Scots language The Scots language (the Scots leid) refers to Anglic varieties derived from early northern

Middle English spoken in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Scotland it is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Islands. 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. Native speakers in Scotland and Ireland usually refer to their vernacular as (braid) Scots (Eng: Broad Scots) or use a dialect name such as Teri, the Doric or the Buchan Claik. The oldfashioned Scotch occurs occasionally, especially in Ireland. Some literary forms are often referred to as Lallans (Lowlands). 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. 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 West Frisian to Dutch in the Netherlands. However, use of the word subordination in this context also implies that a standard or proper version of the language, in this case English, actually exists. 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 indigenous language of Lowland Scotland.

History 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 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, 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. 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. Early northern Middle English, also known as Early Scots, then spread further into Scotland via the burghs, protourban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the 14th century, and the complementary decline of French in Scotland, made Scots the prestige language of most of eastern Scotland. By the 16th century Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. Modern Scots thus grew out of the early northern form of Middle English spoken by the people of southeastern Scotland and northern England. Northern Middle English, or Early Scots as it is also known, made its first literary appearance in Scotland in the mid14th century, when its form differed little from other northern Anglic dialects, and so Scots shared many Northumbrian borrowings from Old Norse and AngloNorman 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 (Scotlands political alliance with France). 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). Status 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 as part of a pluricentric diasystem. Many speakers today are either diglossic and/or able to codeswitch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves. The UK 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. 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. Such 18th and 19th century writers were well aware of cross-dialect standard literary norms, but during the first half of the 20th century, knowledge of such norms waned and currently there is no 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 much contemporary written Scots language, local loyalties usually prevail, and the written form usually adopts standard English soundto-letter correspondences to represent the local pronunciation. 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 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.) ", whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be " writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation." 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.

It is often held that, had Scotland remained independent, Scots would have remained and been regarded as a separate language from English. 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. Dialects There are at least five Scots dialects: Insular Scots, spoken in Orkney and Shetland. Northern Scots, spoken north of Dundee, often split into North Northern, Mid Northernalso 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 the "Border Tongue" or "Borders' Dialect" spoken in the Border areas. Ulster Scots, spoken by the descendants of Scottish settlers (and also some with Irish and English descent) in littoral Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland, and sometimes described by the neologism "Ullans", a conflation of Ulster and Lallans. The southern extent of Scots may be identified by the range of a number of pronunciation features which set Scots apart from neighbouring English dialects. Sounds

Consonants Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but: . ch: /x/, also gh. Medial 'cht' may be // in Northern dialects. loch (fjord or lake), nicht (night), dochter (daughter), dreich (dreary), etc. Similar to the German "Nacht". ch: word initial or where it follows 'r' /t /. 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. Wee Donald Angus. "Please, Sirr, wat time wull it be?" Literal Gentleman . "When?" t: may be a glottal stop between vowels or word final. In Ulster dentalised pronunciations may also occur, also for 'd'. wh: usually //, older /x/. 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. 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 //, bind, find and wind v., etc. with //. Note final a in awa (away), twa (two) and wha (who) may also be // or // or /e/ depending on dialect. au, aw and sometimes a, a' or aa : // or // in Southern, Central and Ulster dialects but /a/ in Northern dialects. The cluster 'auld' may also be /ul/ in Ulster. aw (all), cauld (cold), braw (handsome), faw (fall), snaw (snow), etc. ae , ai, a(consonant)e: /e/. Often // 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: /i/ or /e/ depending on dialect. // may occur before /r/. Root final this may be /i/ in Southern dialects. In the far north /i/ may occur. deid (dead), heid (head), meat (food), clear, speir (enquire), sea, etc. ee , e(Consonant)e: /i/. Root final this may be /i/ in Southern dialects. ee (eye), een (eyes), steek (shut), here, etc. e: //. bed, het (heated), yett (gate), etc. eu: /(j)u/ or /(j)/ depending on dialect. Sometimes erroneously 'oo', 'u(consonant)e', 'u' or 'ui'. beuk (book), eneuch (enough), ceuk (cook), leuk (look), teuk (took), 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 (stream), 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).