What seems to be overlooked in this discussion is the simple fact that speaking Scots (or Gaelic), in preference to English, places the speaker at a distinct disadvantage in the modern world. Like it or not, English is the first/second language of the developed world. While it is culturally interesting to learn Scots (or Gaelic) the language is, by and large, pointless outside of a very narrow geographic region in western Europe.

While I accept that ideas of nationalism are often rooted in language as much as in race, there comes a time in the continuing development of a country when its primary language will begin to evolve in a different direction from that language spoken in centuries past. When that happens, when that linguistic thermadorian point is reached, a nation either continues to evolve and grow culturally, or it retreats, becomes set in aspic, and becomes a matter of curiosity rather than a society of ideas and vibrant growth.

Technologies-- printing, radio, television, phonographic recording, the stage and cinema-- have, over the past 400 years, made English the standard language of Scotland, and made Scots valued partners in the global union of nearly one billion English speakers.