[BITList] The Bilingual Advantage - NYTimes.com

[HUGH]

John,

I am required to log on to read the article. As soon as I find my NYT User Name and Password, I'll log on and find out - it's a while since I last used it.  But I can comment, nonetheless.  Scots, like Shakespearian English, is a literary language - I can't think of anyone or any place that uses it in everyday speech. If we are talking about "everyday Scots", to coin a phrase, the first thing to note is that the phrase has little meaning. What passes for everyday speech in Fife sounds exotic around the lower Clyde, and the north east Doric is a whole new way of speaking.  I got on a bus the other day that had started its journey in Ayrshire.  All around me they spoke a subtly different language - twa for two, fower for four, boay for boy, gairden for garden, ye ken for you know, usv.  A pal and I once arrived on our bikes in front of my aunt's house in Ardrossan.  My cousin, seeing me arrive, shouted, "Mither, there's twa boays in oor gairden."  "Au contraire," shouted my aunt, "They're no boays, wans your cizzen."  Aunt Mary, born in Greenock, at that point hadn't lived many years in Ardrossan.

Hugh.
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