Singer Iona Fyfe got 'weird looks' for speaking in Scots at music college

The singer and language campaigner also claimed broadcasting in Scots is not taken seriously due to its reliance on “humorous” comedy programmes such as Chewin’ the Fat and Still Game, while Gaelic boasts a mix of drama and other programmes in the language - and warned that Scotland has a “postcode lottery” when it comes to Scots learning and provision.

She also said she believes female Scots speakers are victims of internet trolls more often than their male counterparts.

Her comments come as a report by the Council of Europe published last week found speakers of Scots experience “intolerance, threats and hate speech” linked to the use of their language in public life. It found women are a particular target, with most instances of abuse, which occur predominantly online, not being reported to the police.

The Council of Europe report also warned that in Scotland, language had become politicised, highlighting issues surrounding the public perception of a connection between Scottish Gaelic and the independence movement since the referendum ten years ago.

Ms Fyfe pointed to a “healthy” culture in Wales, where she said the language was not linked to nationalism in any way.

“What I like about Wales, and especially [former First Minister] Mark Drakeford, is that he was never worried to use Welsh and he was never worried to use the Welsh flag,” she said. “There wasn't that fear that his using the Welsh language was a nationalist thing.

“That's healthy, because Welsh is spoken by so so many folk, and it doesn't mean just because you use Welsh and you're proud of it and use it as your primary mode of communication, it isn't synonymous or intrinsically linked, with being a Welsh independent supporter, and it's the same for Scots or Gaelic.”

The 26-year-old musician, who was this year named Scots Singer of the Year, said her classmates on the traditional music module at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland would give her “weird looks” if she “dropped a word in Scots”, despite the fact they were learning songs sung in the language.

She said: “When my dad was at school and he spoke Doric in Huntley, he'd get the belt. But when I was at school, it was celebrated a wee bit during Burns week, and then kind of put away for the rest of the year.

“And then when I was studying Scots song as my first study in the traditional music course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, I was used to singing in Scots all the time, but with an international course, folk just would give me weird looks if I accidentally dropped a word of Scots into a sentence. It was really weird.”

She points to the advent of new courses in Scots such as a language module which can be studied alongside other European languages at the University of Aberdeen.

But she said Scots speakers - particularly women - were suffering from online abuse.

“People are using Scots in their work life,” she said, pointing to similar experiences from other Scots artists including poet Len Pennie and author Emma Grae.

“But it feels like when we're [as women] promoting our work online, we're getting more of a nasty trolling and the harassment and abuse than, for example, Billy Kay who is also using Scots in his work, or James Robertson.

“It definitely feels like it's a misogynistic thing, and there's certainly trolls of specific accounts that go after you when you post something about your work in Scots. It's just not fair.”

Ms Fyfe said TV producers did not make serious programmes in Scots, which was having a detrimental effect on the perception of the language.

She said: “The issue that we're seeing is that whenever TV is doing something in Scots, it tends to be documentaries about Scots. That's not really useful. I don't think it should be kind of into the more mainstream stuff. And the issue with Scots, which we haven't seen with Gaelic, is that you've got really serious, good drama shows in Gaelic, like Bannan, but with Scots it’s more humorous stuff, and that means that folk aren't taking the language seriously.

Bannan, produced by BBC Alba and filmed on the Isle of Skye, tells the story of Màiri MacDonald's return home to the island which she left eight years earlier. It ran to eight series.

Ms Fyfe added: “We need more documentary style shows where the presenters are more confident in using Scots and less shows that show a humorous side of it. Because when you only see language in one context, a humorous context, it gives that signal that it's something that shouldn't have been taken seriously.”

Ms Fyfe said that the translation of books for children into Scots, such as popular picture book The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson, had improved young people’s learning of the language - compared to when she was at school, when she said Scots texts were limited to Robert Burns and traditional ballads - but said more needed to be done.

She said: “The bairns are going to enjoy that. So the fact that we've got all these books translated into Scots now, that's really good.

“And if the teachers are getting support to be more confident in using those resources, then that's, that's great. But there should be more teacher support, or training within the schools, or room for continuing professional development for teachers to learn that.”