经济学人下载:约翰逊语言专栏--关于苏格兰语地位的政治辩论(2)

Pronunciation is not enough to make Scots a language, or the Geordie English spoken in the north-east of England would be one, too. But it also has its own vocabulary, which goes beyond the well-known “aye, bonnie lass” of films and television. Scots descends from Northumbrian, one of the dialects of Old English; standard southern English descends from a dialect farther south. Scots retained Old English words that southern English lost, such as “bannock”. It was more influenced by Norse, in words such as gate (street) and kirk (church). It also has words from Gaelic, not just loch and whisky but quaich(a kind of bowl)and sonse (good luck). It has its own Norman French borrowings, not shared with English, such as douce(sedate, sober).
发音不足以使苏格兰语成为一种语言，或者英格兰东北部使用的基尼英语也是一种语言。但它也有自己的词汇，超越了电影和电视中众所周知的“aye, bonnie lass”。苏格兰语来自诺森伯兰，诺森伯兰古英语的一种方言；标准的南方英语起源于更南方的一种方言。苏格兰人保留了古英语中一些南部英语中没有的词，比如“bannock”。它受挪威语的影响更大，比如gate(街)和kirk(教堂)。它还有盖尔语的单词，不只是loch和whisky，还有quaich(一种碗)和sonse(好运)。它有自己的诺曼法语借词，不与英语共享，如douce(稳重、冷静)。

Still, vocabulary does not make a language either. More fundamental still is grammar—and here, Scots stands out again. Its speakers say “I’m going to my bed” whereas Englishmen say simply “to bed”. “Dinnae” is a Scots version of “don’t”. “Div” commonly replaces the auxiliary verb “do”. There are past-tense forms such as jamp (jumped), and irregular plurals like een (eyes) and kye(cows).
然而，词汇也不能构成语言。更重要的还是语法，而在这里，苏格兰人再次脱颖而出。说这种话的人会说“I’m going to my bed”，而英国人会简单地说“to bed”。“Div”通常代替助动词“do”。“Dinnae”是苏格兰语“don’t”的变体。有过去式，如jamp(跳跃)，不规则复数，如een(眼睛)和kye(奶牛)。

The Scots Syntax Atlas, free online, also shows how Scots varies internally. If you find a long-missing item, you might say “there it is” in English. But while, in other contexts, “it is” contracts to “it’s”, you can’t say “there it’s!”—save in a belt of Scotland running roughly from Kilmarnock to Edinburgh. People in that belt are unlikely to say “so apparently himself is joining us for dinner,” while northern, highland and some island Scots do.
免费在线的《苏格兰语法地图集》也展示了苏格兰语内部的差异。如果你找到一件遗失已久的物品，你可以用英语说“there it is”。但是，在其他语境中，“it is”和“it’s”是缩略语，你不能说“there it’s!”——除了从基尔马诺克到爱丁堡的苏格兰地带。住在那一带的人不大可能会说:“so apparently himself is joining us for dinner（显然他是来和我们共进晚餐的）。”而住在北部、高地和一些苏格兰岛屿的人则会这么说。