Editing Ulster Scots dialect (section)

====New orthographies====
[[File:Looking for the "Cludgies"^ - geograph.org.uk - 637820.jpg|thumb|A trilingual sign at [[Strule Arts Centre]] in [[Omagh]] showing English, Irish (middle) and a form of Ulster Scots (bottom)<ref>An ''ingang'' is simply an entrance or entry [http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=2904&startset=19735065&query=INGANG&fhit=ingang&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit SND: Ingang]. ''Cludgie'' is a slang term for water-closet.[http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?query=cludgie&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=both SND: Cludgie] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321183603/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?query=cludgie&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=both |date=21 March 2012 }}. ''Warkschap'' an [[Western esotericism|esoteric]] respelling of what tradition would likely render ''warkshap''.</ref>]]
By the early 20th century the literary tradition was almost extinct,<ref>Montgomery, Michael Gregg, Robert (1997) 'The Scots language in Ulster', in Jones (ed.), p. 585</ref> though some 'dialect' poetry continued to be written.<ref>Ferguson, Frank (ed.) (2008) ''Ulster-Scots Writing'', Dublin: Four Courts Press; {{ISBN|978-1-84682-074-8}}; p. 376</ref> Much [[language revival|revival]]ist Ulster Scots has appeared, for example as "official translations", since the 1990s. However, it has little in common with traditional Scots [[orthography]] as described in Grant and Dixon's ''Manual of Modern Scots'' (1921). [[Aodán Mac Póilin]], an [[Irish language]] activist, has described these revivalist orthographies as an attempt to make Ulster Scots an independent written language and to achieve official status. They seek "to be as different to English (and occasionally Scots) as possible".<ref name="aodan">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/history/stateapart/agreement/culture/support/cul2_c013.shtml |title= Language, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland |first1=Aodan |last1=Mac Poilin  |work=A State Apart  |publisher=BBC NI |date=9 February 1999 |access-date=17 April 2015}}</ref> He described it as a hotchpotch of obsolete words, [[neologism]]s (example: {{lang|sco|stour-sucker}}<ref>The Scots form would be [http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?query=souk&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=snd souker] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321184937/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?query=souk&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=snd |date=21 March 2012 }}</ref> for ''[[vacuum cleaner]]''), redundant spellings (example: {{lang|sco|qoho}}<ref>The [[History of the Scots language|Older Scots]] spelling was usually [http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?query=quha&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=dost quha] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321184850/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?query=quha&sset=1&fset=20&printset=20&searchtype=full&dregion=form&dtext=dost |date=21 March 2012 }}.</ref> for ''who'') and "erratic spelling".<ref name="aodan"/> This spelling "sometimes reflects everyday Ulster Scots speech rather than the conventions of either modern or historic Scots, and sometimes does not".<ref name="aodan"/> The result, Mac Póilin writes, is "often incomprehensible to the native speaker".<ref name="aodan"/> In 2000, John Kirk described the "net effect" of that "amalgam of traditional, surviving, revived, changed, and invented features" as an "artificial dialect". He added,<blockquote>It is certainly not a written version of the vestigial spoken dialect of rural County Antrim, as its activists frequently urge, perpetrating the fallacy that it's ''wor ain leid''. (Besides, the dialect revivalists claim not to be native speakers of the dialect themselves!) The colloquialness of this new dialect is deceptive, for it is neither spoken nor innate. Traditional dialect speakers find it counter-intuitive and false...<ref name = kirk>Kirk, John M. (2000) "The New Written Scots Dialect in Present–day Northern Ireland" in Magnus Ljung (ed.) ''Language Structure and Variation''; Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell; pp. 121–138.</ref></blockquote>

In 2005, Gavin Falconer questioned officialdom's complicity, writing: "The readiness of Northern Ireland officialdom to consign taxpayers' money to a black hole of translations incomprehensible to ordinary users is worrying".<ref>Falconer, Gavin (2005) "Breaking Nature's Social Union – The Autonomy of Scots in Ulster" in John Kirk & Dónall Ó Baoill eds., ''Legislation, Literature and Sociolinguistics: Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland'', Belfast: Queen's University, pp. 48–59.</ref> Recently produced teaching materials, have, on the other hand, been evaluated more positively.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etini.gov.uk/ulster_scots.pdf|title=An Evaluation of the Work of the Curriculum Development Unit for Ulster-Scots|publisher=Stranmillis University College|access-date=17 April 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326190713/http://www.etini.gov.uk/ulster_scots.pdf|archive-date=26 March 2009|df=dmy-all}}</ref>