First Minister - Scots Language Centre Interview

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• published: 11 Nov 2010
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The Scots Language Centre provides information about and encourages the use of Scots. Scots is the language in which Burns wrote most of his work. It is the medium for some of the country's best loved poems and songs and is still spoken today by people throughout the Lowlands and Northern Isles. Scots like Gaelic is recognised by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Scots is one of our great cultural treasures, it has been with us for hundreds of years and we encounter it everyday in names like Kirk Brae, Trongate and Holyrood. Scots is sometimes known by local names. People in the North East often call it Doric while in Dundee it's known as Dundonian and in Shetland it is usually referred to as Shetland dialect. In its literary form it can be called Lallans -- Hugh Macdiarmid is the best known of the Lallans poets. His epic poem, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is written in Scots. Older generations usually called the language Scotch or 'braid Scots'. In this interview with Dr Dauvit Horsbroch of the Scots Language Centre, First Minister, Alex Salmond, talks about his encounters with the language as a boy growing up in Linlithgow and then later in the North East where his constituency, Gordon, is located. The First Minster describes his use of Scots words and phrases in parliamentary debates and explains why he has a particular fondness for the expressive qualities of the language. The interview also looks at the Scots question in the 2011 census and considers the future health and status of the language. Mr Salmond reveals his great admiration for the work of Robert Burns and recites an example of the bard's verse. The whole interview is available to watch online. For more information about Scots visit HYPERLINK "http://www.scotslanguage.com" www.scotslanguage.com