I grew up in a house with an English Catholic Dad and a Scottish Jewish Mum. As a kid everything to me was just language. Just words. We spoke English with a sprinkling of Yiddish and Scots. I learned French and Latin at school and Ancient Hebrew at Jewish Sunday school ... /1
I think this is part of where my fascination for story came from. I still sometimes use vocabulary and don't know which language it comes from - most recently in a book where I used the word thole that I assumed was English but is really Scots. I only found out cos /2
the editor picked me up on it and I had to look the word up. At college I studied Anglo Saxon too (It was a breeze cos Yiddish) I feel incredibly lucky to have such a rich spread of vocabulary. I also love the sound of language I can't understand. I listen to Gaelic speakers /3
Wrapt. I get lost in words - one of my greatest pleasures. So when critics (let's call them critics) are snippy about Scots I just think 'monoglots'. The more words the better. Right? The more ways of saying and hearing the more we can understand. That is the nature of nuance.
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