How do you preserve a potentially endangered language when the people who speak it don’t even consider it a real language?

That’s the bizarre road block the Scottish government has hit in its recent efforts to preserve the Scots language.

On the Road to Endangerment?

The Scots language, also known as Lowlands Scots, is the historic language of Lowland Scotland and a direct descendant of old Northern English. Thanks to increasing political and cultural interaction with England from the mid-16th century onward, the Scots language became increasingly influenced by Standard English. This trend increased when Britain and Scotland joined to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the 1707 Act of Union.

The Scottish take a great pride in their cultural history, which includes such great authors as Robert Burns, Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Robert Burns is actually credited with the creation of the word “Lallans,” which refers to the literary Scots language — especially the style prominent in the 20th century literary revival.

Despite a revival in the Scots language in the 20th century and more recent efforts to promote the language, the number of Scots language speakers has decreased significantly, leading some to speculate it may join the ranks of dying languages.

The Scots language is considered a potentially endangered language by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Today there are an estimated 3 million Scots language speakers in existence around the world.

A Language or “A Way of Speaking”?

Since the election of the Scottish National Party in 2007, the Scottish government has brought new energy to its efforts to promoting the Scots Language in the country. Despite the party’s pledge to “promote awareness and usage of the language,” its efforts may be hindered by current attitudes towards the Scots language in Scotland.

According to a recent article published by Times Online, a recent survey shows that an impressive 64 percent of Scottish people consider Scots to be simply “a way of speaking,” rather than an actual language.

The attitude that Scots is more of a dialect than a distinct language most likely stems from the close relationship between the Scots language and modern English. Still, it can be extremely difficult — often impossible — for English-language speakers to understand Scots.

Questioning the Importance of Linguistic Labels

The fact that most Scots language speakers don’t even consider their tongue to be an actual language may be disconcerting to those seeking to preserve the language’s relevance. But just how much do these linguistic labels really matter? Is it essential for Scots speakers to recognize the tongue as a distinct language in order to preserve it? Not really, suggest the survey results cited by the Times Online.

Although they may see the Scots language only as “a way of speaking,” 85 percent of those surveyed claimed to speak Scots, while 43 percent said they spoke it “a lot.” What’s more, 63 percent of those asked said they did not agree with the statement that Scots “doesn’t sound nice — it’s slang.”

Looking at the survey results as a whole, it seems that whether Scots speakers consider their tongue a language or not, they are still sticking with it. The language is obviously alive and well and still in common everyday use in Scotland. Does it really matter what linguistic label its speakers stick on it?