Recently campaigner and musician Iona Fyfe achieved a notable victory on behalf of the Scots language community. A few months ago having approached audio streamer and media service provider Spotify, which is based in Sweden, Fyfe noticed that every language of these islands – except for Scots – was included by the company. When she asked for her Scots language music to be listed she was told by the company to do so by “selecting the language closest to it” (in this case, English) which is like asking Norwegian or Scottish Gaelic speakers to list their languages only under Danish or Irish. Subsequently Fyfe sent the company a letter in which she complained of “blatant undermining of a distinct and unique language.”  The Scottish parliament also tabled a motion in support of Fyfe’s campaign for recognition. In February she was able to meet with Spotify’s senior editor, Laura Ohls, and at the beginning of March Spotify finally recognised the Scots language and added it to its database. MSP Clare Adamson (SNP) who tabled the parliamentary motion commented “This is something worth singing about and that is why I am delighted that Spotify has acted on this glaring omission.” 

An audio version of this story in Scots is available below.