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Archiver > ABERDEEN > 2012-03 > 1330938778


From: Gavin Bell <>
Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] ABERDEEN Digest, Vol 7, Issue 53
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:12:58 +0000
References: <mailman.313.1330502444.5005.aberdeen@rootsweb.com><CADWZKpsCbwL5FzmXTeeBqXwvMgpA55a_dJ+jK8ekkf1=7bWE8Q@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CADWZKpsCbwL5FzmXTeeBqXwvMgpA55a_dJ+jK8ekkf1=7bWE8Q@mail.gmail.com>


J McRae wrote:

>...
>
>Another reason for English as the ‘normal’ language of Scotland would be
>the employment of English only speaking teachers by the church/school board
>in the early years of schooling meaning that there was little chance of
>teaching Gaelic to the population,
>

Scots (that is, the version of English spoken in Scotland) was
established as the language of the lowlands many hundreds of years
before the School Boards were established, and even before the Kirk
attempted to provide schools. By the late 1300s, Scots was established
as a literary language, by such works as "The Brus" by John Barbour
(Archdeacon of Aberdeen), and long before that, evidence from burghal
and other records establishes that the normal language of the towns was
Scots, not Gaelic.

Secondly, there was no need for teachers in the lowlands to suppress
Gaelic, because there was little likelihood that their pupils could
speak it. Following the Norman Conquest of England, there was a wave of
Anglian-speaking refugees from the north of England into Scotland, a
process reinforced by the deliberate policy of Scottish kings, from the
time of Malcolm Canmore (1057-1093) to encourage inward migration by
Normans and their Anglian servants.


Gavin Bell

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