SCOTS LANGUAGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 115, 11 April 1930, Page 11

SCOTS LANGUAGE.

NATIONAL DICTIONARY. “It is curious how prevalent the idea is, even among Scots themselves, that the old native tongue is a mere dialect of standard English. In actual facts, Scots is no more closely allied to English than Dutch is to Flemish, Danish to Swedish, or Portuguese to Spanish,” says.a contributor to the Scots Observer, in reviewing the progress of the association which lias undertaken the publication of a Scottish national dictionary. “To ensure a thorough investigation, the whole country from Maidenkirk on to Shetland (excluding, of course, the Gaidhealtachd or Gaelic-speaking grea) and a portion of Ulster as well, was divided into districts, each with a superintendent and a number of voluntary workers, .who collect characteristic words and illustrative sentences from the speech and literature of their respective districts. These are written on slips of uniform size and sent to headquarters, where they are carefully arranged in alphabetical order in the files. Thousands of slips are already on hand, and they keep arriving in batches. The dictionary will consist of not less than 10 volumes, each of about 320 pages. These will be issued in parts, and it is anticipated that the first part will appear in •the course of the present year.” In spite of the enormous amount of voluntary' work, the cost of producing, and more particularly of printing, a work of such magnitude is bound to he heavy; it has been roughly estimated at not less than £15,000.