I couldnt agree more with the last message from Guest from Canada.
Now that im getting old certain things in life become more important,and one of these is the beauty and expressiveness of the old Scots tongue.I can remember when most of these old words were in commmon usage...and the language was rich and melodic.Im afraid to my shame i never learned Gaelic,but it too was spoken freely in our area.
The finest passage i have ever read on the old Scots language was written by Lewis Grassic Gibbon in Sunset Song...
"You saw their faces in firelight,fathers and mothers and the neighbours,before the lamps lit up,tired and kind,faces dear and close to you,you wanted the words theyd known and used,fogotten in the far off youngness of their lives,Scots words to tell to your heart,how they wrung and held it,the toil of their days and unendingly their fight.And the nextminute that passed from you,you were English,back to the English words so sharp and clean and true -for a while,for a while,tillthey slipped so smooth from your throatyou knew they could never say anything that was worth the saying at all"      I rest my case....