Outlander is boosting a renaissance of the Scots language – here’s how

Outlander is boosting a renaissance of the Scots language – here’s how

What would ye twa cotters ken o’ battle, eh? I bet ye Lallybroch tumshies will turn arse and run at first blast o’ cannon fire… Pithy Scots brogue and throwaway insults punctuate Outlander, the phenomenally successful TV series that explores the final great Jacobite uprising of 1745 – the rebellion against King George II led by Bonnie Prince Charlie.

“The Scots spoken in Outlander may not be the language spoken today in Scotland, but rather a stage-Scots – essentially English dressed in tartan and cockade – yet it is still to be cheered. In fact, the presence of Scots in Outlander is a sign of how far an historically repressed language has come in just a few decades”.

Irene Watt, a lecturer at the, Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen outlines the fascinating links between Scots and Jacobitism, concluding “As Jacobitism is rehabilitated through Outlander and other popular books that present it as an organised, dangerous and international movement, Scots has also experienced something of a tectonic shift in status”. 

Reprinted in the National https://www.thenational.scot/news/16595101.outlander-boosting-renaissance-scots-language–/

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