Control o braidcastin is a pouer at the governament o Catalunya hauds, no the central governament in Madrid. Catalunya haes taen full advanteige o this fur tae create a TV netwark o hits ain. Scotland steys wiout yae single nacional tv channel, cep yae channel in Gaelic at guid tho hit is stull cannae be received bi aa in the kintra. Houeer jist yestereen Artur Mas, president o the Generalitat de Catalunya an heid o the Catalan governament, proposed at Catalunya haes anither, at wud tak the total nummer o Catalan public channels ti seiven.
As an autonomous communitie unner the Spanish constitucion, Catalunya aareddie haes sax public tv channels o hits ain. TV3 is the state channel o Catalunya, 3/24 is the twintie-fowr hour Catalan news channel, El 33 is a Catalan leid documentarie an educacional channel, 3XL shaas soap-operas, drama series an comedie (includin Dr Who dubbit inti Catalan), TV3CAT is the internacional channel at kin be seen oniewhaur in the warld online, an Esport3 is the Catalan sports channel.
Apairt fae thir channels, Catalunya receives the twa nacional Spanish leid channels TVE1 and TVE2, an haes fower privately awned channels an aa.
Houeer no aa Catalans trews at Catalunya haes enou tellie o hits ain. Speikin at a dinner organised bi the American Chaumer o Commerce in Madrid Mr Mas sayed at hit is gey important in thir days tae hae a guid command o Inglis, an fur that raison he wis in favour o a new channel fur Catalunya braidcastin fillums, tv series, an cartoons in Inglish, wi subtitles in Catalan.
Maist aft in Spain fremmit programmes is shaan no wi subtitles but is ower-dubbit bi actors in Spanish, Catalan, Basque or Galician. Houeer wi the new Spanish digital television service, ye kin chynge ti the oreiginal leid on the audio on fremmit fillums an series. Monie fowk disnae ken sic a service exists but.
The hail warld kens the vailyie o speikin Inglis. Us in Scotland an aa, we mibbie want tae keip our ain leids abuin the muild, but we aa ken we maun lern Inglis fur tae communicate wi thaim furth o Scotland. Mas sees the new proposal as a wey o impruivin the Inglis o Catalans fur tae cullyie mair fremmit investors an businesses ti the kintra an tae gie Catalan scuilbairns a better chance o finnin weill peyed wark whan thae feinish thair educacion.
Houeer whit is attractin the birse o some in Madrid, is no at ther cud forbye be a channel in Inglis shaain programmes ti Catalans. Hit’s at bi the wey o the new proposal Catalans wull kin see subtitles ti the programmes in Catalan, no in Spanish.
Ower the past whein yeir, Catalunya haes seen monie folk cam tae byde in the kintra fae ither pairts of Europe, Germanie, Ingland, Scotland, Scandinavian kintras an monie mair folk fae Eister Europe. Monie o thir fowk speiks Inglis, monie kin speik Spanish an aa, but yuisallie whan thae come ti Catalunya thae cannae speik onie Catalan. The new channel wull gie thir fowk an opportunitie tae lern thersels the leid of Catalunya. Monie in Catalunya is feirt at the income o sae monie fowk fae ither kintras wull tak doun Catalan an promote the yuis o Castilian Spanish.
Back in Scotland, ther jist STV, the yae private channel at braidcasts tae maist but no aa o the kintra. Yae nacional channel in Gaelic at monie hames stull cannae receive. An that’s hit. Nae nacional channel in Inglis, the leid maist o us yuise, an nae braidcastin at aa in Scots.
We stull maun rely on opt-outs fae BBC1 and BBC2. Catalunya haes hits ain 24 hour news channel. We hae Reporting Scotland.
Wurds ye mibbie no ken
fremmit – foreign
byde – reside, dwell, live in (a place)
forbye – soon
wull kin – will be able to
furth o – outside of, beyond
income – arrival
thir – these
full – full, but rhymes with ‘dull’, ‘gull’.
vailye – value
lern – to learn, but with a direct object means to teach – he lerns the bairn tae soum ‘he teaches the child to swim.
abuin the muild – lit. ‘above the mould’ alive
Scots spelling: The negative particle in my variety of Scots is -nae. In many dialects it’s pronounced -nuh and written -na. It is always unstressed. Write it as you pronounce it. In some literary Scots texts it’s always written -na but is meant to be pronounced according to local dialect pronunciation. When you want to emphasise the negative, the particle is not used, instead the full word no is used.
The grammar of negation in Scots is different from English. ‘Can’t you see?’ is grammatical English, but *cannae ye see is ungrammatical in most Scots dialects which only allow ‘Kin (or can) ye no see’. The usual Scottish English construction Can you not see? is a loan translation from Scots.