by Delia Forrest

Recently I went to listen to an Aboriginal singer, Gina Williams, singing in her ancestral tongue. To do so, she had had to learn the language that even her own mother doesn’t speak! Afterwards, we got chatting about language, I mentioned Scots and Gaelic, and she told me that she got her inspiration from Scots and Welsh. Her songs, like ours, were all about love of culture, and loss or leaving.

We use language to identify and express ourselves culturally. Some linguistic features are subtle, like the Scots way of attributing things as ‘wee’, while others are more explicit, such as different vocabulary or semantics. And in Scotland, as in most countries, we only need to travel a short distance down the road to hear people speaking differently to ourselves.

I was bullied because of my accent and, consequently, I spoke as little as possible

Despite being a Glaswegian, I grew up in England because of my Dad’s work. So, while my parents and younger brothers spoke Scots, I acquired a strong Durham accent. Now, whilst Durham has a nice accent, I felt alienated from my Scottish identity – a feeling which got worse when we moved back to Ayrshire when I was 12 and started at Ardrossan Academy speaking like Billy Elliot! When I look back, I realise the prejudice was strong. I was bullied because of my accent and, consequently, I spoke as little as possible. I was so miserable I had to repeat first year. For me, language was important so that I could be accepted by my peers as Scottish, but it was also why my peers alienated me.