Hamish Pottinger

My thesis looks at modern Scots writing from an ideological perspective, both online and in contemporary literature. I argue that language attitudes are central to variation (within Scots, but also when Scots is viewed as a deviation from English). I am particularly interested in the relationship between these attitudes and orthography.

Generally, I like to read about matters of language ideology and the sociolinguistics of subversive writing — e.g. in graffiti, dialect writing, or protest banners.

I did a BA in Spanish & Portuguese at King’s College London and an MA in Linguistics at Lancaster University.

Publications:

Pottinger, H. (2022). Language standards in an unstandardised language: the orthographies and ideologies of Scots users on Twitter. Journal of Languages, Texts and Society, 5, 111-146.