Richt interestin thochts on language an politics. “Support for Scots and Gaelic doesn’t neatly tie up with someone’s opinion on Scotland’s constitutional future.”
Some FB comments,
“It’s crazy really for the author to suggest there aren’t Scots speakers in the Central Belt. It’s full of them if you listen without filtering out their speech and translating it to SSE”,
“Scots language needs to be recognized/seen as a language which can be promoted, spoken and used outside of the British isles just like any other language (the same as all the forms of Gaeilge) that is/can be spoken and used by other language diaspora populations (or anyone who chooses to learn and use it). When Scots becomes recognized as a language not bound only by the nation/states mentioned in the article, then it can be truly said to be “apolitical”.”,
In Ulster it is different. Scots is regarded as a strongly unionist/loyalist language and therefore gets active derision and discrimination from republican circles. Most people regard it as a ‘made up’ language (and accept this as gospel with no scrutiny)…. The language and speakers of it tend to be apolitical but it has become embroiled in the weaponisation of language which is sadly very prevalent in Ireland.