Oh my word!

Last week, Partick Thistle put up a sign at their ground saying “welcome to Firhill”. The sign is in English, with the message repeated in Gaelic.

It sparked a social media discussion. Some celebrated the bilingualism, others railed at a waste of money.

But this descended into insults volleyed between those for and against an independent Scotland,

each side poisonous in its arrogance of certainty. Humans are never more frightening than when they are convinced they are right.

For my part, I am concerned that language should not become politicised. If you want to speak Gaelic, fine. If you want to speak English, fine.

As I have said many times, I don’t care what your politics are. I doubt you care what my politics are. Your intelligence will allow you to make up your mind about holding another independence referendum, or not holding one. I certainly won’t tell you what to think.

Indeed, we should be wary of anyone who lusts to make up our mind for us. I don’t enjoy talking to those who see black and white with no shades of understanding. They don’t debate, they lecture.

I don’t like the way political difference is expressed in Scotland nowadays. There is too much vehemence. There is anger, mockery, enmity, even intimidation.

I, for one, would not hoist a flag in my garden, or march the streets with my face painted chanting for a cause. Those are things a football crowd would do. Politics is not football.

Don’t let a “them and us” schism form, delineated by the way a person talks or writes. That isn’t politics, it is bigotry.

Of course, I have spent my working life producing books and newspapers in standard English. It will be no surprise to learn that is where my chief language interest lies.

But I welcome the fact that other mouths speak other tongues. People create works of art in Scots, Doric, Lallans, Gaelic, or any other dialect or language. This is a wonderful thing. There is nothing to divide us here, there is room in this world for all languages and strength in each.

I am always intrigued to discuss the vocabulary, syntax, and punctuation of written English. As an extension, I enjoy comparing and contrasting idioms, word meanings, and borrowings from any other language.

No matter where a political border is, or isn’t, drawn, language is our tool of understanding. No matter what happens in the future, we will always need to communicate.

Do not, please, vilify any language or make language a political battleground. Everyone loses if that happens. There is no such thing as creative hatred.

STEVE FINAN IN DEFENCE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE