US Borderers are very in touch with the Scots dialect, although across our towns – from Melrose to Gala to Hawick – neither the twain are the same.

And we’re quite partial to some light-hearted mockery for our differences.

Why? Writer and performer Ishbel McFarlane asks: “Who owns language? Who appoints it? Who governs it and why?

“Why is it we put language varieties into a hierarchy? Why do we think a ‘language’ is better than a ‘dialect’? Why do people who would never discriminate against someone for the colour of their skin, openly discriminate based on their word choice?”

Her passionate, interactive, “yin-wumman” show celebrating the wonder of the Scots language is coming tae Galae during its spring tour of the country.

The award winning O is for Hoolet (owl) presents a pile of fragments – collected stories, interviews, memories, characters and attitudes – to challenge and disrupt our expectations and prejudices about language and dialects.

By interrogating the history of Scots and the ways in which it is taught and subdued, the audience is invited to question the way forward for minority languages.

The Glasgow-based theatre maker portrays several historic Scottish figures and linguistic experts from Liz Lochead to Robert Burns. Audience members, prompted by a televisual bingo caller, read prompt cards addressing those famous alter egos and McFarlane at various stages and ages in her life. 

Isabel said: “Most of the world are essentially Scots speakers, people brought up using a language which is considered ‘lesser’ than the ‘real’ language of state. I want to encourage conversations about Scots language, and minoritised cultures. 

“I love to talk and, delightfully for me, talking is a vital part of the solution. The way we talk and the way we hear is the heart of the matter. This is a universal issue. I’ve had people come up to me after shows to tell me that everything I said applied directly to their experience of northern France, or urban Boston. 

“We think we’re in a unique situation but we’re really not. Most of the world are essentially Scots speakers – people brought up using a language which is considered ‘lesser’ than the ‘real’ language of state.” 

There’s intelligence, sly wit, and a lovely sense of humour in what she does, which especially fires up when she reverts to her own experiences, shape-shifting from the little girl whose friends “correct” her Scots into English, through to the discovery in university archives of a 1970s recording of her mother singing a Scots folk song. 

See her show at the MacArts Centre, Bridge Street, Galashiels on Thursday, May 5 at 7.30pm. Tickets £9/£7 from the box office: 01896 756852