In Scotland, we have three national languages – English, Gaelic and Scots. The 2011 census revealed that 1.5 million people identified as speaking Scots, yet much of Scotland’s population is unaware that they possess skills in reading, writing and speaking Scots. Scots is part of the West Germanic language family and is a sister language to English with close affinities with Scandinavian languages such as Danish and Norwegian. Scots has four main dialects: Insular, Northern, Central and Southern, but for me, it was just the way folk spoke in their everyday lives. Growing up in rural Aberdeenshire, I didn’t realise that the way people speak – in Doric, a vernacular or byleid of Scots – was a special and unique trait of the regions people, lore and history. At the time, I was unaware of the similitude of Scots to other European languages, I was unaware of the language’s history and the significance of the literature written in the language, and I was unaware of i