RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 A 'Peripheral' Problem?: The Use of Scots in Plays Set Outwith the Central Belt of Scotland A1 Lenz, Katja AB The use of Scots in the theatre is becoming more and more popular.The full scale of social and stylistic varieties is made use of andconsiderable differences in the density and the lexical richness of Scotsare to be found. In comparison, regional variation is much less prominent.Most plays in Scots that are meant for supra-regional productionare set in the Central Belt area and therefore employ a Central Scotsdialect. The ‘peripheral’ areas of the Scots-speaking part of Scotland—the Borders, the North-east, the Far North and the Orkney and ShetlandIslands —may be less attractive as dramatic settings, but linguisticreasons seem to be just as responsible for the under-representation oftheir dialects on stage. These dialect areas are linguistically more conservativethan the industrial belt, so that their Scots is denser and preservesa lot of locally specific vocabulary. This type of language isunsuitable for performances on a national level, posing problems bothfor actors and audiences. A selection of very different plays from thelast three decades illustrates some linguistic strategies developed bydramatists in order to set their plays in the ‘periphery’ and still createthe illusion of authentic speech. SN 0211-5913 YR 2000 FD 2000 LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/30414 UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/30414 LA en DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna RD 26-dic-2024