Can i read scots

Can I speak Scots? Can I read Scots? Can I write Scots? How is Scots related to English? Are Scots and Gaelic different things? You can add the necessary parameters to your search to make the search as broad or specific as necessary. All that Glisters by Anne Donovan written text only. Scots — in Scots by Billy Kay written text only. A lot of Scottish history, custom and culture is carried in the language. If we do not promote and teach it, therefore, how are our young children later on to be able to connect with their culture and history, or read and appreciate Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Hugh MacDiarmid, or James Kelman?

In short, the ability to speak and read Scots is essential if we want our children to access their heritage and culture. Scots is not slang. It is not even dialect. It is a language, one moreover that has a huge, distinct, and illustrious history. Even the most casual glance at literature written down the ages in Scots demonstrates that this is a fully fledged language.

Italian, French and Spanish all come from the same root language Latin and are all similar grammatically and in terms of vocabulary. Are we to deny they are distinct languages? Use of Scots in everyday life in Scotland is widespread. Her record-breaking debut novel, already translated into 79 languages, was published as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane Itchy Coo, , making Scots Harry Potter language nummer Hands up.

I translated it. But Harry Potter in Scots from Itchy Coo is only the most recent publishing success in the language some people call uncouth, unwashed and unreadable. Itchy Coo is an imprint of the Edinburgh publishing house, Black and White. Founded in by writer James Robertson and myself, we punch well above our weight. With our goal to make great books for children of all ages, Itchy Coo has a backlist of award-winning original work and best-selling translations of books by Julia Donaldson, Roald Dahl, David Walliams and Alexander McCall Smith.

There is no doubt about it. If done well, Scots sells. And the Itchy Coo phenomenon seems to have jump-started more publishing in Scots. Writing and publishing in Scots is not for the faint-hearted. Books in Scots have to compete with the millions of books published in English and take flak from cynics and naysayers.

The Scottish state commits millions in public money to Gaelic but pennies to Scots. But Scots speakers told for generations to shut up are no longer prepared to do so. A growing confidence is evident among the Scots speaking community whose confidence Scottish society deliberately tried to smash.

Many will buy a book in Scots because they've been starved of books in their own language for so long. For others, it validates the way they speak. But for most, it's just about the pleasure of reading and enjoying a good book. In the bad old days, a book with Scots in it would inevitably portray Scots speakers as bumpkins or buffoons. But the independence debate changed this.