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Arts and Culture

New Year Special – The results for Newsnet Scotland’s Greatest Album are in and here it is; plus we’ll also singalong with the proclaimers and the crowds to Auld Lang Syne.

Newsnet Scotland’s Greatest Album
Being a compilation album, we can put 80 minutes of songs onto a single CD in the 21st century and may thus more fully indulge our choices – however 20 songs is probably about right.

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2011/12 is a key part of Scotland’s tourism calendar, and was worth more than £32 million to the Scottish economy in 2010/2011, with 132,000 people coming to Edinburgh over the course of the festival.

Pete Irvine, Creative Director of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, said “With four of the six ticketed events already sold out, we are looking forward to a fantastic Hogmanay.

By Paul Kavanagh – [click here for parts 7 and 8]

1800 AD
: It was during this period that both Scotland’s major languages became minoritised, but Scots and Gaelic were affected by the advance of English in different ways.  A minoritised language is something different from a minority language although the two categories often overlap.  A minoritised language is one that has been driven from public use and whose use is not recognised or supported by the state, which works exclusively through the medium of another language.  The state sees its goal as the spread of this language to the exclusion of other languages.

By Paul Kavanagh – [click here for parts 5 and 6]

1400 AD : A massive shift to Scots is in progress in the Lowlands. By this time Scots is regarded as a different language from English, and was in the process of undergoing a complex set of linguistic changes which would eventually turn it into a language quite different in character from its closest relative.  Most of the distinctive features of Scots pronunciation arose during this period and the language was being lexically enriched as writers strove to adapt it for use as the language of the Scottish state and administration.  Literature in Scots starts to become abundant and covers a diverse range of topics, styles and themes.

By Paul Kavanagh – [Click here for parts 3 and 4]

1000 AD : The Norse flashed across Scotland like a lightning storm.  But although dramatic, their effect on the linguistic geography of Scotland was surprisingly limited.  Even so, the linguistic effects of Norse upon the other languages of Scotland would prove to be far more significant.  All the modern languages of Scotland contain a substantial number of Norse loanwords, and features of Norse pronunciation strongly affected the Gaelic of northern Scotland.  The characteristic ‘preaspiration’ of Scottish Gaelic dialects of the Highlands is almost certainly due to Norse influence.

By Martin Kelly
 
An MSP is calling for Scots to seek out their overseas relatives and to find out about their family’s history as the nation prepares for Homecoming 2014.
 
Hamilton MSP Christina McKelvie is urging fellow Scots to trace their family roots after becoming inspired by the story of her own relatives from Hamilton in Canada.

By Paul Kavanagh – [Click here for parts 1 and 2]

600 AD : Pictish and Cumbric were now seen as quite different languages spoken by distinct peoples.  They may still have been mutually intelligible, but were considered different languages for political and cultural reasons.  In much the same way in modern times we consider Swedish and Norwegian to be different languages although Swedes and Norwegians can usually learn to understand one another without too many difficulties.

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