I love the fact that, amongst all the different language versions of Wikipedia, alongside French, Spanish, Russian, German, Finnish and all the rest there is a Scottish version of Wikipedia. This is not in Gaelic or anything like that, but written in Scottish dialect. Of dubious actual value, but that is why it is so brilliant – exactly what I like about the internet.
I love the idea that, instead of a FAQ page there is an ASQ page (Aften Spiert Quaistens) and that you are invited to “juist daff aboot in wir sandpit”. The whole thing is like reading the dialogue sections in a Brookmyre book which makes it ironic that there is no page for Christopher Brookmyre himself amongst the 7,700+ articles. That might not sound a lot, but it puts in at 119 out of the 283 languages that Wikipedia is available in. Not bad considering it isn’t really a language as such.
Looking at the list of languages available one thing did make me smile: the site is available in the Kanuri language, sort of,with only a single article but 4,389 edits! I say ‘sort of’ because this version has now been closed following a community vote with the reason being “the absence of both content and community”.
Anyway, I can thoroughly recommend the Scots version and in particular the page on spellin an grammar. Just don’t blame me if you find yourself getting hooked. It may not be the most kenspeckle language but it is fun. Just remember – Scots isna juist English written wi orra wirds an spellins. It haes its ain grammar an aw. If aw ye dae is tak an English text an chynge the spellins an swap a puckle wirds it’ll juist be Scotched English an no Scots.
Lots of buried treasures – like the 30 August edit of the page about Alex Salmond