I see we're having the Gaelic & Scots argument again. No surprises. Pick any nation in the world that has sought or threatened to seek self-determination & you'll find a catalogue of attempts to stamp out that nation's language & literature.

My great-grandparents were Lithuanian & they arrived in Scotland, with their own parents, as part of thousands who made the same journey, predominantly to Lanarkshire, in the late 19th & early 20th centuries. They left behind oppression that included, you guessed it,

the banning of their native language by the Russian Empire which subsequently led to book-smugglers carrying contraband Lithuanian literature into the country, in order to keep the country's language & literature alive in the face of Tsarist oppression.

When I lived in Woodlands a few years back, my flatmate was from a wee town just outside Barcelona. Whenever he spoke to his parents on the phone or video chat, they'd speak Catalan. However, whenever he sent them an e-mail or a text message, he had to write in Spanish.

His parents, who had grown up naturally speaking their native language, had never learned to read or write it, instead forced by the Spanish authorities only to learn to read & write Spanish.

Scotland's a country that also has a history of its own languages & literature facing crack downs & barriers put in place designed to eradicate & belittle it. It's also a country that, like pre-independence Lithuania & Catalonia, threatens to fight for its own self-determination.

I love a good debate but there isn't even a debate here - the reason there is always a desire from some quarters to tell us Scots isn't a real language (it absolutely is by any marker) & Gaelic isn't worth the hassle is intrinsically linked to self-determination.

It's the oldest trick in the book & unionists are more than welcome to use it. But at least let's be honest that that's what it is & not some hilarious concern about local authorities wasting money on road signs.

I say it again, pick any country in the world that has ever dared to consider self-determination & read into its history. You will without doubt find the same sort of thing considering that country's language. Par for the course.