Code Switching in Scotland

 Ever since reading Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy in prison, I have wondered about code-switching in Scotland. I noticed the Scots characters handled three languages - Gaelic, Scots, and English.

I knew about code-switching regarding African Americans switching between Black English and Standard English.

It seems to me that there seems to be a bit of linguistic imperialism going on.

However, until today, I did not have confirmation for this theory. Then I saw the headline ‘Scotland has always been multilingual’: new Scottish makar Peter Mackay in Guardian book review newsletter.

Raised bilingual in Gaelic and English, Mackay also speaks Spanish, Danish and Irish, and the relationship of languages to each other and to culture more widely features heavily in both his work to date and his ambitions as makar. His poems usually begin life in Gaelic, after which he roughly translates them into English before the two diverge and grow apart – a process he describes as “necessarily dishonest translation” because, in a nod to Emily Dickinson, “every language tells its truth”.

His appointment comes amid a national conversation about the future of Scotland’s native languages, Gaelic and Scots, as the number of speakers of each dwindles. The Scottish languages bill, which would give both official status, will have its final reading during Mackay’s tenure.

“It’s useful to have a Gaelic speaker in the role for that, to contribute to discussions about all the different languages spoken in the country today, and to try and build as many bridges as possible between Gaelic, Scots, Polish, Urdu and all those other languages,” he says. “I’m interested in how Scotland has always been multilingual, and multilingual in ever-increasing and fun ways.”

Maybe I am onto something. Maybe not.

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