Latest News
5/6/08
As a result of the general restructuring taking place at the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Language Dictionaries, along with several other Scots language organisations, have been notified that our flexible funding will not be renewed after the end of the current financial year on 31 March 2009. We have enjoyed long-standing support for our work from the Literature Department at SAC and very much appreciate their continuing advice and direction at this difficult time. Needless to say, we are doing our very best to secure funding from April 2009 so that we can continue our work as lexicographers of Scots, providing a national and international resource for the Scots language.
22/4/08
Scottish Language Dictionaries are delighted to announce the publication of Say It In Scots, a new series of pocket books designed to inform and entertain the reader about the wonderful, rich and varied language of Scots. Four titles have been launched this month: Scottish Placenames, Scottish Weather, Wha's Like Us? and Scottish Wildlife. Find out more about each title! All four books are now available from Amazon.co.uk.
18/4/08
Issue 3 of our International Newsletter is now available from this website. In this issue you'll find our regular articles, including the profile of a Scots word and a Scottish tradition, an update on Scots lexicography, an introduction to a "Secret Destination", and more. If you would like to make a suggestion for a future article about a particular event or location in Scotland, or abroad, please email us: mail@scotsdictionaries.org.uk.
3/3/2008
SLD would like to thank the Aurelius Charitable Trust for their generous contribution to the work of our Data Conversion Project, which will create a more robust, user-friendly and future-proofed resource for housing the materials in our ongoing Word Collection.
25/1/08
For our fourth Scottish Writing Exhibition, part of the Modern Language Association convention in the US, we again enjoyed an enthusiastic welcome and great support from conference delegates. We distributed our gift bags in record time, and noted a sharp increase in the number of academics working in the field of Scottish literature, specifically those seeking collaboration for development of current and new courses. We took a record 120 titles this year, from a variety of Scottish, English and American publishers.
SLD's publishers, Edinburgh University Press, sent several books to our exhibit; we were delighted to see, this year for the first time, that in addition to contributing to our exhibit they also sent an entire bookcase-display of Scottish books to the Columbia University Press booth. Columbia distribute EUP's books in North America.
Dr Robinson's Scots language session attracted a keen and dedicated audience, and Scottish authors Louise Welsh and Iain Finlay Macleod charmed and inspired literary fans with readings from their work.
We are very excited to be making plans for the MLA convention in San Francisco this December, and also for our first, exploratory venture to the European Society for the Study of English conference this year in Aarhus, Denmark! Keep an eye on the Scottish Writing Exhibition website for details.
3/12/07
SLD, in partnership with the Association for Scottish Literary Studies (ASLS), has taken the Scottish Writing Exhibition to the Modern Language Association convention in the US since 2004. The convention attracts over 10,000 delegates, the vast majority being university lecturers, and our aim is to encourage the inclusion of Scottish literature in the curriculum at North American universities. Our exhibit typically showcases close to 100 titles, from several publishers (primarily Scottish), including publications in Scots and Gaelic and dictionaries for both languages.
This year we are very excited to welcome Christine Robinson, SLD's Director, to the rapidly-growing Scottish contingent. Dr Robinson will be giving a paper entitled "A Moorkavie oot o the North: Old Norse Weather Words in Scotland", as a part of the session "Patterns in Time: The Scottish Nordic Synergy", chaired by Dr Donna Heddle from the UHI Millenium Institute. For more information on the influence of Scandinavian languages on Scots, please email Chris at mail@scotsdictionaries.org.uk
28/11/07
After over a year of design and construction involving all members of SLD staff, the National Word Collection Database is now in the final stage of testing. The Database will be a cutting-edge research tool which we will use for future editions of our dictionaries. It will include over 57,000 entries and we will continue to add new data as it comes in. We hope the National Word Collection Database will form the basis for a new lexical Linguistic Survey of Scotland. We will keep you informed of our progress! If you have any questions, please email us at mail@scotsdictionaries.org.uk
3/10/07
Issue 2 of our International Newsletter is now available from this website. The newsletter includes regular articles on Scots words and traditions, an update on Scots lexicography, a profile of a Scottish region, a portrait of a Scottish-American society, and more. If you would like your organisation to be profiled in a future issue, or if you would like to make a suggestion for a future article about a particular event or location in Scotland, please email us: mail@scotsdictionaries.org.uk
7/6/2007
Scottish Language Dictionaries are pleased to announce that A History of Scots to 1700 by Caroline Macafee is now freely available on the DSL website. Undergraduate and postgraduate university students, researchers and general readers who really want to get to grips with the history of the Scots language will come to rely on A History of Scots to 1700 as a fascinating description of language change and an essential reference resource.
4/6/2007
A report into the use of Shetland dialect in local authority and partner-provided nursery classes in Shetland is now available on the Scots Language Centre web site. This excellent report is worth reading if you are interested in education, linguistic diversity and the provision of support for young speakers of dialect. The research and report were commissioned by Shetland Islands Council.
25/5/2007
Applications are now being accepted for the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship 2008. Applicants must be published Scottish writers. Please see the guidelines for more details, and note that the closing date for submissions is Friday 31 August 2007. The fellowship is offered jointly by the Scottish Arts Council and the National Library of Scotland.
16/3/2007
Scottish Language Dictionaries has submitted a response to the Stategy for Scotland's Languages, following the Scottish Executive's request for comments.
21/2/2007
The long-awaited Strategy for Scotland's Languages can now be seen on the Scottish Executive's website and comment is invited.1/2/2007
James Robertson has presented a paper, The Scots Language: A Personal View, to the Cross Party Group on Scottish Writing, calling for the establishment of an adequately funded policy for the preservation, encouragement and development of the Scots Language.
