IT HAS survived more than 300 years living cheek by jowl alongside a bigger and more widely adopted neighbour.
But now experts predict that the Scots language still in use today may be driven to extinction as people adopt a more standard vocabulary and dialect to speak to their computers.
Linguists say that Scots words such as “bampot,” “glaikit” and “stooshie” are already being seen as old-fashioned by youngsters and face being phased out entirely.
Read more: Haunted ruins on banks of Scots loch go on sale for £100,000
The rise of voice-activated technology such as phones and games consoles is expected to spread to household appliances such as cookers, light switches and washing machines as the “internet of things” takes hold.
And the need to make devices understand commands may spell doom for traditional pronunciations like “gless” (glass), “hame” (home), “bane” (bone), or fit “foot” as people adopt speech patterns influenced by Americanisms which machines can understand.
HSBC commissioned socio-linguistic experts Dr Dominic Watt, a lecturer in forensic speech at the University of York, and dialogue and dialect coach Brendan Gunn.
Read more: Haunted ruins on banks of Scots loch go on sale for £100,000
They predict that an independent Scotland would have to act to safeguard the language to maintain the Scots dialect in a similar way to Norway following its split from Denmark. He said: “In the future, our voices will become ever more crucial and we’ll use them to interact with the majority of machines and devices in our daily lives.
“Keyboards will have become obsolete and we will become completely comfortable speaking to our cars, washing machines, fridges, taxi apps and online banking services.
“In just one generation, the sound of our cities, work places and homes will continue to develop and evolve quite audible differences.”
The report looked at how language could develop in the next 50 years, and warned that a Scots language lobby might be set up to highlight the “separateness of Scotland’s culture and heritage”.
Read more: Haunted ruins on banks of Scots loch go on sale for £100,000
The study said: “If a second independence referendum were to go in favour of Scotland’s separation from the UK, the picture could be very different in the Glasgow of 2066.
“Because language and identity are so closely tied together, it might be that the Scots language lobby would step their efforts up a few gears, as a way of highlighting the separateness of Scotland’s culture and heritage.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel