A NEW website has been launched to support Scottish Census respondents.
The Scots Language Centre (SLC) has launched a new support website to coincide with the start of the 2022 Scottish Census.
The AyeCan website will support respondents by assessing their capabilities in the Scots language.
From February 28th to March 20th, everyone living in Scotland can fill out the Census online.
As part of Scotland’s Census, everyone living in Scotland will be asked if they can understand, speak, read or write in the Scots language.
The SLC launched the AyeCan website to support respondents and help people answer the language questions.
The AyeCan website provides examples to help people answer the language questions about their Scots skills.
The recent addition of the Scots language question has raised concerns that more people are unaware of their proficiency in Scots.
Scots questions were first included in the Census in 2011, with 1.5 million people responding that they could speak Scots.
Director of the Scots Language Centre Dr Michael Dempster commented: “We’re delighted to launch AyeCan.com, our Census website.
“The Scots Language Centre aims to help preserve the Scots language and expand the popularity, understanding, and appreciation of Scots and those who speak in in all its forms.
“Scots may be understood as a language spoken in other parts of Scotland or an older form of our language.
“It is a living, vibrant part of day-to-day Scottish culture, the primary form of communication for many of us, and it is critical for future serve provision to know how many use it.”
Dempster continued: “We believe that by giving people a centralised resource to hear, read and see Scots in motion, they better gauge their ability when answering the Census questions.
“The Census must be as accurate as possible, and we believe this exciting resource will be welcome for users of all ages assessing their own Scots skills and usage.”
