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The Linguistic Situation in Scotland

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The Linguistic Situation in Scotland Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 122 45th International Philological Conference (IPC 2016) Языковая ситуация в Шотландии Иванченко Наталья Яковлевна Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет (СПбГУ), Санкт-Петербург, Россия The linguistic situation in Scotland Ivanchenko Natalia Saint Petersburg State University (SPSU), St. Petersburg, Russia Аннотация autochthonous languages — (Scottish) Gaelic and Scots, and the third one is В настоящей статье анализируется English, or Scottish English. The Gaelic языковая ситуация в Шотландии и Language Act 2005 recognises both рассматриваются понятия Scottish English and Gaelic as official лингвистического континуума, languages of Scotland, which are to be двуязычия и диглосии в применении к treated with «equal respect» by public языковой ситуации в этой стране. authorities. The Scots language, however, has a semi-protected status in Scotland Abstract under the terms of the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Regional The paper explores the linguistic situation or Minority Languages (part II) , as in modern Scotland. Specifically it looks ratified by the government of the United at the concepts of linguistic continuum, Kingdom and implemented by the bilingualism and diglossia and their devolved Scottish government. applications to the Scottish linguistic The majority of the population of situation. modern Scotland are effectively bilingual; with about 99% of Scotland- Ключевые слова: языковая ситуация, born claiming native proficiency in лингвистический континуум, языки English. Therefore, it is possible to коренного населения, двуязычие, allocate two bilingual language диглоссия communities in Scotland: speakers of Scots and English and speakers of Gaelic Keywords: linguistic situation, linguistic and English. These communities use continuum, indigenous languages, coexisting language varieties in their bilingualism, diglossia respective communicative contexts depending on the social situation and other extralinguistic factors. Introduction Scotland has always been multilingual. Gaelic Currently in Scotland there are three languages which are officially recognised Gaelic was brought to Scotland by Irish in some way: two of them are settlers around the 5th century A.D. Up Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. 50 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 122 until the 12th century, Gaelic expanded West Germanic language closely related across Scotland. At its peak, it was the to English, which can be traced back to language spoken both by Scottish kings the Anglo-Saxon settlers. From the 12th and the majority of Scottish people. century Scots (called at the time Inglis) However, as early as the 12th century became dominant in Scotland, gradually Gaelic began to lose the competition with replacing Gaelic as the language of Scots, and then started its long retreat to Scottish monarchs and the general the Highlands. After the Union of Crowns populace. Up until the 15th century, it in 1606, and especially after the Act of was not dissimilar to the language spoken Union in 1707, Scottish Gaelic speakers in northern England, but by the 16th found themselves under severe pressure. century, it had become so different that it By the 18th century, only half the was referred to as Scottis or Scots. From population of Scotland could speak the mid-16th century, however, due to Gaelic (Matheson et al.), and the decline royal and political interactions with continued. The most damage was caused England, written Scots fell «under the by the Highland Clearances, emigration spell» of the English of southern England. to the New world, and the fact that after For some time written English and the 1872 Scottish Education Act, Gaelic spoken Scottis existed in a form of was not used as the medium of instruction bilingualism. Eventually, however, Scots at schools, even in Gaelic-speaking areas. was not able to compete with the more Thus, by the early modern era Gaelic had powerful sister language. By the end of been in decline for three centuries and the 18th century, English had become the had been limited functionally, language of state used in public life, geographically and numerically. while Scots had been relegated to a Since the late 20th century, Gaelic has position of a vernacular. By the middle of been experiencing a modest revival, the 20th century, Scots had been especially in education and broadcasting. stigmatised as a deviant, non-standard, It also has seen an enhancement of its form of English spoken by less educated political status. However, despite public classes. support, including government financing In other words, up until the 16th and institutional provision, it has century, Scots was the prestige language continued to weaken to the point where it in Scotland, and the diglossic situation is hardly functioning as a community with English as acrolect had not yet language (McLeod). According to developed. It was when Scots became K. MacKinnon, the main problem is the heteronomous with respect to English and lack of families where both parents speak lost is high status, that a diglossic Gaelic, which means that its generational situation, ultimately leading to diglossia, transmission is insufficient. It has been arose in the Lowlands. In the mid-20th estimated that the number of children in century, Shetland was a classic example Gaelic-medium schools would need to of a diglossic situation, with only a small increase five-fold merely to maintain the number of people, typically, existing Gaelic-speaking population professionals, such as doctors, teachers, (MacKinnon). clergymen, etc. — spoke only English. Modern Scotland does not fit the Scots classic definition of diglossia, yet we may speak about a form of diglossic situation For several centuries Scottish Gaelic with people codeswitching without much competed with the Scots language. It is a thought, depending on who they are 51 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 122 speaking to. In fact, many Scots do not orthography, and many Scottish people actually realise they speak the Scots tend to use Scottish English, pepper it language. They have been conditioned with Scots words and structures in through centuries of education and informal situations, and call it Scots. And English domination to believe their thirdly, there is «a significant number of language is inferior to English, and is Scottish people whose only contact with some kind of slang/corruption of English, Scots is via their use of Scottish Standard despite it having existed for hundreds of English» (Millar). years with a rich corpus of literature. References Linguistic continuum Glen, Carol M. The Politics of Language Centuries of coexistence in Scotland of Policy in Scotland // The Annual of closely related languages created a Language & Politics and Politics of situation when Scots was heavily Identity. Vol. IV. 2010. Pp. 45-58. influenced by the dominant English, MacKinnon, Kenneth. National Plan for becoming, in effect, a linguistic Gaelic, Education Strategy, and continuum with a broad Scots at one end Guidance on Gaelic Language Plans. and SSE at the other with a number of Report on Public Consultation transitional types in between. As C. Glen Process. Report to Bòrd na Gàidhlig, suggests, the history of Gaelic and Scots Inverness, 27th November 2006. P. was one of language rationalization, i.e. 66. in Scotland, pragmatic tendencies McLeod, Wilson. Gaelic in contemporary prevailed over patriotism; whereas the Scotland: contradictions, challenges supporters of standardisation of local and strategies // Academia.edu. URL: languages happened to be in the minority. https://www.academia.edu/8004260/ That choice, in fact, was made as early as Gaelic_in_contemporary_Scotland_c the 18th century — during the ontradictions_challenges_and_strateg Enlightenment — when figures of ies (accessed 26/06/2016) Scottish cultural life gained access to a Matheson, Catherine & David Matheson. European audience only because they Languages of Scotland: Culture and wrote in English. In fact, Scots was on Classroom // Comparative Education. the brink of standardisation when it lost 36 (2). 2000. Pp. 211-221. its high status, which in the long run «led Millar, Robert McColl. English Historical to retrograde effects including Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh dialectalisation of a previously University Press, 2012. 240 pp. autonomous language through the loss of Swann, Joan. Style shifting, Aussbau characteristics…» (Millar). codeswitching // English: history, Interestingly, some researchers suggest diversity and change ed. by D. that the similarity of Scots to English may Graddol, D. Leith and J. Swann. have been one of the reasons for Scots’ Routledge, London. 1996. Pp. 301- survival. Indeed, this similarity led to the 337. loss of Scots’ linguistic integrity, yet it also allowed easy codeswitching that can happen not only at the end of a phrase or a clause boundary but even at the level of the individual word or sound (Swann). Secondly, there is no official standardised 52.
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