Courier columnist Ally Heather has urged Dundonians to nominate Scots speakers for an upcoming awards event in the city.
The writer and TV presenter will be co-hosting the annual Scots Language Awards when it comes to Dundee’s Gardyne Theatre for the second year running on Saturday September 24.
The event celebrates Scots speakers keeping the language alive – be it a primary school teacher, barmaid or butcher.
And Ally, a native Scots speaker from Newbigging in Angus, is hopeful it will highlight Dundee as “one of the best Scots speaking cities in Scotland”.
Event to showcase Dundee dialect
Ally, who has hosted the Scots Language Awards since it was launched in 2019, wants to see a flood of Dundee nominations.
He says schools and teachers who are giving Scots-speaking children a “sense of confidence in who they are” deserve to be recognised.
He said: “I am very keen to see more nominations for awards like ‘Scots School o’ the Year’ and ‘Scots Teacher o’ the Year’, because I know some schools in Dundee teach Scots very well.”
Dundee Scots speakers have come out on top at the awards in the past, with Kerry Fraser, a teacher at Perth High School, awarded Teacher o’ the Year in 2021 for encouraging her pupils to use the language in the classroom.
Other “well kent” previous winners from the city include the hosts of The Dode Fox podcast, a show about Dundee United delivered entirely in Scots by Ronny Costello and Paul McNicoll.
Ally, who will host the event alongside Scottish poet and Scots language advocate Len Pennie, added: “I really want Scots businesses to be nominated too.
“The barmaid at the pub, the guy at the bookies, the woman that works in the library or the woman that works in the butchers and speaks Dundee Scots to you whenever you’re in there.”
Ally said: “I really hope that the awards coming to the city will help Dundonians understand that they are the cultural standard bearers for our national language.
“I think Dundee is one of the best Scots speaking cities in Scotland and therefore in the world.
“And we can be so proud of it.
“We should be raising our flag at these awards and saying ‘Dundee is looking after its language and celebrating its language and we’re proud of it’.”
Scots, which is spoken by more than 1.5 million people in Scotland, is among European languages considered at risk of dying out by Unesco.
Ally says it has long been considered wrong and improper.
He said: “[Scots] was really strongly spoken in Dundee in factories, in the shipyards and working class environments, and it was spoken much less in middle class environments because it’s seen as gutter slang, the same way Gaelic was treated until extremely recently.”
He hopes the awards, which are run by Scots music and cultural organisation Hands up for Trad, will empower Scots speakers to continue using it in their everyday lives.
‘It’s not slang or rough’
He said: “[A priority for the awards] is to help Scots speakers understand they speak a language which is beautiful and rich and that it is not just ‘slang’ or ‘rough’.
“It’s about building community confidence and cultural esteem.
“For so long, Dundonians have been told they’re not good enough and that they have to change how they are to fit in.
“They get told off in school for speaking Scots for example.”
Nominations close on Sunday
The Scots Language Awards is set to welcome comedian Bruce Fummey and poet Hamish Macdonald, as well as live music from Robyn Stapleton and Beth Malcolm.
Eleven categories, including Scots speaker and Scots performer, are open to entries until Sunday August 14.
You can submit a nomination here.
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