Broad Scots / Lallans

[Ruanaidh]

"I have little time to learn another language that I might use twice per month"

It's not a different language, it's an English dialect! I only speak two languages, English and Bad English! (OK,and Bad German) But I have never had a problem understanding the posts in question. Maybe it's because I'm from the South, or watch too much BBC!

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language
Since there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots. Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist these often render contradictory results (See Dialect). Consequently Scots has, on the one hand, been traditionally regarded as one of the ancient dialects of English but with its own ancient and distinct dialects. Scots has often been treated as part of English as spoken in Scotland but differs significantly from the Standard Scottish English taught in schools. On the other hand, it has been regarded as a distinct Germanic language the way Swedish is distinct from Danish. Its subordination to Anglo-English has also been compared to the subordination of Frisian to Dutch in the Netherlands.[1] Thus Scots can be interpreted as a collective term for the dialects of English spoken or originating in Scotland, or it can be interpreted as the autochthonous language of Lowland Scotland. See Status below for further discussion.
Native speakers in Scotland and Ireland usually refer to their vernacular as (braid) Scots (Eng: Broad Scots) or use a dialect name such as the Doric or the Buchan Claik. The old fashioned Scotch occurs occasionally, especially in Ireland. Some literary forms are often referred to as Lallans (Lowlands).