Recently Elaine Morton, who is co-editor of Lallans, sent out a message to contributors, readers and supporters of the magazine to inform us of the current, uncertain future facing the publication. Lallans was launched in 1973 by the then recently formed Lallans Society (later renamed the Scots Language Society) as a vehicle for people writing both poetry and prose articles in the language. Since that time Lallans has enjoyed fluctuating fortunes, been under the care of a variety of editors some hands on and others circumspect and helped launch the writing careers in Scots of a few names with whom we are familiar today. Indeed, there can be few people pro-active in the Scots community in recent decades who have not appeared between its pages. But perhaps the most important fact of all is that over forty years Lallans has remained the only magazine devoted to writing in Scots, which is surely a comment on the dearth of opportunities for those wishing to write in, and develop, the language.

In more recent times the former Scottish Arts Council decided to stop funding the magazine and, so far, no mechanism has been established for the successor organisation, Creative Scotland, to provide a funding stream. It is also a poor comment on the way in which our only journal in Scots has been left in limbo and is now having to face the prospect of winding up. Elaine Morton has revealed that many writers have waived their fees in an effort to help and that, in fact, fees have now had to be reduced to meet costs. This was certainly not the vision that the Society and others had when Lallans was established for developing writing in the language, but the Society has been forced into an impossible situation. The national committee now has to consider whether to discontinue publishing in hard copy format (and continuing only with an online version) or end the journal altogether. In a country currently debating its constitutional future, some serious thought also needs to be given to the way in which we treat our cultural and linguistic health.

Elaine Morton recently made the following plea to subscribers, supporters and writers: Gin ye hae ony thochts on winnin mair siller frae some ither airt or improvin on the magazine itsel, Id be blithe to hear frae ye.  The Scots Language Centre would also add its voice to this plea and ask those who are friends to the Scots language community to give serious consideration to supporting our one and only journal in the language. You can contact Elaine with suggestions for funding, and ideas about the journal, either by e-mail at failte@go-plus.net or by phone on 0131 668 4677.