Scots refers to the Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland. In Scotland it is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic spoken by some in the Highlands and Islands (especially the Hebrides). Scots is also spoken in parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans. Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... Motto: (Latin for Who would separate us?)[1] Anthem: UK: God Save the Queen Regional: (de facto) Londonderry Air Capital Belfast Largest city Belfast Official language(s) English (de facto), Irish, Ulster Scots 3, NI Sign Language Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... The Scottish Lowlands ( an Galldachd in Gaelic ), although not officially a geographical area of the country, in normal usage is generally meant to include those parts of Scotland not referred to as the Highlands (or Gàidhealtachd), that is, everywhere due south and east of a line (the Highland Boundary... Caithness (Gallaibh in Gaelic)[1] is a committee area of Highland Council, Scotland; a lieutenancy area; and a registration county, Caithness was formerly a district within the Highland region from 1975 to 1996 and a local government county with its own county council from 1890 to 1975. ... The Northern Isles are a chain of islands off the north coast of Scotland. ... Statistics Area: 24,481 km² Population (2006 estimate) 1,993,918 Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) forms one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. ... Logo of the General Register Office General Register Office for Scotland is a government agency, accountable to Scottish ministers, that administers the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adoptions, and is responsible for the statutes relating to the formalities of marriage and conduct of civil marriage. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Statistics Province: Ulster County Town: Lifford Code: DL Area: 4,841 km² Population (2006) 146,956 Website: www. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The Germanic languages in Europe are divided into North (blue) and West Germanic (green and orange) Languages  Low Saxon-Low Franconian (Dutch)  High German (standard German, Schwyzerdütsch)  Insular Anglo-Frisian (English, Scots)  Continental Anglo-Frisian (Frisian)  East North Germanic (Danish, BokmÃ¥l Norwegian, Swedish)  West North Germanic (Nynorsk Norwegian... The Anglo-Frisian languages (also known as Ingvaeonic languages or North Sea Germanic languages) are a group of West Germanic languages consisting of Old English, Old Frisian, and their descendants. ... The Anglic languages (also called Anglian languages) are one of the two branches of Anglo-Frisian languages, itself a branch of West Germanic. ... The Executives logo, shown with English and Scottish Gaelic caption The term Scottish Executive is used in two different, but closely-related senses: to denote the executive arm of Scotlands national legislature (i. ... The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. ... This article is about the year 2001. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 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 Executives logo, shown with English and Scottish Gaelic caption The term Scottish Executive is used in two different, but closely-related senses: to denote the executive arm of Scotlands national legislature (i. ... The Ulster-Scots Agency (in Ulster Scots, Tha Boord o Ulstèr-Scotch) is a cross-border body set up in Ireland to promote the Ulster Scots language and culture. ... The Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement and, more rarely, as the Stormont Agreement) was signed in Belfast on April 10, 1998 by the British and Irish Governments and endorsed by most Northern Ireland political parties. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Anglic languages (also called Anglian languages) are one of the two branches of Anglo-Frisian languages, itself a branch of West Germanic. ... A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... // Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. ... The Highlands and Islands area is sometimes defined as that to which the Crofters Act of 1886 applied. ... The Hebrides The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland, and in geological terms are composed of the oldest rocks in the British Isles. ... Motto: (Latin for Who would separate us?)[1] Anthem: UK: God Save the Queen Regional: (de facto) Londonderry Air Capital Belfast Largest city Belfast Official language(s) English (de facto), Irish, Ulster Scots 3, NI Sign Language Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony... Ulster Scots, also known as Ullans, Hiberno-Scots, or Scotch-Irish, refers to the variety of Scots spoken in parts of the province of Ulster, which spans the six counties of Northern Ireland and three of the Republic of Ireland. ...

Since there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots. Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist these often render contradictory results (See Dialect). Consequently Scots has, on the one hand, been traditionally regarded as one of the ancient dialects of English but with its own ancient and distinct dialects. Scots has often been treated as part of English as spoken in Scotland but differs significantly from the Standard Scottish English taught in schools. On the other hand, it has been regarded as a distinct Germanic language the way Swedish is distinct from Danish. Its subordination to Anglo-English has also been compared to the subordination of Frisian to Dutch in the Netherlands. Thus Scots can be interpreted as a collective term for the dialects of English spoken or originating in Scotland, or it can be interpreted as the autochthonous language of Lowland Scotland. See Status below for further discussion. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Scottish English is usually taken to mean the standard form of the English language used in Scotland, often termed Scottish Standard English. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ... Frisian is a Germanic group of closely related languages, spoken by about half a million members of Frisian ethnic groups living on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. ... An autochthonous language is an indigenous language, one resident for a considerable length of time in a territory or region spoken by an autochthonous group. ...

Native speakers in Scotland and Ireland usually refer to their vernacular as (braid) Scots (Eng: Broad Scots) or use a dialect name such as the Doric or the Buchan Claik. The old fashioned Scotch occurs occasionally, especially in Ireland. Some literary forms are often referred to as Lallans (Lowlands). First language (native language, mother tongue) is the language a person learns first. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In older times Scotch was an adjective meaning of Scotland. Nowadays the standard adjective is Scottish or Scots, and Scotch usually only pertains to specific items such as scotch whisky or scotch eggs. ... Lallans ( a variant of the Scots word lawlands meaning the lowlands of Scotland), was also traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole. ...

History

Main article: History of the Scots language

The word Scot was borrowed from Latin to refer to Scotland and dates from at least the first half of the 10th century. Up to the 15th century Scottis (modern form: Scots) referred to Gaelic (a Celtic language and tongue of the ancient Scots, introduced from Ireland perhaps from the 4th century onwards). Since the late 15th century ^[1], Anglic speakers in Scotland also started occasionally referring to their vernacular as Scottis and increasingly called Gaelic Erse (from Erisch, or "Irish"), now often considered pejorative. The history of the Scots language goes back at least six and a half centuries, to when Lowland Scots (then called Inglis) began to appear in literary form. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... my children are my life ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Scottish ethnicity. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Northumbrian Old English had been established in southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the 7th century. It remained largely confined to this area until the 13th century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the court language. English then spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of English in the 14th century, and the complementary decline of French in Scotland, made English the prestige language of most of eastern Scotland. Northumbrian was a dialect spoken in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... The River Forth meanders over fertile farmlands near Stirling The River Forth, 47 km (29 miles) long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland. ... A sign in Linlithgow, Scotland. ... King David I (or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim; also known as Saint David I or David I the Saint) (1084 – May 24, 1153), was King of Scotland from 1124 until his death, and the youngest son of Malcolm Canmore and of Saint Margaret (sister of Edgar Ætheling). ... A prestige dialect is the dialect spoken by the most prestigious people in a speech community large enough to sustain multiple dialects. ...

Modern Scots thus grew out of the early northern form of Middle English spoken by the people of southeastern Scotland and northern England. Scots, or more accurately, Middle English, made its first literary appearance in Scotland in the mid-14th century, when its form differed little from other northern Anglic dialects, and so Scots shared many Northumbrian borrowings from Old Norse and Anglo-Norman French. Later influences include Dutch and Middle Low German through trade with and immigration from the low countries, as well as Romance via ecclesiastical and legal Latin and French owing to the Auld Alliance. Scots has loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic. Early medieval legal documents show a language peppered with Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Today Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ceilidh, loch and clan. Many Scots words have also become part of English: flit, 'to move home', greed, eerie, cuddle, clan, stob, 'a post'. Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ... The Anglo-Norman language is the name given to the variety of Norman spoken by the Anglo-Normans, the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the conquest by William of Normandy in 1066. ... The Middle Low German language is an ancestor of the modern Low German language, and was spoken from about 1100 to 1500. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The Auld Alliance refers to a series of treaties, offensive and defensive in nature, between Scotland and France aimed specifically against an aggressive and expansionist England. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this list may require cleanup. ...

Status

Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self (Love God above all and your neighbour as yourself) an example of Early Scots on John Knox House, Edinburgh

Before the Treaty of Union 1707, when Scotland and England joined to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent language^[2] as part of a pluricentric diasystem. Download high resolution version (1760x1168, 507 KB)Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self, an example of Scots language at John Knox House, Edinburgh, 2004-11. ... Download high resolution version (1760x1168, 507 KB)Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self, an example of Scots language at John Knox House, Edinburgh, 2004-11. ... Early Scots describes the emerging literary language of the Northern Middle English speaking parts of Scotland in the period before 1450. ... Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self: an example older Scots on John Knox House, Edinburgh The John Knox House is a historic house in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, reputed to have been owned and lived in by Protestant Reformer John Knox during the 16th century. ... Edinburgh (pronounced ; Scottish Gaelic: ) is the capital of Scotland and its second-largest city. ... Walter Thomas Monningtons 1925 painting called Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland 1707 hangs in the Palace of Westminster depicting the official presentation of the law that formed the United Kingdom of Great Britain. ... Motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right)1 Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Territory of the Kingdom of Great Britain Capital London Language(s) English Welsh (Wales) Scottish Gaelic (parts of Scotland) Government Constitutional monarchy Monarch  - 1707–1714 Anne  - 1714-1727 George I  - 1727-1760 George... A pluricentric language is a language with several standard versions. ... In linguistics, a diasystem is a term used in structural dialectology, to refer to a single genetic language which has two or more standard forms. ...

The linguist Heinz Kloss considered Scots a Halbsprache (half language) in terms of a Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework, although standard English is now clearly the Dachsprache. Heinz Kloss (1904 - 1987) was a German linguist and internationally recognised authority on linguistic minorities . ... The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists, e. ...

Today, in Scotland, most people's speech is somewhere on a continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to Scottish Standard English. Many speakers are either diglossic and/or able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine. (see language change below). Consequently it is often disputed whether or not the varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right. Scottish English is usually taken to mean the standard form of the English language used in Scotland, often termed Scottish Standard English. ... In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often) closely-related languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. ... Code-switching is a term in linguistics referring to alternation between one or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common. ... Scots refers to the Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland. ...

The British government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, its independent — if somewhat fluid — orthographic conventions and in its former use as the language of the original Parliament of Scotland. Since Scotland retained distinct political, legal and religious systems after the Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. For instance, libel and slander, separate in English law, are bundled together as defamation in Scots law. A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. ... The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. ... The orthography of a language is the set of symbols (glyphs and diacritics) used to write a language, as well as the set of rules describing how to write these glyphs, including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. ... The parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the independent Kingdom of Scotland. ... In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someones reputation. ... English law is a formal term of art that describes the law for the time being in force in England and Wales. ... Scots law (or Scottish law) is the law of Scotland. ...

After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as was the notion of Scottishness itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume, considered themselves Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed Union. Enthusiasm for this new Britishness waned over time, and the use of Scots as a literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as Robert Burns. There is no current institutionalised standard literary form. During the second half of the 20th century, enthusiasts developed regularised cross-dialect forms following historical orthographic conventions, but these have had a limited impact. In the written Scots language, local loyalties often prevail, and the written form usually contains some Standard English adapted to represent the local pronunciation. However, many Scots words (which do not appear in Standard English) are still used in everyday speech. David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. ... A literary language is a register of a language that is used in writing, and which often differs in lexicon and syntax from the language used in speech. ... Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) was a poet and a lyricist. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Written Scots language examples from various sources. ...

No education takes place through the medium of Scots, though English lessons may cover it superficially, which usually entails reading some Scots literature and observing local dialect. Much of the material used is often Standard English disguised as Scots, which has upset both proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots^[3] alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)"^[4], whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation." ^[5]. On the one hand, this can be seen as revealing the institutionalised disregard for the idea of treating Scots as a language on a par with English. On the other hand, it can be seen as a teaching method to get around the fact that the pupils, the teachers, and the teachers' parents alike have been taught in school that Scots is 'bad spelling', and thus that pupils will self-censor any Scots that they do know. Scots can also be studied at university level. The educational system often fails to further the objective to produce people able to read, write, and speak Scots as an autonomous alternative to English, thus contributing to its perceived status by non-Scots speakers as a series of local dialects of English. Medium of instruction is the language that is used in teaching. ...

The use of Scots in the media is scant and is usually reserved for niches where local dialect is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night, or representations of traditions and times gone by. Serious use for news, encyclopaedias, documentaries, etc. rarely occurs in Scots, although the Scottish Parliament website offers some information on it. Attitudes towards Scots in the media vary widely, as may be seen by contrasting this sober official BBC Ulster article with this satirical H2G2 entry. A Burns Supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of the version of the Scots song Auld Lang Syne, which is generally sung at Hogmanay and other New Year celebrations around the English-speaking world. ... The Scottish Parliaments logo in English and Gaelic. ...

It is often held that, had Scotland remained independent, Scots would have remained and been regarded as a separate language from English. This has happened in Spain and Portugal, where two independent countries developed standardised languages, Portuguese originating from a common Galician-Portuguese language, which itself originated from a common Iberian Romance language shared with Castilian Spanish. On the other hand a situation similar to that of Swiss German and standard German might have occurred. Equally, the present situation might have occurred, where the social elites and the upwardly mobile adopted Standard English, causing institutional language shift. A model of language revival to which many enthusiasts aspire is that of the Catalan language in areas spanning parts of Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, particularly as regards the situation of Catalan in Catalonia. A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ... Portuguese-Galician (in Portuguese and Galician is known as Galaico-Português) was a Iberian Romance language, spoken in the Middle Ages, in the western area of the Iberian Peninsula. ... The formation of Iberian Romance languages followed more or less this process: A common Latin/Romance language with dialectal differences was spoken throughout the ancient Roman Empire. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ... Standard English is a general term for a form of written and spoken English that is considered the model for educated people by native English speakers. ... Language revival is the revival, by governments, political authorities, or enthusiasts, to recover the spoken use of a language that is no longer spoken or is endangered. ... Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra and co-official in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Valencia (under the name Valencian) and Catalonia. ... Anthem: Els Segadors Capital Barcelona Official language(s) Spanish, Catalan, and Aranese Area  â€“ Total  â€“ % of Spain Ranked 6th  32,114 km²  6. ...

Language change

After the Union of Scotland and England, the issue of language became topical, and foremost was the question of whether Scottish people should speak English or Scots. Gaelic was never considered an option; at the time, it was mostly relegated to the Highlands and Islands. Scots became considered to have a substratal relationship to English, as opposed to an adstratal relationship. In linguistics, a substratum (lat. ... The term adstratum refers to a language which is equal in prestige to another. ...

On one hand, well-off Scots took to learning English through such activities as those of the Irishman Thomas Sheridan (father of Richard Sheridan), who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution. Charging a guinea at a time (about £65 in today's money), they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh. Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. This was not universally welcomed, as was illustrated by the summary by F. Pottle, James Boswell's 20th century biographer, concerning James' view of his father Alexander Boswell's speech habits: He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar. Thomas Sheridan (1719 - 1788) was a stage actor and a major proponent of the elocution movement. ... Richard Brinsley Sheridan (October 30, 1751 - July 7, 1816) was an Irish playwright and politician. ... 1761 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Elocution is proper speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone. ... Freeman can mean: A person who has been awarded Freedom of the City. ... Edinburgh (pronounced ; Scottish Gaelic: ) is the capital of Scotland and its second-largest city. ... James Boswell James Boswell (October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Alexander Boswell (1706-1782), lord of Auchinleck, was a judge of the supreme courts of Scotland. ...

On the other hand, the education system also became increasingly geared to teaching English, though this was initially impaired by the teachers' and students' lack of knowledge of English pronunciation through lack of contact with English speakers. Aspects of English grammar and lexis could be accessed through printed texts. By the 1840s the Scottish Education Department's language policy was that Scots had no value "...it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as a suitable medium of education or culture". Students, of course, reverted to Scots outside the classroom, but the reversion was not complete. What occurred, and has been occurring ever since, is a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations have adopted more and more features from English. This process has accelerated rapidly since wide-spread access to mass media in English, and increased population mobility, became available after the Second World War. It has recently taken on the nature of wholesale language shift. These processes are often erroneously referred to as language change, convergence or merger. Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... // Events and Trends Technology First use of general anesthesia in an operation, by Crawford Long The first electrical telegraph sent by Samuel Morse on May 24, 1844 from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.. War, peace and politics First signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi) on February... Many countries have a language policy designed to favour or discourage the use of a particular language or set of languages. ... Language attrition is the loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language by either a community or an individual. ... Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state). ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Language shift is the process whereby an entire speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. ... Language change is the manner in which the phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and other features of a language are modified over time. ... Language convergence is a type of contact-induced change whereby languages of equal social prestige with many bilingual speakers mutually borrow morphological and syntactic features, making their typology more similar. ... Language merger, in linguistics, is a theoretical phenomenon whereby two or more distinct languages combine to form a single language. ...

A rather more positive take on this is that, rather than reject English culture, the Scots mastered and conquered it, becoming bilingual and writing some of the greatest works of the time, such as Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, in what was still a foreign language ^{[citation needed]}. However, most younger Scots today see a Scottish accent, that is, Scottish English, as a sufficient marker of their Scottishness, and are generally not interested in retaining bilingualism in a language they consider old-fashioned, parochial, or simply uncool. Residual features of Scots are often regarded as slang. The term bilingualism (from bi meaning two and lingua meaning language) can refer to rather different phenomena. ... For other persons named Adam Smith, see Adam Smith (disambiguation). ... An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of Adam Smith, published in 1776. ... In linguistics, an accent is a pronunciation characteristic of a particular group of people relative to another group. ... Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speakers dialect or language. ...

Literature

Main article: Scottish literature

Examples of the first English literature include Christ's Prayer in Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon from c. 650, which begins "Faeder ure, Thu the eart on heofonum,". Some Scottish and Northumbrian folk still say "oor faither" and "thoo art". The Genesis Poem attributed to Cædmon of Whitby in Northumbria opens with the words "Us is riht mikel" which is translated as "We are mighty great", but in Scots could appear as "Us is richt muckle". The words were written around 675 by a monk trained by the Celtic church of Iona taking dictation from the illiterate herdsman Caedmon singing in Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon in a monastery then known by the Gaelic name of Streaneshalch.^[6] Cædmon's name is Brythonic, and some scholars think that he may have been bilingual. Scottish literature is literature written in Scotland or by Scottish writers. ... The Lords Prayer (sometimes known by its first two Latin words as the Pater Noster, in Greek as the , or the English equivalent Our Father) is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity. ... Northumbrian was a dialect spoken in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. ... Depiction of Cædmon carved on a stone memorial cross on the grounds of St Marys Church in Whitby. ... Statistics Population: 13,740 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: NZ893109 Administration District: Scarborough Shire county: North Yorkshire Region: Yorkshire and the Humber Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: North Yorkshire Historic county: Yorkshire (North Riding) Services Police force: North Yorkshire Police Ambulance service: Yorkshire Post office... Section from Shepherds map of the British Isles about 802 AD showing the kingdom of Northumbria Northumbria is primarily the name of a petty kingdom of Angles which was formed in Great Britain at the beginning of the 7th century, from two smaller kingdoms of Bernicia and Diera, and... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Iona village viewed from a short distance offshore. ... The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family. ...

Among the earliest Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (fourteenth century), Whyntoun's Kronykil and Blind Harry's Wallace (fifteenth century). From the fifteenth century, much literature based around the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such as Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Douglas and David Lyndsay. The Complaynt of Scotland was an early printed work in Scots. For the 19th-century U.S. senator from Virginia see John Strode Barbour Jr. ... Blind Harry (ca. ... St Marys College Bute Medical School Postgraduate Students Affiliations 1994 Group Website www. ... Robert Henryson (c. ... This article is about William Dunbar, the poet. ... Sir David Lyndsay (c. ... The Complaynt of Scotland is a book printed in 1549 and is an important work of the Scots language. ...

After the seventeenth century, anglicisation increased, though Scots was still spoken by the vast majority of the population. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the North East were written down. Writers of the period were Robert Sempill, Robert Sempill the younger, Francis Sempill, Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie. The English/Scottish border has a long and bloody history of conquest and reconquest, raid and counter-raid. ... Robert Sempill (the elder) (c. ... Robert Sempill, the younger (1595? - 1663?), son of Robert Sempill, was educated at the university of Glasgow, having matriculated in March 1613. ... Francis Sempill (1616? - March, 1682) was a son of Robert Sempill the younger. ... Lady Grizel Baillie (December 25, 1665–December 6, 1746), was a Scottish song-writer. ...

In the eighteenth century, writers such as Alan Ramsay, Robert Burns, Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott continued to use Scots. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) was a poet and a lyricist. ...   Statue of Fergusson on Edinburghs Royal Mile Robert Fergusson (September 5, 1750 - October 16, 1774), Scottish poet, son of Sir William Fergusson, a clerk in the British Linen Company, was born at Edinburgh. ... Portrait of Sir Walter Scott, by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a prolific Scottish historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time. ...

Following their example, such well-known authors as Robert Louis Stevenson, William Alexander, George MacDonald and J. M. Barrie also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue. Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis (Balfour) Stevenson (November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894), was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of Neo-romanticism in English literature. ... George MacDonald (December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. ... Sir James Matthew Barrie, Bt. ...

In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions.^[7] Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Ascension to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian Era of Great Britain marked the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ...

In the early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young, Sidney Goodsir Smith, Robert Garioch and Robert McLellan. However, the revival was largely limited to verse and other literature. The Scottish version of modernism, the Scottish literary renaissance was begun by Hugh MacDiarmid in the 1920s when he abandoned his English language poetry and began to write in Lallans. ... Hugh MacDiarmid was the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve (August 11, 1892, Langholm - September 9, 1978), perhaps the most important Scottish poet of the 20th century. ... Robert Garioch Sutherland, (May 9, 1909 – April 26, 1981), was a Scottish poet and translator. ...

In 1983 William Laughton Lorimer's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published. William Laughton Lorimer (1885-1967) was born at Strathmartine on the outskirts of Dundee, Scotland. ...

Highly anglicised Scots is often used in contemporary fiction, for example, the Edinburgh dialect of Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a motion picture of the same name, though with language allegedly anglicised even more to make it suitable for an international audience). Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. ... Irvine Welsh, reading one of his new short stories at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Irvine Welsh (born Leith, Edinburgh, September 27, 1958) is a Scottish novelist. ...

But'n'Ben A-Go-Go by Matthew Fitt is a cyberpunk novel written entirely in what Wir Ain Leid (Our Own Language) calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms. Matthew Fitt is a Lowland Scots poet and novelist. ... Berlins Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz reflects the global reach of a Japanese corporation. ... A neologism (from Greek νεολογισμός νέος [neos] = new; λόγος [logos] = word) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ...

Dialects

There are at least five Scots dialects:

• Northern Scots, spoken north of Dundee, often split into North Northern, Mid Northern—also known as North East Scots and referred to as "the Doric"—and South Northern.
• Central Scots, spoken from Fife and Perthshire to the Lothians and Wigtownshire, often split into North East and South East Central, West Central and South West Central Scots.
• South Scots or simply "Border Tongue" or "Borders' Dialect" spoken in the Border areas.
• Insular Scots, spoken in Orkney and Shetland.
• Ulster Scots, spoken by the descendants of Scottish settlers (and also many of Irish and English descent) in littoral Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Irish Republic, and sometimes described by the neologism "Ullans", a conflation of Ulster and Lallans. However, in a recent article, Caroline Macafee, editor of The Concise Ulster Dictionary, stated that Ulster Scots was "clearly a dialect of Central Scots".

As well as the main dialects, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow (see Glasgow patter) have local variations on an anglicised form of Central Scots. In Aberdeen, Mid Northern Scots is spoken. For the Doric dialect of ancient Greek, see Doric Greek Doric was formerly used to refer to all dialects of Lowland Scots but is now usually used as a name for the dialect spoken in the north-east of Scotland. ... Central Scots is a group of dialects of Scots language. ... Scottish Borders (often referred to locally as The Borders or The Borderland) is one of 35 local government unitary council areas of Scotland. ... Orkney (sometimes known as the Orkney Islands) is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated 10 miles north of the coast of Caithness. ... Shetland (formerly spelled Zetland, from etland) formerly called Hjaltland, is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. ... Ulster Scots, also known as Ullans, Hiberno-Scots, or Scotch-Irish, refers to the variety of Scots spoken in parts of the province of Ulster, which spans the six counties of Northern Ireland and three of the Republic of Ireland. ... Motto: (Latin for Who would separate us?)[1] Anthem: UK: God Save the Queen Regional: (de facto) Londonderry Air Capital Belfast Largest city Belfast Official language(s) English (de facto), Irish, Ulster Scots 3, NI Sign Language Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony... Statistics Province: Ulster County Town: Lifford Code: DL Area: 4,841 km² Population (2006) 146,956 Website: www. ... A neologism (from Greek νεολογισμός νέος [neos] = new; λόγος [logos] = word) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... Statistics Area: 24,481 km² Population (2006 estimate) 1,993,918 Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) forms one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. ... Lallans ( a variant of the Scots word lawlands meaning the lowlands of Scotland), was also traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole. ... Edinburgh (pronounced ; Scottish Gaelic: ) is the capital of Scotland and its second-largest city. ... Dundee (Scottish Gaelic: ) is the fourth-largest city in Scotland, with a population of 143,090. ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... Glasgow patter or Glaswegian is an anglicised urban Scots dialect spoken in and around Glasgow, Scotland. ... Aberdeen, often called The Granite City, is Scotlands third largest city, with a population of approximately 202,370[1]. Aberdeen is the chief commercial centre and seaport in the north-east of Scotland. ...

Wee Donald Angus. "Please, Sirr, what time wull it be?"
Literal Gentleman. "When?"
Cartoon from Punch magazine, August 25th 1920

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (805x552, 44 KB) Summary Scots Language cartoon from Punch - Project Gutenberg eText 16727 From The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (805x552, 44 KB) Summary Scots Language cartoon from Punch - Project Gutenberg eText 16727 From The Project Gutenberg EBook of Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. ... Punch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. ...

Pronunciation

Many writers now strictly avoid apostrophes where they supposedly represent "missing" English letters. Such letters were never actually missing in Scots. For example, in the 14th century, Barbour spelt the Scots cognate of 'taken' as tane. Since there has been no k in the word for over 700 years, representing its omission with an apostrophe seems pointless. The current spelling is usually taen. The following is more a guide for readers. How the spellings are applied in practice is beyond the scope of such a short description. Phonetics are in IPA. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... Barbour is most commonly worn my the upper-middle classes and thought to be brand worn by the Sloane Rangers. ... Cognate (Latin: cognatus co+gnatus, ie. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ...

Consonants

Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but:

• c: /k/ or /s/, much as in English.
• ch: /x/, also gh. Medial 'cht' may be /ð/ in Northern dialects. loch (Lake), nicht (night), dochter (daughter), dreich (dreary), etc. Similar to the German "Nacht".
• ch: word initial or where it follows 'r' /tʃ/. airch (arch), mairch (march), etc.
• gn: /n/. In Northern dialects /gn/ may occur.
• kn: /n/. In Northern dialects /kn/ or /tn/ may occur. knap (talk), knee, knowe (knoll), etc.
• ng: is always /ŋ/.
• nch: usually /nʃ/. brainch (branch), dunch (push), etc.
• r: /r/ or /ɹ/ is pronounced in all positions, i.e. rhotically.
• s or se: /s/ or /z/.
• t: may be a glottal stop between vowels or word final. In Ulster dentalised pronunciations may also occur, also for 'd'.
• th: /ð/ or /θ/ much as is English. Initial 'th' in thing, think and thank, etc. may be /h/.
• wh: usually /ʍ/, older /xʍ/. Northern dialects also have /f/.
• wr: /wr/ more often /r/ but may be /vr/ in Northern dialects. wrack (wreck), wrang (wrong), write, wrocht (worked), etc.
• z: /jɪ/ or /ŋ/, may occur in some words as a substitute for the older <ȝ> (yogh). For example: brulzie (broil), gaberlunzie (a beggar) and the names Menzies, Finzean, Culzean, MacKenzie etc. (As a result of the lack of education in Scots, MacKenzie is now generally pronounced with a /z/ following the perceived realisation of the written form, as more controversially is sometimes Menzies.)

In linguistics, rhotic can refer to: a rhotic consonant such as IPA a rhotic accent such as General American an r-colored vowel such as IPA This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The letter yogh (Ȝ ȝ; Middle English: ogh) was used in Middle English and Middle Scots, representing y (IPA: ) and various velar phonemes. ... Menzies is a Scottish surname, originally the name of the Clan Menzies (Gaelic Mèinnearach). ... Finzean (pronounced fingen, IPA - see yogh) is a place in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. ... Culzean Castle. ... Mackenzie may refer to: People People or person with the surname or last name MacKenzie: Mackenzie Jones (Suzanne clan) Clan MacKenzie (Scottish clan) Alastair MacKenzie (b. ...

Silent letters

• The word final 'd' in nd and ld: but often pronounced in derived forms. Sometimes simply 'n' and 'l' or 'n'' and 'l''. auld (old), haund (hand), etc.
• 't' in medial cht: ('ch' = /x/) and st and before final en. fochten (fought), thristle (thistle) also 't' in aften (often), etc.
• 't' in word final ct and pt but often pronounced in derived forms. respect, accept, etc.

Vowels

In Scots, vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scots vowel length rule. Words which differ only slightly in pronunciation from Scottish English are generally spelled as in English. Other words may be spelt the same but differ in pronunciation, for example: aunt, swap, want and wash with /a/, bull, full v. and pull with /ʌ/, bind, find and wind v., etc. with /ɪ/. In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... 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. ... Scottish English is usually taken to mean the standard form of the English language used in Scotland, often termed Scottish Standard English. ...

• The unstressed vowel /ə/ may be represented by any vowel letter.
• a: usually /a/ but in south west and Ulster dialects often /ɑ/. Note final a in awa (away), twa (two) and wha (who) may also be /ɑ/ or /ɔ/ or /e/ depending on dialect.
• au, aw and sometimes a, a' or aa: /ɑː/ or /ɔː/ in Southern, Central and Ulster dialects but /aː/ in Northern dialects. The cluster 'auld' may also be /ʌul/ in Ulster. aw (all), cauld (cold), braw (handsome), faw (fall), snaw (snow), etc.
• ae, ai, a(consonant)e: /e/. Often /ɛ/ before /r/. In Northern dialects the vowel in the cluster -'ane' is often /i/. brae (slope), saip (soap), hale (whole), ane (one), ance (once), bane (bone), etc.
• ea, ei, ie: /iː/ or /eː/ depending on dialect. /ɛ/ may occur before /r/. Root final this may be /əi/ in Southern dialects. In the far north /əi/ may occur. deid (dead), heid (head), meat (food), clear, speir (enquire), sea, etc.
• ee, e(Consonant)e: /iː/. Root final this may be /əi/ in Southern dialects. ee (eye), een (eyes), steek (shut), here, etc.
• e: /ɛ/. bed, het (heated), yett (gate), etc.
• eu: /(j)u/ or /(j)ʌ/ depending on dialect. Sometimes erroneously 'oo', 'u(consonant)e', 'u' or 'ui'. beuk (book), ceuk (cook), eneuch (enough), leuk (look), teuk (took), etc.
• ew: /ju/. In Northern dialects a root final 'ew' may be /jʌu/. few, new, etc.
• i: /ɪ/, but often varies between /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ especially after 'w' and 'wh'. /æ/ also occurs in Ulster before voiceless consonants. big, fit (foot), wid (wood), etc.
• i(consonant)e, y(consonant)e, ey: /əi/ or /aɪ/. 'ay' is usually /e/ but /əi/ in ay (yes) and aye (always). In Dundee it is noticeably /ɛ/.
• o: /ɔ/ but often /o/.
• oa: /o/.
• ow, owe (root final), seldom ou: /ʌu/. Before 'k' vocalisation to /o/ may occur especially in western and Ulster dialects. bowk (retch), bowe (bow), howe (hollow), knowe (knoll), cowp (overturn), yowe (ewe), etc.
• ou, oo, u(consonant)e: /u/. Root final /ʌu/ may occur in Southern dialects. cou (cow), broun (brown), hoose (house), moose (mouse) etc.
• u: /ʌ/. but, cut, etc.
• ui, also u(consonant)e, oo: /ø/ in conservative dialects. In parts of Fife, Dundee and north Antrim /e/. In Northern dialects usually /i/ but /wi/ after /g/ and /k/ and also /u/ before /r/ in some areas eg. fuird (ford). Mid Down and Donegal dialects have /i/. In central and north Down dialects /ɪ/ when short and /e/ when long. buird (board), buit (boot), cuit (ankle), fluir (floor), guid (good), schuil (school), etc. In central dialects uise v. and uiss n. (use) are [jeːz] and [jɪs].

Suffixes

• Negative na: /ɑ/, /ɪ/ or /e/ depending on dialect. Also 'nae' or 'y' eg. canna (can't), dinna (don't) and maunna (mustn't).
• fu (ful): /u/, /ɪ/, /ɑ/ or /e/ depending on dialect. Also 'fu'', 'fie', 'fy', 'fae' and 'fa'.
• The word ending ae: /ɑ/, /ɪ/ or /e/ depending on dialect. Also 'a', 'ow' or 'y', for example: arrae (arrow), barrae (barrow) and windae (window), etc.

Some grammar features

Not all of the following features are exclusive to Scots and may also occur in other "Anglic varieties". The Anglic languages (also called Anglian languages) are one of the two branches of Anglo-Frisian languages, itself a branch of West Germanic. ...

The definite article

The is used before the names of seasons, days of the week, many nouns, diseases, trades, occupations, sciences and academic subjects. It is also often used in place of the indefinite article and instead of a possessive pronoun: the hairst (autumn), the Wadensday (Wednesday), awa til the kirk (off to church), the nou (at the moment), the day (today), the haingles (influenza), the Laitin (Latin), The deuk ett the bit breid (The duck ate a piece of bread), the wife (my wife) etc.

Nouns

Nouns usually form their plural in -(e)s but some irregular plurals occur: ee/een (eye/eyes), cauf/caur (calf/calves), horse/horse (horse/horses), cou/kye (cow/cows), shae/shuin (shoe/shoes). Nouns of measure and quantity unchanged in the plural: fower fit (four feet), twa mile (two miles), five pund (five pounds), three hunderwecht (three hundredweight). Regular plurals include laifs (loaves), leafs (leaves), shelfs (shelves) and wifes (wives), etc.

Diminutives

Diminutives in -ie, burnie small burn (brook), feardie/feartie (frightened person, coward), gamie (gamekeeper), kiltie (kilted soldier), postie (postman), wifie (woman), rhodie (rhododendron), and also in -ock, bittock (little bit), playock (toy, plaything), sourock (sorrel) and Northern –ag, bairnag (little) bairn (child), Cheordag (Geordie), -ockie, hooseockie (small house), wifeockie (little woman), both influenced by the Scottish Gaelic diminutive -ag (-óg in Irish Gaelic). A diminutive is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment. ...

Modal verbs

The modal verbs mey (may), ocht tae (ought to), and sall (shall), are no longer used much in Scots but occurred historically and are still found in anglicised literary Scots. Can, shoud (should), and will are the preferred Scots forms. Scots employs double modal constructions He'll no can come the day (He won't be able to come today), A micht coud come the morn (I may be able to come tomorrow), A uised tae coud dae it, but no nou (I could do it once, but not now). Look up shall in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Present tense of verbs

The present tense of verbs adhere to the Northern subject rule whereby verbs end in -s in all persons and numbers except when a single personal pronoun is next to the verb, Thay say he's ower wee, Thaim that says he's ower wee, Thir lassies says he's ower wee (They say he's too small), etc. Thay're comin an aw but Five o thaim's comin, The lassies? Thay've went but Ma brakes haes went. Thaim that comes first is serred first (Those who come first are served first). The trees growes green in the simmer (The trees grow green in summer). The Northern Subject Rule is a grammatical pattern inherited from Northern Middle English. ...

Wis 'was' may replace war 'were', but not conversely: You war/wis thare.

Past tense of verbs

The regular past form of the verb is -(i)t or -(e)d, according to the preceding consonant or vowel hurtit, skelpit (smacked), Mendit, kent/kenned (knew/known), cleant/cleaned, scrieved (scribbled), telt/tauld (told), dee'd (died). Some verbs have distinctive forms: greet/grat/grutten (weep/wept), fesh/fuish/fuishen (fetch/fetched), lauch/leuch/lauchen~leuchen (laugh/laughed), thrash/thruish/thrashen~thruishen (thresh/threshed), wash/wuish/washen~wuishen (wash/washed), gae/gaed/gane (go/went/gone), gie/gied/gien (give/gave/given), pit/pat/pitten (put/put/put/), git/gat/gotten (get/got/got(ten)), ride/rade/ridden (ride/rode/ridden), drive/drave/driven~dreen (drive/drove/driven), write/wrat(e)/written (write/wrote/written), bind/band/bund (bind/bound/bound), find/fand/fund (find/found/found), fecht/focht/fochten (fight/fought), bake/bakit~beuk/baken (bake/baked), tak(e)/teuk/taen (take/took/taken), chuse/chusit/chusit (choose/chose/chosen).

Word order

Scots prefers the word order He turnt oot the licht to 'He turned the light out' and Gie me it to 'Give it to me'.

Certain verbs are often used progressively He wis thinkin he wad tell her, He wis wantin tae tell her.

Verbs of motion may be dropped before an adverb or adverbial phrase of motion A'm awa tae ma bed, That's me awa hame, A'll intae the hoose an see him.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers ending in -t seicont, fowert, fift, saxt— (second, fourth, fifth, sixth) etc. first, Thrid/third— (first, third).

Adverbs

Adverbs are usually of the same form as the verb root or adjective especially after verbs. Haein a real guid day (Having a really good day). She's awfu fauchelt (She's awfully tired).

Adverbs are also formed with -s, -lies, lins, gate(s)and wey(s) -wey, whiles (at times), mebbes (perhaps), brawlies (splendidly), geylies (pretty well), aiblins (perhaps), airselins (backwards), hauflins (partly), hidlins (secretly), maistlins (almost), awgates (always, everywhere), ilkagate (everywhere), onygate (anyhow), ilkawey (everywhere), onywey(s) (anyhow, anywhere), endweys (straight ahead), whit wey (how, why).

Subordinate clauses

Verbless subordinate clauses introduced by an and expressing surprise or indignation She haed tae walk the hale lenth o the road an her sieven month pregnant, He telt me tae rin an me wi ma sair leg (and me with my sore leg).

Negation

Negation occurs by using the adverb no, in the North East nae, as in A'm no comin (I'm not coming), or by using the suffix -na (pronunciation depending on dialect), as in A dinna ken (I don't know), Thay canna come (They can't come), We coudna hae telt him (We couldn't have told him), and A hivna seen her (I haven't seen her). The usage with no is preferred to that with -na with contractable auxiliary verbs like -ll for will, or in yes no questions with any auxiliary He'll no come and Did he no come?

Relative pronoun

The relative pronoun is that ('at is an alternative form borrowed from Norse but can also be arrived at by contraction) for all persons and numbers, but may be left out Thare's no mony fowk (that) leeves in that glen (There aren't many people who live in that glen). The anglicised forms wha, wham, whase 'who, whom, whose', and the older whilk 'which' are literary affectations; whilk is only used after a statement He said he'd tint it, whilk wis no whit we wantit tae hear. The possessive is formed by adding 's or by using an appropriate pronoun The wifie that's hoose gat burnt, the wumman that her dochter gat mairit; the men that thair boat wis tint.

A third adjective/adverb yon/yonder, thon/thonder indicating something at some distance D'ye see yon/thon hoose ower yonder/thonder? Also thae (those) and thir (these), the plurals of this and that.

In Northern Scots this and that are also used where "these" and "those" would be in Standard English.

Notes

Professor Adam Jack Aitken (1921-1998) Jack Aitken was born in Edinburgh but grew up in Bonnyrigg and was educated at Lasswade Secondary School. ... Alasdair Gray (born December 28, 1934) is a Scottish writer and artist. ... Book cover designed and Illustrated by [[[Alasdair Gray]]. The Book of Prefaces, Edited and Glossed by the Scottish artist and novelist Alasdair Gray, provides a history of how literature spread and developed through the nations of England, Ireland, Scotland, and the United States. ...

References

• Corbett, John; McClure, Derrick; Stuart-Smith, Jane (Editors)(2003) The Edinburgh Companion to Scots. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1596-2
• Eagle, Andy (2005) Wir Ain Leid. Scots-Online. Available in full at http://www.scots-online.org/airticles/WirAinLeid.pdf
• Gordon Jr., Raymond G.(2005), editor The Ethnologue Fifteenth Edition. SCI. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. Available in full at http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=sco
• Jones, Charles (1997) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language. Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh Press. ISBN 0-7486-0754-4
• Jones, Charles (1995) A Language Suppressed: The pronunciation of the Scots language in the 18th century. Edinburgh, John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-427-3
• Kingsmore, Rona K. (1995) Ulster Scots Speech: A Sociolinguistic Study. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0711-7
• MacAfee, Caroline (1980/1992) Characteristics of Non-Standard Grammar in Scotland (University of Aberdeen: available at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~enl038/grammar.htm)
• McClure, J. Derrick (1997) Why Scots Matters. Edinburgh, Saltire Society. ISBN 0-85411-071-2
• Niven, Liz; Jackson, Robin (Eds.) (1998) The Scots Language: its place in education. Watergaw Publications. ISBN 0-9529978-5-1
• Robertson, T.A.; Graham, J.J. (1991) Grammar and Use of the Shetland Dialect. Lerwick, The Shetland Times Ltd.
• Ross, David; Smith, Gavin D. (Editors)(1999) Scots-English, English-Scots Practical Dictionary. New York, Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-7818-0779-4
• Scottish National Dictionary Association (1999) Concise Scots Dictionary . Edinburgh, Polygon. ISBN 1-902930-01-0
• Scottish National Dictionary Association (1999) Scots Thesaurus. Edinburgh, Polygon. ISBN 1-902930-03-7
• Warrack, Alexander (Editor)(1911) Chambers Scots Dictionary. Chambers.
• Yound, C.P.L. (2004) Scots Grammar. Scotsgate. Available in full at http://www.scotsgate.com/scotsgate01.pdf

See also

Scots language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Dictionary of the Scots Language
• Scottish literature
• Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech
• Languages in the United Kingdom
• Scottish English
• Phonological history of the Scots language
• Billy Kay
• Doric
• Lallans

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. ... 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. ... Scottish literature is literature written in Scotland or by Scottish writers. ... The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech (SCOTS) is an ongoing project to build a corpus of modern-day texts in Scottish English and varieties of Scots. ... The United Kingdom does not have a constitutionally defined official language. ... Scottish English is usually taken to mean the standard form of the English language used in Scotland, often termed Scottish Standard English. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Billy Kay is a writer, broadcaster and language activist. ... For the Doric dialect of ancient Greek, see Doric Greek Doric was formerly used to refer to all dialects of Lowland Scots but is now usually used as a name for the dialect spoken in the north-east of Scotland. ... Lallans ( a variant of the Scots word lawlands meaning the lowlands of Scotland), was also traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole. ...

External links

Dictionaries and linguistic information

• The Dictionary of the Scots Language
• Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.
• Dialect Map
• SAMPA for Scots
• Scottish words - illustrated
• Abstract: Vowel height harmony and blocking in Buchan Scots, Mary Paster, University of California, Phonology Vol. 21, Issue 3

The University of California (UC) is a public university system in the state of California. ...

General

• Scots-online
• The Scots Language Society
• ScotsGate
• Scots Language Centre
• The Linguist List, Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State University
• Scots at Omniglot
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online

Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI, USA 48197) is a comprehensive, co-educational public university located in Ypsilanti, Michigan. ... Wayne State University is located in Detroit, Michigan, in the citys Cultural Center. ...

Education

• Scots in Schools
• Scots at University

Collections of texts

• ScotsteXt - books, poems and texts in Scots
• A Tait Wanchancie - a collection of texts
• Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech - Multimedia corpus of Scots and Scottish English
• BBC Voices, Scots section - The BBC Voices Project is a major though informal look at UK language and speech

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