Scottish Independence

[hlysnan]

Scotland never spoke OE (except possibly the Southern Uplands around 700-900AD, but even then the land was quickly switching between English, Norse and Gaelic hands). By the time it was under solid English rule, they would've been speaking Middle English (or French).

[loqu]

The level of nationalism in this thread is constipating me. And keeping in mind people call me a nationalist, it's quite disturbing.

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

Scottish history has been very shifting, language-wise, but if we look at the current situation, there seem to be three spoken Scottish languages at hand, English, Scots and Gaelic, and if the purpose is to distance Scotland from Englishness, then Gaelic is the most obvious choice for the nation.

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

The level of nationalism in this thread is constipating me. And keeping in mind people call me a nationalist, it's quite disturbing.

I think you are over-reacting somewhat. Is there even a Scottish nationalist in this thread? It is just us outsiders wanting something to happen on the map that otherwise would not concern us in the least.

[Set]

The level of nationalism in this thread is constipating me. And keeping in mind people call me a nationalist, it's quite disturbing.

I think you are over-reacting somewhat. Is there even a Scottish nationalist in this thread? It is just us outsiders wanting something to happen on the map that otherwise would not concern us in the least.

I'd say one of us is a celtic nationalist.

And we're not all outsiders thank you.

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

I'd say one of us is a celtic nationalist.

And we're not all outsiders thank you.

I thought there was only one Scottish person in the thread, and that said person (you) was not a fanatic nationalist, but of a rather moderate stance.

That the rest us might have other leanings is another matter, but when I wrote my remark above, I only considered Scottish nationalists' nationalism as relevant for the nationalism here. (I did not re-read the thread before posting either, so there might be other Scots in there that I do not recall.)

[loqu]

The level of nationalism in this thread is constipating me. And keeping in mind people call me a nationalist, it's quite disturbing.

I think you are over-reacting somewhat. Is there even a Scottish nationalist in this thread? It is just us outsiders wanting something to happen on the map that otherwise would not concern us in the least.

Irrelevant. No need to be Scottish to be a nationalist, and there's a lot of it in this thread. I can feel sympathy for Scottish nationalism somehow, but not to the levels ciaran1212 is preaching.

[Hunef]

I can feel sympathy for Scottish nationalism somehow, but not to the levels ciaran1212 is preaching.

Well, every nation has its nationalist fundamentalists, even the most civilized countries in the world, i.e., the Scandinavian ones.

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

But is it so nationalistic to have the government and its branches use Gaelic instead of English, which basically is what "using the same methods, in reverse" would mean?

And is there something wrong with being nationalistic, and try to save the remnants of our cultural heritage?

[loqu]

And is there something wrong with being nationalistic, and try to save the remnants of our cultural heritage?

Yes, extremism. Your question is pretty biased though.

[Set]

And is there something wrong with being nationalistic, and try to save the remnants of our cultural heritage?

Yes, extremism. Your question is pretty biased though.

Haha, exactly. It's like saying: Is there something wrong with being nationalistic, and trying to stop people eating babies?

[hlysnan]

Hardly comparable.

[Hunef]

And is there something wrong with being nationalistic, and try to save the remnants of our cultural heritage?

Yes, because you can save your cultural heritage by simply being interested in it without wearing your brown shirt. That is, don't force your ideas onto someone else; if you want to save your endangered language do so by making people interested in it, don't force them using it. Make it possible to use it in all instances, but don't remove the possibility for people to use the current standard until nearly everyone has chosen to leave it.

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

Make it possible to use it in all instances,

There is currently no Celtic language for which this is possible, not even Welsh, it seems, so who is forcing whom? Yet the ones who mention some personal emotional support for endangered minority languages are labeled extremists.

That some pro-Celtic activities have gone off the mark into unpleasantness need not judge everything. There have been majority-language actions that are disgraceful as well, in the UK, and in Sweden, and many other countries.