Why Scots Matters

by J. Derrick McClure

This revised and updated edition of a fascinating study puts Scots firmly into its proper place as one of the great vehicles of European literature and explains why the language retains its importance for the people of Scotland.
Why Scots Matters details the origins and history of the language, and discusses the influences and events which have shaped its use. Derrick McClure's work encompasses the differences between dialect and language, and the great works of literature written in Scots - Barbour's Bruce, James I's Kingis Quair, the superb poetry of Henryson and Dunbar, Lindsay's triumphal Ane Satire of the Thrie Estaitis and, of course, the work of Robert Burns and Hugh McDiarmid.
The importance of Scots as a record of political and social change is also examined, as the influence of the Norse, English, French and the Gaels had an impact on Scots vocabulary as well as Scottish history. In conclusion, the author argues that the Scots language should be used and encouraged, not only because of its contribution to human achievement in the past, but because it is a unique mark of the distinctive identity of the Scottish people.
J. Derrick McClure is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Aberdeen.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

78 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

J. Derrick McClure, M.A. (Glasgow), M.Litt. (Edinburgh), is a Senior Lecturer (now part-time) in the Department of English, University of Aberdeen. Publications include Why Scots Matters (1988, revised 1997), Scots and its Literature (1995), Language, Poetry and Nationhood (2000),Doric: the Dialect of North-East Scotland in the Varieties of English Around the World series (2002), the chapter English in Scotland in the Cambridge History of the English Language (Vol. 5), and over eighty articles on Scottish linguistic and literary topics in various journals, festschrifts and conference proceedings volumes.

He is Chairman of the Forum for Research in the Languages of Scotland and Ulster, and member of the Scottish Parliamentary Cross-Party Group on the Scots Language, the Language Committee and the International Committee of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies, the Scottish Dictionaries Council and the steering committee of the National Library of Scotland's Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation (BOSLIT); he is also Editor of the annual journal Scottish Language.

His recent and current research and publication are principally on Scots as a medium for literary translation and on Middle Scots poetic prosody. Poetic translations include Scotland o Gael an Lawlander (1996), the Scots versions in Meas air Chrannaibh, Fruit on Brainches by Aonghas Pïdraig Caimbeul, Stornoway (2007), and translations from (among others) Cecco Angiolieri, Frïdric Mistral and Alfred Kolleritsch.

Reviews

[September · Rating 3 out of 5]

i agree with most of the first two chapters and the general opinion that Scots is a language that must be saved but boy, you really spend 20 pages complaining about people saying English is better than Scots (i mean, yeah, obviously we don't like that prescriptivism) just to go on raving about your language being the best up to the point where you lose yourself? Quote "Anglophone reader (...)! This most onomatopoeic of languages speaks for itself in accents that can appeal to the ear of anybody not suffering from the self-inflicted deafness of prejudice"

But all in all, especially the first half, was nicely written, well argued, very interesting and proved very useful for my essay.