Do you think all foreigners meaning people outside Scotland?

Question

should learn to speak the Scottish language?
Because the Scots have to learn English, but the English don't have to learn Scottish, so I am going to cry. Anyone like to join in.

Answer 1

And all English men should have to wear kilts. I'm all for that, especially on windy days!

Answer 2

A few notes may be apropos to those who think (mistakenly) that Gaelic is the native language of Scotland, or that Scots is a dialect of English.

Contrary to such mistaken perceptions, Scots does not derive from English. They both derive from an ancestral language, Anglo-Saxon, now extinct, also known as Old English. Don't be misled by the appearance of the word 'English' in OE, which was not native to Britain, but imported. The native language of Britain then was Celtic.Old English was imported via Jutland, Holstein and Schleswig in the fifth and sixth centuries, and when established branched into four principle dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian (Southumbrian), Kentish, and West Saxon. The East Midland descendant of Old Mercian became, nearly a thousand years later via the Middle English of Chaucer, Modern English.

The Bernician (Northumbrian) dialect of what is now south eastern Scotland, the Solway, and Ayrshire, became, with Flemish and Scandinavian elements, Early Scots. By the fifteenth century, Older Scots was the principle language of Scotland. By the sixteenth century, there were two languages in Britain: metropolitan Tudor English in England, and metropolitan Older Scots in Scotland. These were related but distinct.

Older Scots in its written form gave way to anglified spelling conventions, but spoken Older Scots remained. A partial demise of written Older Scots occurred at around the time of the Reformation, with the ascendancy of Tudor English among the Scots aristocracy. Scots is still written in prose and poetry, and has been from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. It was for centuries the language of the judiciary and parliament, and has also been the language of the Bible in Scots.

'The fair-farran rede at ye hairkent neer cam frae him at
caad ye, an I'm wae tae mind hou it needs but a flowe o barme
tae tove the haill daud o daich.' (Galatians 5)

This is not the writing of a derivative of Tudor English.

Modern Scots remains vibrant and powerful. The fact that you do not encounter it much, does not mean it does not exist. Most Scots speak English, but that does not mean that (i) English with a Scottish accent = Scots, or (ii) Scots is a derivative of English.

"The baillie syne, a peer-hoose geet nae better than a feel, he slivvers an has sic a mant an ae clog-fit as weel; he's barely sense to muck the byre an cairry in the scull, an park the kye an cogue the caur, an scutter wi the bull." ('Dockens afore his peers'.)

This is an example of north-eastern Modern Scots. It is certainly not 'English with a Scottish accent'.

Of course there are considerable similarities between Scots and English. This is wholly expected. The point to note, however, is that they have a common ancestor, the one is not a descendant of the other.

Answer 3

Are you meaning Gaelic coz there are still some areas in Scotland where this is spoken especially amongst the older folk or they speak a mixture of Gaelic and English. Maybe we should all learn Welsh as well and Irish Gaelic too......now that would be interesting. There are some English folk who have enough of a job learning English properly without any other British Isles language......and we aren't being disrespectful when we say that either!

Answer 4

Half the Scots (including my own Scottish Relatives) don't speak Scottish either! They speak English in a terrible accent and some like my grandad (Dad's side)speak so softly and quickly you don't even have time to understand them!
He could speak Gaelic as could my Manx grandmother (Mum's side) and they jokingly argued about which was right!
The only thing I can remember though is one said, Oidhche mhath the other Oie vie before we went to bed!
So dry your tears and wipe your eyes and let me wish you a goodnight too.

Southern Comfort you're ONLY Scottish if you were born there! My Dad called me his wee sassenach and that doesn't mean Scottish! lol

Answer 5

Scotsman makes some good points but the debate is on going about there being two separate languages and you would only be understood by a few people in Modern Scotland if you spoke or wrote in what he calls old Scottish or even Anglo Saxon.

Answer 6

No but any wanting to move to Scotland long term should.

I'm Scottish and learned to speak Gaelic before I learned English so I guess I'm OK.

Answer 7

I've learned about the Scots by going to the Scottish games every year. Does that count? I learned that bagpipes & bluegrass music go well together from some of the bands I've heard there. One of my friends mans the "McKay" clan tent, where the people who have that name in the present or past can learn about their heritage. I've learned that a telephone pole is a "caber" and they don't use sheep anymore for the sheep toss, although they once did. I even tried Haggis. I'll try anything once!......lol!

Answer 8

Is that a law in Scotland? I would love to learn Scottish, but I can barely speak English and was born in the U.S. Lord knows I can't spell! I love spell check.

Answer 9

i have an ideal since the world is getting so smaller i think we need a world language -- i do not care if it is scottish -english or what ever == would not like it to be spanish -= i can not learn to roll my rrrs -- but i try to visit a different country each year and i would like a world wide language -- this summer when i was in france and corse and sardegnia i was in little towns trying to order food and catch buses and i know that i was the only person in the town that spoke english -- if they did they sure did not go out of there way to help me!!!

Answer 10

I think they should learn Scots Gaelic if they want to live in Scotland but don't you think you should start with the Scottish people first?...many of them have not bothered to learn the language of their own country but have slavishly learned that of the Sassenach.

Answer 11

No cry. I thought the Scots spoke English....called a Scottish brogue.
English and Spanish are the most common in the free world. In Asia, Chinese, Japanese etc.