keeping Lallans alive. I am directly involved in many of the Lallans sites on the web. TV and the homogenisation of our languages (influenced, too much in my opinon, by Hollywood) is something devoutly to be fought against!

Ah um a Lallans speakir - an prood o it....

Hey Catriona
Is there a place where one might pick some books or tapes to learn Lallans?

Marcera

Barddas started this thread about Lallans sites - he put a number of URLs on page 1.

This one is also very good - http://www.lallans.co.uk/

The thing is: Lallans or Auld Scots or the Doric or call it what you will (!) sounds different wherever it is spoken in Scotland. The Doric is the Aberdeen/shire version, and it has its own very particular words, quite different from the Lallans spoken in the Central Belt. The way it is spoken in Fife is different again - as is thte way a Dundonian would speak.... And it is more complex than JUST a local accent....

An example: Aberdonians say 'quine' for girl and 'loon' for boy..... 'laddie and lassie' in my neck of the woods...

Thank you very much

On accents and the way they are spoken.. I can only really talk on Aberdonian, Westcoast/Glasgow region and Fife. And to me it sounds awfully slow when ppl from the basic Glasgow region talk, Fife seems to be much much faster.

I can give you the ISBN of a book I got of my boyfriend when he first visited Macerca. It's a dictionary and they include all sorts of words from different regions, also saying where they come from. If you are interested I'll send you the exact details and ISBN by pm

I am just wanting to put this back towards the top... ( yes, I am being a wee bit selfish...)


Cheers

hehehe... I think it's a good one anyway

Catriona and All

Greetings, Great topic.
Ive followed a bunch of the sites posted. Ive learned a lot about the subject through this thread.

Im mystified. My question was How can any languages with a long and proven history just be "pushed out" of existence?

Then I remembered the long list of languages of American Natives in this country
which had been forbidden to speak for hundreds of years.

I see the only solution to the situation is just what you are doing. Education and refusal to let the languages die. I have an Osage Indian and Cherokee Indian in my geanealogy but I can't speak one word in either language. Keep up the good work and Congratulations on your efforts.

Why, thank you, KK....

The Scots 'languages' (I'm not going to get into any arguments re whether they are merely dialects of English or separate languages... although, naturally, I believe the latter is true!) won't die. There has been a real resurgence in interest. There are many, many Lallans/Doric/Auld Scots sites which are springing up all the time.

As most Scots did not have the Gaelic as their 'native' language, it is important to those of us that live, or come from the Lowlands, should preserve our speech patterns for future generations. World-wide TV programmes, promoting a kind of mid-Atlantic speech pattern has meant that many of the old words and phrases are lost, but we are certainly doing our best to ensure that the rot goes no further!