Palavra Escocesa was inspired by Scots Word of the Day. This is the Portuguese version of the project, allowing Portuguese speakers to become familiar with the Scots language.
It's a project that shares a different word in Scots every day, aiming to give visibility to the Scots language. Launched in 2020 by poet Len Pennie, Scots Word of the Day is one of the biggest projects about Scots in the world.
Besides teaching about the Scots language, Len also writes poems and promotes cultural events around Scotland. Follow her work on Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.
In the beginning, the goal of the project was to simply translate the content created by Len, making it accessible to those who don't speak English or Scots. As time passed, and with lots of research, the project evolved. Today, we get our inspiration from the main references on the field, and our goal is to share information about both the Scots language and Scottish culture.
Along with Scottish Gaelic, it is one of the indigenous languages of Scotland protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Today, only 30% of Scottish people speak Scots - English is the most spoken language in the country. Associated with the working class, Scots used to be treated as something inferior - and, through time, it was replaced by English. Even nowadays, many see the idiom as a dialect, a slang, a subgroup of the English language, when, in fact, Scots and English are sister languages.
With rich oral traditions, the language is very much alive in song, storytelling and folklore. It is a symbol of resistance to the years of English domination, when people were belittled for the way they expressed themselves. It shows that talking is also a way of fighting for independence, where people are free to speak their mother tongue and cultivate it. To learn about Scots is to learn about the fight for identity.
Nichola Giovanella likes etymology, language, and, well, Scotland. The interest in the country started after a trip to Edinburgh. Nichola is learning Scots, and they've created this project to share all the information they're learning.