BBC Scotland could be forced to hire a 'Scots dialect Tsar', under controversial plans to promote the country’s 'mither tongue', according to a report in the Scottish Daily Express today.
Under the heading, ‘Stooshie over Scots dialect project’, the SDE claims the SNP Government wants the BBC to hire an “adviser on Scots”.
Reports the paper: “BBC Scotland producers and presenters should also be recruited on their knowledge of local dialects, according to a new report.
“Areas including Glasgow, Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire should become ‘dialect conservation areas’.
“Published yesterday by the ministerial working group on the Scots language, the report recommends that BBC Scotland depict ‘native speakers using the language in any and all contexts’.
“The report said: ‘Interviewers talking to Scots speakers should use Scots themselves, to encourage the interviewees to respond in the mither tongue. Knowledge of spoken Scots should be regarded as an important qualification when producers and presenters are chosen’.”
The paper quotes a BBC Scotland spokesperson as saying that the Corporation already had access to Scots language advisers.
In its leader column, under the heading: ‘What a tongue-twister’, the paper declares: “The Scots Language Working Group says Scotland must be presented as a trilingual country: English, Gaelic and Scots. Fine, until we have to read road signs in a hurry: M74 (M8/A8) Edinburgh, Dun Eideann, Embra’ (A8) Glasgow, Glaschu, Glesga; M80 Stirling, Sruighlea, Stirlin’.”
PS Lexicographical note: According to that handy The Scotsman’s booklet, ‘Collins Scottish Words’, 'stooshie' or 'stushie'is a noun meaning …'a row or uproar, usually in protest'.
