I generally like Atlas Obscura's articles, but this one has, to use a local phrase, a load of shite in it.
I've lived in Scotland my entire life and never come across anyone who speaks "Scots" as their main language. It's not taught as a course in any school that I'm aware of, so the idea that 1.5 million people "read, spoke or understood scots" seems like it required a bit of "flexible thinking" to be true.
What is true is that many scottish people understand words which come from scots as their used in vernacular speech.
Things like "Auld" == "old" or "Braw" == "good", but I wouldn't equate that with understanding a language.
I've lived in Scotland my entire life and never come across anyone who speaks "Scots" as their main language. It's not taught as a course in any school that I'm aware of, so the idea that 1.5 million people "read, spoke or understood scots" seems like it required a bit of "flexible thinking" to be true.
What is true is that many scottish people understand words which come from scots as their used in vernacular speech.
Things like "Auld" == "old" or "Braw" == "good", but I wouldn't equate that with understanding a language.