Professor Adam Jack Aitken (1921-1998)

Jack Aitken was born in Edinburgh but grew up in Bonnyrigg and was educated at Lasswade Secondary School. He was one of a long line of important Scottish lexicographers. After serving in the Royal Artillery during World War ll, he returned to the University of Edinburgh to continue his teaching career and to research the origins of the Scottish and Celtic languages. He assisted Sir William Craigie in the compilation of The Scottish National Dictionary and The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, now available online as the Dictionary of the Scots Language. After Craigie he took over the The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue as editor and completed the first of those in 1976. Aitken also instigated a new reading program of ancient manuscripts and historic papers in order to increase the reach and accuracy of the dictionary. Upon completion in 2000 the dictionary was dedicated to him. Aitken is also well-known for his formulation of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, also known as Aitken's Law. He also developed a numbering system for the Scots vowels which enabled a better understanding and description of the historical development of those. For other uses, see Edinburgh (disambiguation). ... Bonnyrigg(aka Boomtown) is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, eight miles (13 kilometres) southeast of Edinburgh city centre. ... Lasswade is a village in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River North Esk nine miles (14. ... A lexicographer is a person devoted to the study of lexicography, especially an author of a dictionary. ... The Royal Regiment of Artillery, generally known as the Royal Artillery (RA), is, despite its name, a corps of the British Army It is made up of a number of regiments. ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... The Scottish language may refer to: Scots - A series of Germanic dialects used in lowland Scotland. ... The Celtic languages are the languages descended from Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, spoken by ancient and modern Celts alike. ... William Craigie (1867 - 1957) was a philologist and a lexicographer. ... The Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) is an online Scots-English language dictionary, now run by Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd (formerly the Scottish National Dictionary Association), based at George Square, at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. ... The Scots Vowel Length Rule, also known as Aitkens Law after Professor A.J. Aitken who formulated it, describes how vowel length in Scots and Scottish English is conditioned by environment. ... Scots or Lallans (Eng: Lowlands), sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic language of the Highlands, is a West Germanic language used in Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland, and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...