There's a story of an English ambassador to the Scottish court at some point in the middle ages, having to speak french to be understood (wish I could track it down, can anyone?)
I'll try to finally track this down, I've heard this story many times before. So saying, I think plenty of London ambassadors to the ancient kingdoms of Nothumbria, or the venerable Houses of York or Lancaster, would've had to resort to the lingua franca of either court French or Latin to be understood.
The scots language became more influenced by and similar to English english after the union
Very true, although clearly Robert Burns (and his later countryman Sir Walter Scott) could code-switch between true Scots language and English. That ability (in any real sense) is very nearly completely gone amongst the population of Scotland.
I also believe that some Scots words come directly from French at the time of the Auld Alliance
This is a persuasive expectation and will no doubt be true, but significant instances of proto-French that exist in Scots language probably pre-date both that alliance and the Norman conquest itself.
'Peedy' meaning 'small' from 'petit'. 'Fash' as in 'dinna fash yourself' from 'fâcher' ('upset').
Peedy/Peerie is a good example of nearly-extinct Scots (apart from in Shetland) whilst 'Fash' etc is by now only understood by older crusties. Such a word would now only be understood by a tiny percentage of native Scots under 30 yrs old.
I have the impression that for a lot of older English speakers in England and the Commonwealth (ie non-Scots speakers of English over 50yrs) the subtle informative injections of Scots language provided by the likes of 'Oor Willie' and 'The Broons' as cartoons ensured that generations of non-Scots had an unconscious vocabulary of many key Scots/Lallans words and syntax. These cartoons (although still in existence) now only use a smattering of Scots, mainly sticking to Scots accented English (as is the case with the vast majority of the whole home nation itself).
The Scandanavian/Germanic/Friesian modifiers upon Scots language appear to have been a lot-more influential than was the case for formal English (so much for the Danelaw). I suspect that you are spot-on with your observation regarding the OF/Norman differentiation, in lots of ways.
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...e-english-language.31931/page-19#post-1706805
Ermintruder said:
But it's too late. The damage is irreparably done. I've gibbered on about this before, but I don't apologise for repeating myself.
The Scots language is treated as an utter joke, and is a lethal social marginaliser.
For example, if someone who speaks broad Scots talks about "phonin' the Polis", many non-Scots speakers (by whom I mean many English-speaking Scots, many Gaelic-speaking Scots & Irish, and a significant proportion of the English-speaking English, both side of the border) would literally laugh at them.
Yet in Sweden, and some other Scandinavian countries, 'Polis'
is the formal word for the Police
Yet the use of the word by a Scots person (in the 'wrong' context) can cause some people to either totally cringe or burst out laughing.
D'ye ken whit's Swedish fir '
ma twa braw bairns is ben thi hoose'? No? Well, ye've jist bin telt, sae tak tent!
(Do you know what is Swedish language for "my two excellent children are in the house"? No? Well, you have just been told, so pay attention!)
In Scotland, many things are
braw. In Sweden, many similar/identical things are, indeed,
brå ....I would love to carry-out a sociophonological experiment, and instantaneously-transpose a drunken semi-coherent Glaswegian to Stockholm, and an akvavit-sodden Swede onto that suddenly-vacated barstool in the Clutha bar near the Clyde. I bet neither (and nobody) would notice for quite a few rounds.
