So help me God, indeed

Yesterday, Ms Mauren Watt, one of our newest MSPs, took her parliamentary oath in what I can only describe as pretend doric. The Herald transcribed it as follows:

"I, Maureen Watt, depone aat I wull be leal and bear ae full alleadgance tae her majesty Queen Elizabeth, her airs an ony fa come aifter her anent the law. Sae help me God."

This is shaming. Peculiar spelling and elements of cod latin do not constitute any form of the Scots language.

That Scots is a neglected language is in no doubt. But it will not gain the respect it is due by hamming it up.

For those who wish to see the real thing, I would offer the following text which is the first stanza of 'The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie' by the great William Dunbar:

Schir Johine the Ros, ane thing thair is compild
In general be Kennedy and Quinting,
Quhilk hes thame self aboif the sternis styld;
Bot has thay maid of mannace ony mynting
In speciall, sic stryfe sould rys but stynting;
Howbeit with bost thair breistis wer als bendit
As Lucifer that fra the hevin descendit,
Hell sould nocht hyd thair harnis fra harmis hynting.

(And they don't make rhyme schemes like that any more!)