Scots Wikipaedia

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I think that most agree that the way Irish is taught in school is a near abject failure.

The government spends more money on teaching Irish, on maintaining commissions to make sure that new housing developments use only Irish names, etc., than they do on just about any other cultural activity. In fact, more money is spent teaching Irish than is spent on teaching all other European languages, combined.

One of the major problems that faces Irish teachers is that Irish lacks a standard of pronunciation. For wholly political reasons no one has had the balls to sit down and come up with a standard pronunciation for even the simplest words. When I was doing my 'fresher in Irish at Gael Linn our two instructors nearly came to blows over the difference in Donegal Irish and Kerry Irish of the pronunciation of "fuinneoig" (window).

As far as the problem of illiteracy is concerned, this is still a problem in Ireland, and has little or nothing to do with the Irish language, either then or now. The causes are deeply rooted in both politics and religion (as well as other socio-economic issues) and are really well beyond the scope of discussion on what is, after all, a kilt forum.

[highlander_Daz]

As Ive said before "Scots" is a representation of how some people speak in some parts of Scotland, there is miscnception after misconception about this type of "language" issue, if you went most places in Scotland and attempted to speak like the article suggests most people would be very puzzled, there is NO "scots language" no matter what Alex Salmond or anyone else wants to believe, its ENGLISH with slang and regional variations thrown in. As Ive said before there are so many misconceptions . I recently read one of the "Outlander" series of novels, and the Highland folk were all saying "dinne" "canne" wouldnae" , which is a shame as the books are excelent, this is akin to watching an episode of "Dallas" but all the characters having thick new york accents, very puzzling. Ive alwasy found when people type in phonetics "scots" slightly silly, it isnt representitive of how Scots speak, only a minority.
Imagine a forum that discussed Native ameican dress and culture, and I joined and typed in the style of Jay Silverheels.: "How, Kemo sabe, Me Scottish man um want to discuss pipe of peace" etc it would be rightly slated as a ridiculous stereotype. just my thoughts

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

As Ive said before "Scots" is a representation of how some people speak in some parts of Scotland, there is miscnception after misconception about this type of "language" issue, if you went most places in Scotland and attempted to speak like the article suggests most people would be very puzzled, there is NO "scots language" no matter what Alex Salmond or anyone else wants to believe, its ENGLISH with slang and regional variations thrown in. As Ive said before there are so many misconceptions . I recently read one of the "Outlander" series of novels, and the Highland folk were all saying "dinne" "canne" wouldnae" , which is a shame as the books are excelent, this is akin to watching an episode of "Dallas" but all the characters having thick new york accents, very puzzling. Ive alwasy found when people type in phonetics "scots" slightly silly, it isnt representitive of how Scots speak, only a minority.
Imagine a forum that discussed Native ameican dress and culture, and I joined and typed in the style of Jay Silverheels.: "How, Kemo sabe, Me Scottish man um want to discuss pipe of peace" etc it would be rightly slated as a ridiculous stereotype. just my thoughts

I'd have to agree. Writing "dialect" always slows down the narrative and takes away from the overall effect of the novel. Anything that "gets in the way of the reader" should be avoided, if at all possible.

[macwilkin]

I'd have to agree. Writing "dialect" always slows down the narrative and takes away from the overall effect of the novel. Anything that "gets in the way of the reader" should be avoided, if at all possible.

Not necessarily, Scott. If you have read the late G.M. Fraser's Quartered Safe Out Here or any of the McAuslan stories, his use of the Glesca and Cumberland dialects is quite effective, and not too hard to follow.

T.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Not necessarily, Scott. If you have read the late G.M. Fraser's Quartered Safe Out Here or any of the McAuslan stories, his use of the Glesca and Cumberland dialects is quite effective, and not too hard to follow.

T.

Gosh, Todd, I think this may be a case where the exception proves the rule. Seems to me that GMcDF generally eschewed the use of written dialect in his Flashman novels, except for comic effect. I can't recall if there's much dialect in Pyrates (not my favorite), and I think he went on a bit about "dialect" in his Hollywood History of the World -- but since I can't immediately lay hands on the book (well recommended, though) I can't say so with certainty.

What I can say with certainly is that a skillful writer can make anything work on the page-- within limits. I think we'd both agree that GMcDF was nothing, if not skillful to the Nth degree.