Helena Bibowa, the oldest and only surviving native speaker of a tiny language called Wymysiöeryś is turning 102 today.
In honor of that, let me take you along on the story of Wymysiöeryś.
It's of death and resurrection, and a hefty deal of random, but I promise it's a happy one.

“Linguistics has always been political. The discipline has its roots in empire and the colonizing practices of categorizing and classifying languages in order to control those who use them.”

For the full pre-Devolution policies of the Scottish Conservatives The Labour Party, Liberal Democrats The SNP on both the #Scots & #Gaelic languages, read this;

academia.edu/22357374/Langu…

The Unionists led the promotion of both.

The results of this work eventually got Scots on the Census via GRO Scotland

Check out Stephen Levinson's cosmic vision of the field of pragmatics - what we know about what we don't know. Open access in CUP's Elements in Pragmatics series. cambridge.org/core/elements/…

Fair enjoyed the crack in Glesga yestreen wi sae monie kenspeckle fowk comin tae hear me talk aboot the book an spier sic guid questions anent the scrievin o it. Meikle thenks tae awbody that cam an tae ma fiers Rhona Brown & Prof Joanna Kopaczyk for organisin it.

Thousands of Basque youngsters running to support their language in #Gasteiz last night, #Korrika is an inspiration.
AEK Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua Hizkuntz Eskubideen Behatokia #ELEN2024 #HarroHerri #23KORRIKA

Them: Scottish history is parochial and nobody cares.

Me:

TOMORROW!! Still a few tix left for the Glasgow launch of Billy Kay’s latest book at UofGARC organised by Rhona Brown and myself ☺️💪 Register here: eventbrite.co.uk/e/born-in-kyle…

Fantastic - would be great to see a comparable archive of Scottish emigrants’ letters

‘Longing for home’: letters of Irish emigrants to US reveal 400 years of trials and triumphs

theguardian.com/world/2024/mar…

One thing #MaryandGeorge gets bang on is Queen Anna operating as PR wing of the Stuarts.

She was active against authors & publishers of books (including continental ones) which badmouthed James and his court.

The couple had a deep and affectionate bond.

amazon.co.uk/Wisest-Fool-La…

🎺We are organising a cool conference on everyone's favourite abbot! 🎺

Ælfric's Afterlives: Copying, Editing, Studying, Teaching and Remembering the Most Prolific Author of Old English (27 June, 2025) - please help share this CFP :)

Oor Vyce wid like say a MUCKLE thanks tae Hands Up For Trad & Alistair Heather for awarding us a wee grant. We're gey graetfaa for it. Noo fit we gan tae dee wi it?! Weel....We're gan tae hud a gaitherin for the Leid in the Aatumn. Plannin starts noo an ill hae mair deets seen #Scots

There are only a few days left to get tickets for this nearly sold out event with Billy Kay on his new memoir in Scots, Born in Kyle. Click on the link below to register while you can 👇

A week today I'll be bringing Ayrshire to Glasgow and celebrating the guid Scots tongue in Born in Kyle and Scots The Mither Tongue. I'll bring in Burns, Galt, Ramsay & Barbour There may also be a fey story fae Fife!
eventbrite.co.uk/e/born-in-kyle… @Eventbrite

A little bemused by James in #MaryandGeorge wondering about wax dolls being used in witchcraft because, he says, he’s “read about such things”.

Mate, you wrote a book on “such things” and drove two witch hunts personally.

We are looking forward to welcoming back Rodge Glass who will be speaking at our upcoming careers night. Dr. Rodge Glass is a novelist and lecturer in Creative Writing and will be telling us about how studying Scottish Literature has been benefited his career.

#uofgscotlitsoc

Congratulations to the whole team of Poor Things for their Oscar wins, especially Emma Stone for playing Bella Baxter, the female Frankenstein monster: Find out more about the original Bella via scanning the QR code, the link in our bio or visit poorthingsnovel.com

Groat of James III of Scotland, minted from 1484 to 1488. It’s one of the earliest coins issued outside of Italy to feature a realistic portrait in the Renaissance style. From the The Hunterian collection. #ScottishHistory #Numismatics

15 mental concepts that will probably make you smarter:

Such an honour and pleasure to be working with Oor Vyce as Academic Officer 💪 read below for the widely consulted grass-roots vision for #Scots and our critique of the Scottish Lgs Bill in response to Scottish Parliament consultation.