Scots language
Scots is an
Anglic variety spoken in
Scotland, where 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.
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 do exist those often render sometimes contradictory results (See
Dialect). Consequently Scots has, on one hand, traditionally been regarded as one of the ancient dialects of
English but also has its own ancient and distinct dialects. Often being treated as part of English as spoken in Scotland but differing significantly from the
Standard Scottish English taught in schools. On the other hand it has also been regarded as a
Germanic language in its own right in the way that
Swedish is distinct from
Danish. Its subordinate relationship with the English of
England has also been compared to that of
Frisian being dominated by
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 name of the
autochthonous language of Lowland Scotland. (See
Status below)
Native speakers in both 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).
Main article: History of the Scots language
The word Scot was borrowed from
Latin and its use, to refer to
Scotland, 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). From the late 15th century onwards
[A.J. Aitken in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press 1992.] Anglic speakers in Scotland also started to refer to their vernacular as
Scottis and increasingly began calling Gaelic
Erse (from Erisch, meaning Irish, now often considered pejorative).
Northumbrian Old English had been established in south-eastern 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.
Modern Scots thus grew out of the early northern form of
Middle English spoken by the people of south-eastern 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 Saxon 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'.
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 a language other than English
[''NOSTRA VULGARI LINGUA:SCOTS AS A EUROPEAN LANGUAGE 1500 - 1700'' [1]]. 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.
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 â€" if somewhat fluid â€"
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 time such as
David Hume considered themselves to be Northern British rather than Scottish. Consequently, 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 in time, and the use of Scots as a
literary language was revived by many 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 often still used.
No education takes place through the
medium of Scots, though English lessons may cover it superficially. This is often not much more than reading some Scots literature and observing local dialect. Much of the material used is often little more than Standard English disguised as Scots, which has upset both proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots
[Exposed to ridicule Scotsman 7 Feb 2004] 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 â€" write as you hear the sounds in your head.)"
[Scots - Teaching approaches Learning and Teaching Scotland Online Service], whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be
"writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation."
[National Guidelines 5-14: ENGLISH LANGUAGE Learning and Teaching Scotland Online Service]. 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. Nowhere in the education system is 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Society for the 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.
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.
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. 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 (often regarded as
slang) in the speech of the young urban working class are often derogatorily referred to as
Ned speak.
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 Norhumbrian 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.
[Gray, Alasdair, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2000 (2002 edition) ISBN 0747559120] Cædmon's name is
Brythonic, and some scholars think that he may have been bilingual.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In the
Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions.
[William Donaldson, The Language of the People: Scots Prose from the Victorian Revival, Aberdeen University Press 1989.] 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.
In 1983
William Laughton Lorimer's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published.
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).
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.
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 the
Orkney Islands and
Shetland Islands.
*
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.
[[Image:Scots Language cartoon from Punch - Project Gutenberg eText 16727.png|thumb|
Wee Donald Angus. "Please, Sirr, what time wull it be?"
Literal Gentleman. "When?"
Cartoon from {{Punch (magazine)|Punch}} magazine, August 25th 1920]]
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.
Consonants
Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but:
*
c: or , much as in English.
*
ch: , also
gh. Medial 'cht' may be in Northern dialects.
loch (Lake),
nicht (night),
dochter (daughter),
dreich (dreary), etc.
*
ch: word initial or where it follows 'r' .
airch (arch),
mairch (march), etc.
*
gn: . In Northern dialects may occur.
*
kn: . In Northern dialects or may occur.
knap (talk),
knee,
knowe (knoll), etc.
*
ng: is always .
*
nch: usually .
brainch (branch),
dunch (push), etc.
*
r: or is pronounced in all positions, i.e.
rhotically.
*
s or
se: or .
*
t: may be a glottal stop between vowels or word final. In Ulster dentalised pronunciations may also occur, also for 'd'.
*
th: or much as is English. Initial 'th' in
thing,
think and
thank, etc. may be .
*
wh: usually , older . Northern dialects also have .
*
wr: more often but may be in Northern dialects.
wrack (wreck),
wrang (wrong),
write,
wrocht (worked), etc.
*
z: or , may occur in some words as a substitute for the older <> (
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.)
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' = ) 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 ,
bull,
full v. and
pull with ,
bind,
find and
wind v., etc. with .
*The unstressed vowel may be represented by any vowel letter.
*
a: usually but in south west and Ulster dialects often . Note final
a in
awa (away),
twa (two) and
wha (who) may also be or or depending on dialect.
*
au,
aw and sometimes
a,
a' or
aa: or in Southern, Central and Ulster dialects but in Northern dialects. The cluster 'auld' may also be in Ulster.
aw (all),
cauld (cold),
braw (handsome),
faw (fall),
snaw (snow), etc.
*
ae,
ai,
a(consonant)
e: . Often before . In Northern dialects the vowel in the cluster -'ane' is often .
brae (slope),
saip (soap),
hale (whole),
ane (one),
ance (once),
bane (bone), etc.
*
ea,
ei,
ie: or depending on dialect. may occur before . Root final this may be in Southern dialects. In the far north may occur.
deid (dead),
heid (head),
meat (food),
clear,
speir (enquire),
sea, etc.
*
ee,
e(Consonant)
e: . Root final this may be in Southern dialects.
ee (eye),
een (eyes),
steek (shut),
here, etc.
*
e: .
bed,
het (heated),
yett (gate), etc.
*
eu: or depending on dialect. Sometimes erroneously 'oo', 'u(consonant)e', 'u' or 'ui'.
beuk (book),
ceuk (cook),
eneuch (enough),
leuk (look),
teuk (took), etc.
*
ew: . In Northern dialects a root final 'ew' may be .
few,
new, etc.
*
i: , but often varies between and especially after 'w' and 'wh'. also occurs in Ulster before voiceless consonants.
big,
fit (foot),
wid (wood), etc.
*
i(consonant)
e,
y(consonant)
e,
ey: or . 'ay' is usually but in
ay (yes) and
aye (always). In Dundee it is noticeably .
*
o: but often .
*
oa: .
*
ow,
owe (root final), seldom
ou: . Before 'k' vocalisation to 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: . Root final may occur in Southern dialects.
cou (cow),
broun (brown),
hoose (house),
moose (mouse) etc.
*
u: .
but,
cut, etc.
*
ui, also
u(consonant)
e,
oo: in conservative dialects. In parts of Fife, Dundee and north Antrim . In Northern dialects usually but after and and also before in some areas eg.
fuird (ford). Mid Down and Donegal dialects have . In central and north Down dialects when short and 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 and .
Suffixes
*Negative
na: or depending on dialect. Also 'nae' or 'y' eg.
canna (can't),
dinna (don't) and
maunna (mustn't).
*
fu (ful): or depending on dialect. Also 'fu'', 'fie', 'fy', 'fae' and 'fa'.
*The word ending
ae: or depending on dialect. Also 'a', 'ow' or 'y', for example:
arrae (arrow),
barrae (barrow) and
windae (window), etc.
Not all of these are exclusive to Scots and may also occur in other
Anglic varieties.
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 â€
"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).
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).
Present tense of verbs
The present tense of verbs ends 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).
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.
* Corbett, John; McClure, Derrick; Stuart-Smith, Jane (Editors)(2003)
The Edinburgh Companion to Scots. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748615962
* 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 0748607544
* 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 0817307117
* 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 0854110712
* Niven, Liz; Jackson, Robin (Eds.) (1998)
The Scots Language: its place in education. Watergaw Publications. ISBN 0952997851
* 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 0781807794
* Scottish National Dictionary Association (1999)
Concise Scots Dictionary . Edinburgh, Polygon. ISBN 1902930010
* Scottish National Dictionary Association (1999)
Scots Thesaurus. Edinburgh, Polygon. ISBN 1902930037
* 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
*
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*
LallansDictionaries and linguistic information
*
The Scots Language Dictionary*
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
General
*
Scots-online*
The Scots Language Society*
ScotsGate*
Scots Language Resource 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. OnlineEducation
*
Scots in Schools*
Scots at UniversityCollections 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
