Kelsey Jackson Williams

Ilka bodie kens there’s academic scrievin in the Gaelic – jist keek at the wark o Aonghas MacCoinnich or Domhnall Uilleam Stiubhart.  Folk may speir an croup it’s no accessible tae Anglophones, but that didnae stop a Gaelic scholar yit.  Wha’s keerious, though: ye maun scrimge hard tae find the like in Scots.  Wha’s mair keerious: a thrid o folk in Scotland, includin mair than ane dominie I ken, can speik the leid, whilk is a guid sicht mair than micht say the same aboot Gaelic.  Sae whaur’s the academic scrievin in Scots?

There are, I think, a couple o reasons fer this absence.  Fer Gaels, scrievin in their native leid is a foundin pairt o their identity as an embattled minoritie group and a strang jeve agin Anglo-normativity; in short, there’s a dunch towarts scrievin academic prose in Gaelic if yer a Gaelic scholar.  On the ither haun, fer Scots there’s historically been a dunch awa fra scrievin scholarly wark in their ane leid.  Leavin aside the emphasis on learnin Inglis to gang aheid in the Empire in former generations, Scots has historically been seen as a rude chiel’s leid, a dialect, a vernacular no ganelie for “sairious” wark.  Een when it was revertit (or inventit) be Hugh Macdiarmid an co., that was for explicitly literary purposes an there were few Scottish historians o that or succeedin generations wha would hae conceivit o scrievin their buiks in Lallans.

Noo that Scots is finally beginnin tae be kent, baith as its ane leid and as ane o the major leids o Scotland, there are still factors wha dackle its use be academics.  A lack o journals or buik series is a pairt, but mair fundamental, I misdoot, is scholars’ ane uncertainty in their use o the leid.  Fer sae lang, Scots has been the tongue o the hame and o freends – somethin tae be avoidit in the schule – and that kind o codin is difficult to change oernicht.  If yer no a native speaker, sik concerns matter less mayhap, but the challenge o navigatin a flude, complex leid and findin the words an concepts tae express scholarly thocht is nae easy (and I’ve nae doot that ye could pick mair than eneuch holes in this laboured prose).

But nane o these factors are sufficient reason no tae attempt some academic Scots.  If we care aboot the leid and want it tae continue tae thee, we should put it tae the test in all walks o life.  When you next scrieve an article, ask yersel: wha would happen if I scrievit this in Scots?  The warst they can dee is turn ye doon . . . .

Copyricht 2019 Kelsey Jackson Williams