THIS is a public information announcement. Do not read a book called Hoose O Haivers on a train from Glasgow to Carluke unless you don’t mind people giving you funny looks as, in vain, you attempt not to laugh out loud.
Hoose O Haivers is a retelling, in Scots, of some of the Greek myths. It is published by a new imprint called Itchy Coo, set up to produce books in Scots for “bairns o aw ages”. Itchy Coo has a website (www.itchy-coo.com) with back-up information and notes to download on all their titles.
Clearly, the imprint is targeting schools. Now, writing a book in Scots for children is one thing. Trying to edge the language into an overcrowded curriculum is another, you may well be thinking. Let beardy hippy-turned-banker parents foist Scots on their offspring in their spare time, perhaps as they Range Rover along Morningside Road on the way to school (thus may your train of thought continue).
My train of thought is somewhat different. I was fairly young when I read 1984 but was struck even then by the way Newspeak was evolving as a language designed to cripple dissent. Language affects the way we think. Not only that, it affects that which we can think. Feminists have long argued that many languages promote inequality between the sexes.
I would be going over old ground if I restated my belief that the Scots attitude to the school system is different from that in England, and that the difference is one I value highly. Devolution has protected that difference. As interest in the Scots tongue reawakens, the language spoken in Scotland may begin to further devolve too, if it has not already done so.
Will this have any real effect? I think so. Inuits have two dozen words for different types of snow. Scots have about twice as many for taking down someone who thinks he is better than his fellows (sorry, feminists). Part of the fun of Hoose O Haivers is in hearing the gods and kings speaking the same, and being described in the same terms, as the “ordinary” folk. I don’t have the scholarship to assert that this egalitarianism is not merely due to anachronistic use of Scots but is a function of the language itself. But I believe it to be so.
Mibbe ye think this is aw jist high falutin mince. Mibbe ye’re richt. But mibbe we havnae mentioned the best reason for bringin mair Scots intae schuils. The bairns (o aw ages) wud enjoy it.
Gregor Steele has only met one Itchy Coo author who not only didn’t have a Range Rover but also expressed admiration for the Skoda Felicia.
