Is there a word in the Scots language that means the same sort of thing as "demure"?

Aw yes! Today in UK languages news BBC News - Star Wars dubbed in Welsh for the first time to celebrate landmark anniversary www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Star Wars dubbed in Welsh for the first time to celebrate landmark anniversary

The Welsh language version of the classic 1977 film will feature Matthew Rhys as Han Solo.

bbc.co.uk

670 a' dèanamh duais na Scots am-bliadhna.

illandancient.bsky.social@illandancient.bsky.social · yesterday

Its school results day in Scotland. The BBC haven't noticed it yet, but the number of pupils taking the SQA Scots Language Award has increased from 485 last year to 670 this year - a 38% increase. This 670 is the highest number to take the subject. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...

One of my earliest memories of going to the cinema is seeing "Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge" in 1981 at the New Princes Cinema in Monton, (demolished 1985) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-...

Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Muppets Where Hopper is the only human, played straight by Paul Rudd. Quint is Miss Piggie, Brody is Fozzie Bear

weinberg@weinbergs.bsky.social · 7mo ago

let's pretend: Universal announces a screenwriting contest for Jaws 5. What's your pitch?

Its school results day in Scotland. The BBC haven't noticed it yet, but the number of pupils taking the SQA Scots Language Award has increased from 485 last year to 670 this year - a 38% increase. This 670 is the highest number to take the subject. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...

Scottish exam results day 2026: Pass rates rise as students find out their grades

Pupils and learners across the country are receiving their exam results today.

bbc.co.uk

My hot take is that I really just feel like we’re at the point with Shaetlan where there are far more interesting questions to now be asking than “is it a dialect or a language?”

It's Gaelic. It's Pop. It's GaelPop. This song has starlight in it O Rionnag gu Rionnag Pre-save now: emubands.ffm.to/orionnaggurionnag #Gàidhlig #Gaelic #ScottishGaelic #CelticMusic #CelticLanguages #Edinburgh #ScottishMusic

Shooting interests & the rightwing press want to exploit the wildfires to reinstate moorland burning. But you don't fight fire with fire. You fight it with water. This wildfire in Wales' Elan Valley in May stopped abruptly when it reached re-wetted peat bogs: www.walesfarmer.co.uk/news/2614875...

I never realised that this song was about kisses and hugs. Its a great stomper of a song, I just never clicked what the title was about.

Simon Love@simonloverules.bsky.social · 2d ago

We're already at the second @thisistheloves.bsky.social album on my Substack thing with "XS AND OS" One of my favourite songs of mine. Please read all about it at the link below...

Wildfires. A poem in the Observer. observer.co.uk/culture/book...

In the Cairngorms by Kathleen Jamie

A new poem about the wildfires in the Highlands by Scotland’s makar

observer.co.uk

You know how WHISKEY and WHISKY are kind of the same thing, but we've made up some nuanced rules about how there's a difference between the two things. Its all nonsense, innit?

I don't know anything about borders or history. But, when the Berlin wall came down, and all the East Germans rushed across, did they all go back home to East Berlin after they'd had their jollies round West Berlin? Were they considered to be migrants that night in 1989?

AFP News Agency@en.afp.com · 5d ago

#BREAKING More than 37,500 migrants have returned to Morocco from Ceuta enclave: Spanish interior ministry

That phrase "*actively incentivised by algorithmic platforms to behave in this way*" is pretty neat. Going to be seeing more of that.

Michael@michaeljsc.bsky.social · 5d ago

idk if he has broken the law in a way that police will be able to pursue but the fact that someone is *actively incentivised by algorithmic platforms to behave in this way* is a major problem for society that there should be a plan to address

UEFA has announced they will boycott the World Cup. Can e backdate this boycott, just a few weeks?

Alright, weird request, but can anyone point me to academic papers on Police Academy? Ideally the film franchise but will take cartoon series if that's all there is. Have so far found 1 that discusses films in relation to modern representations of police in film but surely there's more than that?!

Orchids revived, the corpse ambulant and a poetic ruined abbey. These are the news stories I want to read.

To flesh out a thesis from yesterday. The Scots language is evolves and changed relatively quickly - new spellings become popular, old spelling fall out of use. The spellings that Burns used in the 1790s are different to the spellings that Scots poets use today.

illandancient.bsky.social@illandancient.bsky.social · 6d ago

Do you think the use of older texts in LLMs will lead to weird resurgences of out-dated terminology and words that were popular in the 1940s?

I've written a blog post about how the number of books written in Scots in Scottish publc libraries has fallen over the last two years. Although its risen in some place, and stayed the same in others. Its a bit of a mixed picture. chrisgilmour.substack.com/p/progress-o...

Progress on Scots books in libraries

Where I compare the number of books written in Scots in Scottish public libraries today with the same figures from two years ago.

chrisgilmour.substack.com

Martin O’Connor & Len Pennie on Scots Language Martin O’Connor, the writer & star of Through the Shortbread Tin, sat down recently with poet & performer Len Pennie to blether all things Scots language www.youtube.com/watch?v=RteT...

Martin O’Connor and Len Pennie on Scots Language

YouTube video by National Theatre of Scotland

youtube.com

I've confirmed that the UK's new Sovereign AI Fund does no due diligence on whether AI companies use copyrighted work without permission before investing in them. It took me 3 Freedom of Information requests to find this out: 🧵 1/10

Just discovered an amusing thing. I want to stress that I'm not using gen-AI to do my Scots stuff, I just wondered what sorts of results AI would give. It turns out it is me. I am the source of the results that Grok's AI produces.

This article about the Govan waggonways is very good. If you like old maps of Glasgow and the Dallas / Dynasty soap opera nature of business two centuries ago. new-cleckit.dominie.scot/the-govan-wa...

This is an interesting story. futurism.com/artificial-i...

AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almost No Copies Remain

AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.

futurism.com

talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/07/29/n...

NHS Scotland waits of over 1 year plummet by 77% only one year after Swinney makes major investment but media ignore this dramatic newsworthy newsm

From page 19 of Stage of treatment waiting times – new outpatients, inpatients and day cases published yesterday, the above graph which I feel sure you will never see on the pages of the medi…

talkingupscotlandtwo.com

If Palestinians had targeted and blown up a synagogue in Israel it would be one of the lead stories on every UK news channel. But Israel targeting & blowing up a mosque in Gaza? It doesn't get a mention.

If you’ve seen this article, you may be sitting with anger, pain, or just exhaustion at dealing with another helping of colonial nonsense. We feel a responsibility to speak back when these colonizing narratives show up, yet again, in such a prominent venue. endangeredlanguages.com/story/respon...

The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 2w ago

The idea that we have a special duty to prevent the death of languages is instantly compelling to anyone who loves languages. But is it true? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

CW: rape US military bases in the UK are effectively acting as consequence-free rape centres. They should all be shut down. Why aren't the "protect our women and girls" crew storming these bases?

We’re pleased tae share that oor new Director o the Scots Language Centre is Dr. Jamie Fairbairn. Jamie will be stairtin in the role in August.