Scots and sport

How Scotland’s sport clubs help keep Scots alive as a language – Alistair Heather

Sport’s at the hairt o oor culture. The langer its pit aff wi the virus, the mair that’ll be tint. Them that arnae intae sport, wha dinnae hae a team in the SPFL, dinnae hae a ba o ony shape in the gairden, they dinnae aye see sport as essential.

“I’ve nae lang finished a documentary aboot the Scots leid, cried Rebel Tongue. We funn that Scots, in aa its braw urban an rural dialects fae Ayrshire up, wadnae be near sae lively had it no been fir sport. ….Sports clubs gied bield tae the leid, an tae the attendant culture. Sportin societies maistly cam o age in the latter 1800s, just as the seccont Industrial Revolution wis gettin up a heid o steam. As fowk were sindered fae their traditional modes o livin, o eatin, o traivelin an o warkin, sports clubs gied them space tae be their sels, tae keep their identities an their dialect mair protectit fae the warld ootside.

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