View site in Scots

Scots Language Centre Centre for the Scots Leid

Languages Strategy Vacuous - Expert

27th February 2007

Scots language expert Derrick McClure of the University of Aberdeen's School of Language and Literature has told the Scottish Executive that their draft National Languages Strategy is "vacuous". McClure claims there is no provision in the draft strategy for additional support for Scots. Why, he asks, is it the case that "tiny dialects" in Italy are given so much support when Scots, a national language with centuries of literary achievement, gets so little. McClure doesn't agree with the Executive's view that Scots is not endangered. "How do they know it isn't endangered when they won't undertake any research into the number of speakers and the level of "inter-generational transmission". You can't say Scots isn't endangered if you don't have any evidence one way or the other." McClure is the latest academic to express concern at the Executive's strategy. Wilson McLeod of the University of Edinburgh has called the strategy "disappointing".