Motion S3M-00775: Bill Wilson, West of Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 05/11/2007

The BBC's Scots Language Policy

That the Parliament notes the BBC Trust’s publication of the BBC’s public purposes which the BBC is committed to implementing under the terms of its charter; notes the statements therein that the BBC should represent the United Kingdom, its nations, regions and communities and that, in its output, it should support the UK’s indigenous minority languages “such as Gaelic, Welsh, Irish and Ulster Scots”; notes the fact that the Scots language of Scotland, the UK’s indigenous minority language with the most speakers, is not mentioned; expresses its condemnation of this omission, and calls on the BBC to apologise and rectify the situation immediately.

Motion S3M-00640: Aileen Campbell, South of Scotland, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 11/10/2007

Scots Translation of Dahl Classic at Number 1

That the Parliament congratulates Clydesdale author, Matthew Fitt, on his book Geordie’s Mingin Medicine reaching the top of the Waterstone’s Children’s Best Sellers’ list ahead of Harry Potter and Walt Disney’s High School Musical; further acknowledges the increasing importance of the Scots language to children in Scotland as evidenced by the popularity of this book, and encourages all children to keep the Scots language alive.

Motion S3M-00358: Alasdair Allan, Western Isles, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 14/08/2007

Scots Language Database

That the Parliament welcomes the creation of the Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech website (www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk) by researchers at the University of Glasgow; notes that this website has more than four million words in Scots and Scottish English, includes texts from 1945 up to the present day and, as well as describing meaning and usage, the project also has audio links which allow people to hear the words being spoken, and recognises that this could be a vital resource for those interested in the Scots language the world over and that the Scots language is a source of interest across the world as one aspect of Scotland’s long and thriving cultural heritage.

            The member has provided the following Scots translation:

At the Pairliament walcomes the makin o the Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech wabsteid (www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk), bi researchers at Glesca Universitie; taks tent at this wabsteid haes mair nor fower meilion wurds i Scots an Scottish Inglish, amang them screids fae 1945 forrit, an at, forby descreivin meanins an uisses, the projeck haes audio links an aw, at lats fowk hear the wurds bein spoken; taks tent at this cuid be a uissfu resource for thaim’s interestit i the Scots leid the warld ower; an at the Scots leid is a source o interest ower aw the warld as ae bit o Scotland’s lang cultural heriutage at’s tae the fore yet.

Motion S2M-05409: Donald Gorrie, Central Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Date Lodged: 12/01/2007

Scots Language Dictionaries

That the Parliament recognises the long history of Scots language dictionaries, from Jamieson’s in 1808 to the 10-volume Scottish National Dictionary completed in 1976, the Dictionary of the Older Scots Tongue completed in 12 volumes in 2002 and the online Dictionary of the Scots Language in 2004, which together put Scotland at the forefront of producers of dictionaries of minority languages; also welcomes the work being done on Faclair na Gàidhlig, and, in order to safeguard the future of these long-term dictionary projects, urges the Scottish Executive and other government, commercial and charitable organisations to co-operate in providing the requisite funds for continuing work on them.