Airticles tagged “Language”
Hou tae forder human skeels
Afore the simmer, I writ in ma afore gane airticle anent hou there is specific skeels that us humans haes that ither species disnae. But hou can we forder thir capacities? Mony human skeels appear tae hae developit in the situation in prehistoric East Africae whaur, acqueesh 135,000-90,000 year syne, there wis several drochts. Thir drochts wis brithert wi a chynge in material cultur. Archaeologists thinks this suggests some o the maist important intellectual skeels developit by wir species, like spikkin an abstract thocht, kythed at this time.
This mebbes appluised a richt muckle cousie for humanity. It turnt oot the early humans wis gittin a inlat for intellectual capacities tae develop.
It’s no you, it’s me: or, sorry Gaelic, but Scots still haes issues tae wirk throu
Syne we’r aw on the subject nou o whit mis-uisses o the leid a Scots spikker is or isnae alloued tae feel affrontit bi — whither it’s sneistie Disney-Pixar memes or the Diet Scots on American telly programmes — can ah lat ye in on wan o ma ain wee wirry-carles? Ye’ll hiv heard it yersel, nae dout; yon thocht-terminatin cliché that signifies maximum woke wi minimum ettlin, thirls sympathy for the cause wi sweirtness tae hear anither wird aboot it, an it gangs like this:
“Oh, one of my friends is a Gaelic speaker, and he…”
Weel… ay. Yin o the tapmaist kenmerks o oor mansplainy times is that there’s naither need nor prerogative tae haud tae the maiter at haund, especially gin ye ken naething aboot it an hiv nae interest in learnin. We mebbes dinnae aw ken awfu muckle aboot the Scots leid, but we’v aw got a freend or twa that spiks Gaelic, or is ettlin tae — an sae maist o us hiv got a hale wheen o richt-on opinions on the subject. Hou important the leid is, hou necessar that we aw fecht tae preserve it an pass it ontae oor bairnfowk. Mun, juist staundin here sayin aw this maks ye feel like Martin Luther King oot on the steps o the Capitol…
The skeels o Jock Tamson’s bairns
Humans is animals like ony ither in that we eat, sleep, muive aboot an dae the auld hochmagandie. But, at the same time, we arnae the same as ither animals, pairtly acause we ar the anerly species that can unnerstaund whit I’m scrievin. We ar the anerly species that haes gane fae bein an endangert species in an East African glen tae bein the anerly species tae bide on theirsels …
A dangerous thing wi style
Tae dae a dangerous thing wi style is whit ah caw airt — Charles Bukowski As a scriever ye’r no meant tae read ablo-the-line o yer ain airticles, gang gallus intae yon dour Apache laund o Unicode emoticons an racist GIFs an illiterate comments bi fowk wha micht mean wan thing an micht mean anither but naither thing maks ony sense. Ye’r no meant tae dae it, ah say, but …
The Scots leid in Australian líteratur
Onybody that kens anent the Scots leid kens that Scots is spoken in Scotland, whaur the leid first upbiggit. Fowk will like eneuch ken that Scots exists in anither pairt: the’r the Ulster Scots, the Scots spik o Northren Ireland. But whit isnae sae weel kent is the Scots uised in Australie. It’s kenable that the main leids o Australie for hunneryears wis the aborigine leids, Dyirbal an Warlpiri amang …