Re: Language Identifier List Comments

On Monday, January 10, 2005, 7:12:24 PM, David wrote:


DC> I understand that there is Scots Gaelic (which is different to Irish
DC> Gaelic0 and a Scots language which should come under the GB heading.

Scottish Gaelic (Ghàidhlig) is related to, and shares a common ancestor
(Old Irish) with, Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge, or Irish) but has diverged over
the centuries and is correctly noted as a separate language.

Scottish Gaelic is used in some academic institutions as a teaching
language, for example: http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/

For a comparison of Scottish and Irish Gaelic, see:
http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/ga-ge/coimeas.html

Scots (or Lallans) is a Germanic language, entirely unrelated to
Scottish Gaelic. It does have some similarities to Norwegian, due to
contacts from Old Norse (especially in the Orkneys).
See http://scotsyett.com/anent/history.asp

Scots was the language of government in Scotland, even after the Union
of the Crowns in 1603, until the Union of Parliaments in 1707.

Scots is similar to, and shares a common ancestor with, English (both
are derived from Old English and thus from the language of the Angles.
The languages diverged around 1100.) For a comparison of the evolution
of Scots (confusingly, called Inglis at one time in its history :) and
of English, see http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/lingual.html

A closely related language, Ulster Scots, is spoken in Ulster.
http://www.scotchirish.net/Ulster%20Scots.php4

Both Scottish Gaelic and Scots are recognized as official languages of
Scotland by the Scottish Assembly.  See
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/historic/education/2003.htm

- 4th Report 2003: Report on the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill
  /Aithisg Ìre 1 air Bile na Gàidhlig (Alba)
- 2nd Report 2003: Report on Inquiry into the role of educational
  and cultural policy in supporting and developing Gaelic, Scots
  and minority languages in Scotland

DC> There are also probably more Cantonese, Hindi, Gujarati or Punjabi 
DC> speakers in Britain, than there are scousers.

Probably true.  The Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University
has published reports on non-indigenous minority language communities in
the UK (and is now looking at indigenous minority language communities).
http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/biml/bimls3reports1.htm

The above-mentioned report on minority languages in Scotland is available
in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, Gaelic, Punjabi, Scots and
Urdu, as an example.

We now return you to your regular programing :)

-- 
 Chris Lilley                    mailto:chris@w3.org
 Chair, W3C SVG Working Group
 Member, W3C Technical Architecture Group

Received on Monday, 10 January 2005 18:52:43 UTC