Alistair Heather calls out the hypocrisy of praising Burns while deriding current speakers of his language.
We Scots Speakers have heard it all. Wir language may be fine on the terraces at the fitba, maybe, but ye widnae use it in a job interview. Roch men might get awa wi it on a building site, but it’s no a way for nice lassies to speak. It’s a couthy hame language, no a public one, we’re telt.
He picks on the advice given to Burns not to write in Scots.
Not much has changed, then, since Burns’ pal sent that well-meaning advise to ditch the provincial dialect. Scots is still seen as a handicap by many. Wir language still struggles against prejudice.