"... if we care to preserve even that" : Scots and the question of language revitalization

Abstract

In my thesis, I examine Scots, one of the speech forms native to Scotland, its role in Scottish society and literature, and its hope of survival as English grows more and more dominant not only Scotland but in the world at large. I examine the evolution of Scots, its rise to prominence and subsequent fall in status, its relationship to English, the extant corpus of Scots literature and its role in Scottish society, and the status of Scots as a spoken and literary language today. I go on to survey the basic theories and principles of language planning and then apply them to the particular case of Scots, evaluating the potential of Scots to become a revitalized language form in Scotland, both spoken and literary. I examine current measures being taken within Scotland to revitalize Scots and challenges to these efforts, and I try to give a frank appraisal of the actual hope that Scots will survive into the twentieth century and not be totally overshadowed by the power of English.