Scots is a West Germanic language variety that has been spoken in Scotland for several centuries. According to Scots Language Centre, “Scots is one of three native languages spoken in Scotland today, the other two being English and Scottish Gaelic.”
Since there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, people often disagree about the status of Scots and its relationship to the English language. Despite that, Scots is recognized as an indigenous language of Scotland, a regional or minority language of Europe, and as a vulnerable language by UNESCO. Since Scots is considered to be vulnerable, people have been looking for ways to preserve the language and keep it alive. For instance, there’s a Scots language version of Wikipedia where all the articles are written in this particular language. Or so people thought…
Recently, Scots Wikipedia has become a center of concern on the internet after someone noticed that almost every single article on this page is written by one American teenager, AmaryllisGardener.
Apparently, this boy doesn’t even speak Scots
Image credits: chickenpaprika
For instance, take a look at this screenshot that was taken on the Scots Wiki
Image credits: Scots Wikipedia
A few days ago, Reddit user Ultach wrote a post thoroughly explaining the situation from their own point of view
Image credits: Ultach
Apparently, this Reddit user has been aware of the fact that the Scots Wikipedia page is pretty bad for quite a while. “I’ve just chalked it up to inexperienced amateurs,” the user explains in the post. But then, a few days ago, Ultach noticed that most of the articles on the page are written by the same person. Turns out, this person is responsible for tens of thousands articles published on the page. The Reddit user noticed that all these articles are identical to the ones on the English version of Wikipedia, but with some modified spelling here and there.
AmaryllisGardener has written at least 20,000 articles and made at least 200,000 edits
Turns out, this guy has written at least 20,000 articles and made at least 200,000 edits. But in fact, there’s probably much more, since the person stopped updating their milestones back in 2018. “If they had done this properly it would’ve been an incredible achievement,” the Reddit user contemplates.
Here’s how the infamous writer’s profile looks
“I mean they don’t seem to have any knowledge of the language at all,” the user explains
Image credits: Ultach
Unfortunately, the person can’t speak Scots. “I don’t mean this in a mean spirited or gatekeeping way where they’re trying their best but are making a few mistakes, I mean they don’t seem to have any knowledge of the language at all,” the user writes in their post. This person invents words that don’t exist, misuses common elements of Scots, and at times, leaves English phrases and sentences without even trying to Scottify it.
And here are some examples taken from the Scots Wikipedia articles
Image credits: Ultach
“Someone I talked to suggested that they might have just used a Scottish slang translator”
Image credits: Ultach
“What they seem to have done is write out the article out in English, then look up each word individually using the Online Scots Dictionary (they mention this dictionary specifically on their talk page), then replace the English word with the first result, and if they couldn’t find a word, they just let it be,” the Reddit user explains. There’s also a possibility that AmaryllisGardener has been using a Scottish slang translator like scotranslate.com or lingojam.com/EnglishtoScots.
Ultach seems to be quite furious about the whole situation
Image credits: Ultach
“This is going to sound incredibly hyperbolic and hysterical but I think this person has possibly done more damage to the Scots language than anyone else in history,” the Reddit user contemplates. “They engaged in cultural vandalism on a hitherto unprecedented scale. Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world. Potentially tens of millions of people now think that Scots is a horribly mangled rendering of English rather than being a language or dialect of its own, all because they were exposed to a mangled rendering of English being called Scots by this person and by this person alone.”
Because of the boy’s “cultural vandalism,” it’s possible that many people think Scots is a “horribly mangled rendering of English” rather than being a real language
Image credits: Ultach
Here are some more examples from the Wikipedia page
Image credits: Scots Wikipedia
Take a look at a screenshot from the article about “Warld War II”
Image credits: Scots Wikipedia
And at this one about the “Unitit States o Americae”
Image credits: Scots Wikipedia
Also, here’s a screenshot from the article explaining telekinesis
Image credits: Scots Wikipedia
What’s gonna happen now, you ask? Well, no one is quite sure. Some are proposing closing the entire Scots Wikipedia page while others want to simply delete all of Amaryllis’ content. On the other hand, some have been trying to defend the editor by saying that it’s simply a “non-standard Scots.”
And here’s how people have been reacting to this situation
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