Scots language
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Scots |
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Spoken in: |
Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, England |
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Region: |
Scottish Lowlands, Caithness, The Northern Isles, the Ulster littoral, Berwick-upon-Tweed |
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Total speakers: |
over 1.5 million |
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Language family: |
Indo-European |
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Official status |
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Official language of: |
None. |
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Regulated by: |
— Scotland: None, although the Dictionary of the Scots Language carries great
authority (the Scottish Executive's Partnership for a Better
Scotland coalition agreement, 2003, promises "support"). |
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Language codes |
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ISO 639-1: |
none |
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ISO 639-2: |
sco |
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ISO/DIS 639-3: |
sco |
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Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. |
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Scots or Lallans (Eng: Lowlands), sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic language of the Highlands, is a West Germanic language used in Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland, and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans but by speakers simply as Scotch or Scots.
Native speakers refer to the language as Scots, Braid Scots (Eng: Broad Scots), or simply Oor ain leid (Eng: Our own language).
Up to the 15th century (and beyond), Scottis (modern form: Scots) referred to the Scottish Gaelic language (a Celtic language and tongue of the ancient Scots, introduced from Ireland from the 4th century onwards). (Scots are mentioned in reference to northern Britain by Ammianus Marcellinus (XX.1) and other 4th century Roman writers.) Speakers of the Anglic language now called Scots, previously known as Inglis, would later call Gaelic Erse (meaning Irish), and then adopt Scottis as a name for their own language. In 1559 William Nudrye was granted a monopoly by the court to produce school textbooks, two of which were Ane Schort Introduction: Elementary Digestit into Sevin Breve Tables for the Commodius Expeditioun of Thame That are Desirous to Read and Write the Scottis Toung and Ane Intructioun for Bairnis to be Learnit in Scottis and Latin. The Gaelic of modern Scotland is now usually referred to as Scottish Gaelic or, sometimes, Scots Gaelic. It is still spoken by some in the western Highlands and Islands (especially the Hebrides), and Erse is regarded, understandably, as a pejorative.
The Scots language descends from the northern form of the Anglian dialect brought by the Angles when they settled the east coast of Britain, from East Anglia to the Firth of Forth. External influences included Old Irish and its descendant, Scots Gaelic, Old Norse, as neighbouring tongues; Dutch and Middle Low German through trade with, and immigration from, the Low Countries; Latin via ecclesiastical and legal Latin, the Anglo-Norman language and, later, Parisian French owing to the Auld Alliance.
Anglic speakers were established in Lothian and surrounding area by the early 7th century, displacing or absorbing the Old Welsh (or Cumbric) speaking Britons of the kingdoms of Gododdin and Strathclyde who had previously lived there. The Gaelic-speaking Scots of the kingdom of Dál Riata (Argyll and the adjacent islands) joined with Pictland in or about 843 under Kenneth I Mac Ailpín as king of both Scots and Picts. The kingdom of Strathclyde (modern southwest Scotland and northwest England) and the northern part of Northumbria (modern southeast Scotland and northeast England) were added to the new realm in the course of the 10th and 11th centuries. The Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands and, for a time, the Isle of Man, all at one time under Scandinavian overlordship, came under Scottish dominion in the course of the later Middle Ages.
Malcolm Canmore, who became King of Scots in 1059, was brought up in northern England after his father Duncan II was overthrown. His tenure as king began a linguistic transition. During the reigns of his sons Edgar, Alexander I and David I, the court language of Scotland began to change from Gaelic to Scots (though in fact French was for long the most prestigious tongue).
During the 12th and 13th centuries, Norman landowners and their retainers were invited to settle by the king. It is possible that many of their retainers spoke Middle English. Although the military aristocracy employed French and Gaelic, small urban communties appear to have been using Scots as something more than a lingua franca by the end of the 13th century.
Scots made its first literary appearance in the mid-14th century, when its form differed little from other North Anglian dialects. The growth in Scottish national feeling led to the term 'Inglis' being applied to the language as spoken in England, while the Scots began to call their form of the language Scottis or "Scots." The first known instance of this was by an unknown man in 1494.
Scots has loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic. These loan words are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as loch and clan. Many Scots words have become part of English: flit, 'to move home', greed, eerie, cuddle, clan, stob, 'a post'.
Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self (Love God above all and your neighbour as yourself) an example of older Scots on John Knox House, Edinburgh
Whether the varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right is often disputed. 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.
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, in independent—if somewhat fluid—orthographic conventions and in its former use as the official language of the original Scottish Parliament. 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.
Since the Union, perceptional and language change (see below) have resulted in Scots being regarded as a group of English dialects or at best a group of dialects closely related to English. There is no institutionalised standard literary form. During the second half of the 20th century, enthusiasts developed regularised cross-dialect forms following on some historical orthographic conventions, but these have had little impact. In the written Scots language, local loyalties usually prevail, and the written form is usually Standard English adapted to represent the local pronunciation.
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 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.". 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 confirming its de facto status 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 in it. Attitudes towards Scots in the media vary widely, as may be seen by contrasting this sober official BBC Ulster article with this patronising and anachronistic 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 Ibero-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.
Among the earliest Scots literature is 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 Henryson, 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 Ramsay, Fergusson, Burns and 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 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 W.L. Lorimer's magnificent 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 as well as those of Irish descent in 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.
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Wee
Donald Angus. "Please, Sirr, what time wull it be?"
Literal
Gentleman. "When?" |
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1920's cartoon from
Punch magazine
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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 twelfth 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.
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.
- 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 always pronounced.
- 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.)
- 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.
- 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].
- 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.
Not all of these are exclusive to Scots and may also occur in other Anglic varieties.
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 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 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).
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).
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.
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).
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 ending in -t seicont, fowert, fift, saxt— (second, fourth, fifth, sixth) etc. first, Thrid/third— (first, third).
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).
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 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?
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.
A Review By JAMES ROBERTSON
Scots: The Mither Tongue
by Billy Kay
Mainstream Publishing, £9.99
In
ilka generation this last three hunner year there's aye been folk
gleg tae murn the daith - 'no langsyne' or 'no lang noo' - o Scots,
and as aften as no they hae been writers that themsels made guid uise
o Scots in their ain wark. In 1775 Henry Mackenzie peenged, 'Tis pity
that the Language.will probably soon become so antiquated as not to
be understood.' Robert Louis Stevenson, introducin the Scots poems in
his 1887 collection Underwoods, thocht it 'a dying language': 'The
day draws near when this illustrious and malleable tongue shall be
quite forgotten; and Burns's Ayrshire, and Dr MacDonald's
Aberdeen-awa', and Scott's brave, metropolitan utterance will all be
equally the ghosts of speech.' And in 2002, William McIlvanney,
author o Docherty, a novel reamin-fou wi Scots, wis taen ower wi the
same heavy dooms. Scrievin in this blaud aboot a muckle Lottery award
tae Itchy Coo, a new Scots language imprent for scuils - and I'll no
be blate, I wis yin o its co-foonders - McIlvanney wrote: 'I suppose
this project.might re-introduce some Scottish words into temporary
currency. But any serious rehabilitation of the Scots language?
Forget it.' Scots: The Mither Tongue
by Billy Kay
Mainstream Publishing, £9.99
The umquhile George Bruce yince lichtlied aw this morbidity in his poem 'Urn Burial (RIP Scots Tongue)' in which the ess o the deid are blawn awa by 'a fuff o wind', and '"She's jinkit again,/ the bitch!"/ said the man wi the spade.' For, despite the evendoun dule o its freens, and the best ettles o its faes, Scots jist winna stey streekit in the lair that has been howkit for it.
As onybody involved in defendin a dounhauden, negleckit or itherweys hinnert language will tell ye, it's no hard tae be disjaskit. The history o Scots sin the 17th century looks like yin lang dwyne, interrupit atweenwhiles wi literary revivals. But a language's literature's no ayewis the richt meisure o its weel-bein on the street.
Anither problem lies in the common ruits and swatches Scots shares wi English - the cause o endless disputes anent its richt status. Naebody wid threap that French and English are the same because they share, but soond itherweys, wurds like 'situation' and 'cascade' - but the socio-political relationship atween English and Scots has resultit in words like 'hoose' and 'faither' bein thocht naethin mair nor dialect variations.
This is aw aboot political perception. Billy Kay, in a new edition o his study Scots: The Mither Tongue, quotes the German philologist Manfred Görlach, whae reckons Scots stauns at mair lenth frae English nor Slovak frae Czech, Croatian frae Serbian, or Norwegian frae Swedish. Kay presents a walth o evidence o the sindry and kenspeckle vocabulary, syntax and grammar o Scots. The book's first prentin, noo twenty year syne, itsel follaed on frae his radio and television programmes. In thae days, Kay wis the kent face o Scots, and wis sairly miscawed by some for pleadin its cause. For ithers, hooiver, his wark chynged their wey o thinkin: naebody had iver tellt them afore, let alane on the BBC, that whit they spoke wisna jist no the 'language o the sheuch' or mankit English, but had an eicht-hunner-year strynd, twa multi-volume dictionars descrivin it, a great and glorious literature, and a haill set o dialects o its ain.
This wis a life-upheezin, emotionally and intellectually liberatin message, that needit baith sowl and smeddum on the pairt o the messenger. It's ironic, syne, that, even as his book is reissued, anither series on Scots gaes oot on BBC2 that Kay, for aw that, wisna speirit tae contribute til. Nae danger tae the BBC for commissionin the new series, for the dour truth is that the arguments for Scots as something biggit in tae the larach o oor daily national life and historic culture still hae tae be made. But whit wid be mair welcome wid be regular programmes - dramas, documentaries, sitcoms, chat shows - no aboot but in Scots.
Since 1986 muckle has chynged on the political, educational and social landscape, and Kay has had tae rewrite a puckle sections o his book. He opens wi a birsie attack on the sweirtness o politicians in post-devolution Scotland tae tak positive action on behaulf o a language uised, accordin tae the government's ain coont, by some 1.6 million fowk. If the parliament in Embro is tae be aboot onythin, he argues, shairly it has tae be aboot recognisin and uphaudin a national language - as, richtly, has happened wi Gaelic, spoken by 60,000 fowk or thereawa. Lettin alane ongaun nerra-heiditness agin Scots, Kay jalouses a financial reason for this sweirtness: if Gaelic education and braidcastin cost ten million pund and mair a year, hoo muckle micht like treatment for Scots cost?
Maybe the Executive should think on the potential bill as a lang-term investment in the future o the 'best wee country in the warld': nurturing sel-confidence, cawin the feet frae the notion o the 'inarticulate Scot', and, as the example o Gaelic shaws, giein a heeze tae economic activity, no least in the field o cultural tourism. Efter aw, the warld's sang o freenship, 'Auld Lang Syne', is composed in Scots.
Of coorse there'll aye be grunds for pessimism. In some airts o the country vocabulary loss gangs on wi nae devaul, and mony bairns are sair pit tae it tae soond the velar fricative 'ch' in 'loch' or the 'wh' in 'wheesht'. Yet in ither airts young people still hae a hantle Scots vocabulary and - a vital sign in ony language - are ekin new wurds tae the auld. The politics micht be taiglesome, but twenty year syne ye'd hae been warslin tae find a politician that even awned the existence o Scots. Noo, government ministers publicly state their commitment tae it, even if eneuch siller tae bigg a sustained Scots language policy hasna yet been furthset. The Executive's Culture Report commits tae the 'promotion and development of the Scots language' and promises tae speir oot 'how best to meet our obligations for [its] development in the light of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages'. The European context is garrin politicians tak Scots seriously, and, thanks tae devolution, the issue winna gang awa.
Nor, tae, will the language. Whitiver wey ye define it, its existence can nae langer be denied - no, at least, by onybody wi a perr o lugs on the Forfar bus, or in a hospital, supermercat, scuil or sports centre; nor by onybody watchin Still Game or Liz Lochhead's Tartuffe, luggin in tae traditional folk music or Off the Ball, or readin the poetry o Christine De Luca or the fiction o Irvine Welsh.
Sae, is Kay an optimist? He shairly couldna hae republished his book if he wisna. Whit will happen tae Scots in the 21st century, he asks. 'To begin with, we shall see a continuation of the process of recent decades: rapid erosion in some airts, thrawn survival in other airts.' But, he gaes on, 'in aw the airts, the structure of the dialects of Scots survives and can thrive again if the political, cultural and financial will is there to normalise the language.' The new political set-up maks this possible, and the experience o a project like Itchy Coo (some 80,000 books sellt in three and a hauf years) pruves the hert-hunger that folk hae for their ain tung and culture, if gien hauf a chance tae access them. Scots: The Mither Tongue is a timeous, throu-gaun, stuffy and raucle entry pynt tae that process.
The
mither of all battles
A further Review by JAMES ROBERTSON
Scots: The Mither Tongue : Billy Kay
In every generation for the past three centuries there have been those
-
often writers who have made excellent use of Scots in their own work
- mourning its recent or imminent demise. In 1775 Henry Mackenzie
complained: "Tis pity that the Language... will probably soon
become so antiquated as not to be understood." Robert Louis
Stevenson, introducing the Scots poems in his 1887 collection
Underwoods, reckoned it "a dying language": "The day
draws near when this illustrious and malleable tongue shall be quite
forgotten; and Burns' Ayrshire, and Dr MacDonald's Aberdeen-awa', and
Scott's brave, metropolitan utterance will all be equally the ghosts
of speech." And as recently as 2002, William McIlvanney, author
of the Scots-laden novel Docherty, was moved by the same sense of
doom. A further Review by JAMES ROBERTSON
Scots: The Mither Tongue : Billy Kay
Commenting in this newspaper on the award of substantial lottery funding to Itchy Coo, a new Scots language imprint for schools of which - let me lay my cards on the table - I was a co-founder, he wrote: "I suppose this project... might re-introduce some Scottish words into temporary currency. But any serious rehabilitation of the Scots language? Forget it."
As anybody involved in defending an oppressed, neglected or otherwise disadvantaged language will tell you, it's easy to be pessimistic. The history of Scots since the 17th century appears to be one of steady decline, punctuated by literary revivals. But to measure a language by its literature is not necessarily an accurate gauge of its health at street-level.
A further problem lies in the common roots and features Scots shares with English - the cause of endless debate about its status. While nobody would suggest that French and English are the same because they share, but pronounce differently, words such as 'situation' and 'cascade', the socio-political relationship between English and Scots has meant that words like 'hoose' and 'faither' have usually been considered mere dialect variations.
The difference is one of political perception. Billy Kay, in a new edition of his study Scots: The Mither Tongue, quotes the German philologist Manfred Görlach, who reckons that Scots is more removed from English than Slovak is from Czech, Croatian from Serbian, or Norwegian from Swedish. Kay presents overwhelming evidence of the distinctive vocabulary, syntax and grammar of Scots.
It is 20 years since its first publication, which itself followed on from his radio and television programmes. Back then, Kay was the public face of Scots, and was roundly abused by some for pleading its cause. For others, his work transformed their thinking: never before had they been told, on the BBC no less, that what they spoke, far from being the 'language of the gutter' or debased English, had an 800-year pedigree, two multi-volume dictionaries describing it, a vast and glorious literature, and a whole set of dialects of its own.
This was a life-affirming, emotionally and intellectually liberating message, and it took courage and conviction to be the messenger. It is ironic, therefore, that as his book is re-issued, another series on Scots goes out on BBC2 to which Kay, despite his significance, was not asked to contribute. No harm to the BBC for commissioning the new series, for sadly the arguments for Scots as a fundamental element of our daily national life and historic culture still need to be made. But far more welcome would be regular programmes - dramas, documentaries, sitcoms, chat shows - not about but in Scots.
Since 1986 much has changed on the political, educational and social landscape, and Kay has had to rewrite several sections of his book. He opens with a passionate attack on the reluctance of politicians in post-devolution Scotland to take positive action on behalf of a language used, according to the government's own estimate, by some 1.6 million people. If the parliament in Edinburgh is to be about anything, he argues, surely it should be about recognising and supporting a national language - as, quite properly, has been the case with Gaelic, spoken by around 60,000 people. Quite apart from continuing prejudice against Scots, Kay suspects a financial reason for this reluctance: if Gaelic education and broadcasting cost upwards of £10m a year, how much might similar treatment for Scots cost?
Perhaps the Executive should think of the potential bill as a long-term investment in the future of the 'best wee country in the world': nurturing self-confidence, undermining the notion of the 'inarticulate Scot', and, as the Gaelic model has shown, boosting economic activity, not least in the field of cultural tourism. After all, the world's anthem of friendship, 'Auld Lang Syne', is composed in Scots.
THERE ARE, AS already noted, always grounds for pessimism. In some parts of the country vocabulary loss continues unabated, and many children struggle to pronounce the velar fricative 'ch' in 'loch' or the 'wh' in 'wheesht'. Yet elsewhere young people retain plenty of Scots vocabulary and - a vital sign in any language - are adding new words to the old.
The politics may be frustrating, but 20 years ago one would have been hard-pressed to find a politician who even acknowledged the existence of Scots. Now, government ministers publicly state their commitment to it, even if serious money to develop a sustained Scots language policy is not yet forthcoming. The Executive's Culture Report commits to the "promotion and development of the Scots language" and promises to investigate "how best to meet our obligations for [its] development in the light of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages". The European context is forcing politicians to take Scots seriously, and because of devolution, the issue will not go away.
Nor, indeed, will the language. However one defines it, its existence can no longer be denied - not, at least, by anyone with a pair of lugs on the Forfar bus, or in a hospital, supermarket, school or sports centre; nor by anyone watching Still Game or Liz Lochhead's Tartuffe, listening to traditional folk music or Off the Ball, or reading the poetry of Christine De Luca or the fiction of Irvine Welsh.
So, is Kay an optimist? He surely couldn't have republished his book if he wasn't. What will happen to Scots, he asks. "To begin with, we shall see a continuation of the process of recent decades: rapid erosion in some airts, thrawn survival in other airts." But, he goes on: "in aw the airts, the structure of the dialects of Scots survives and can thrive again if the political, cultural and financial will is there to normalise the language."
The new political set-up makes this possible, and the experience of a project like Itchy Coo (some 80,000 books sold in three-and-a-half years) proves the enthusiasm and hunger that people have for their own language and culture, if given half a chance to access them. Scots: The Mither Tongue is a timeous, informative and invigorating entry point to that process.
2.
Scots Language Resource Centre
SLRC,
A K Bell Library, York Place, Perth
PH2 8EP
Phone (44) (0) 1738 440199
Fax (44) (0) 1738 477010
e-mail: office@scotsyett.com
website: http://scotsyett.com
SLRC,
A K Bell Library, York Place, Perth
PH2 8EP
Phone (44) (0) 1738 440199
Fax (44) (0) 1738 477010
e-mail: office@scotsyett.com
website: http://scotsyett.com
Come Awa In
Walcum ti the Scots Language Resource Centre, the kintrae's main provider o wittins anent the Scots leid. Here on oor steid ye'll finn aa kin o material aboot Scots. Ye can read aboot the language, whit it is, wha spiks it an whaur ye can read it. Suin ye'll be able ti hear it tae. A new ingaitherin o Scots by-leid recordins will be on the steid in the next wee whilie. Listen oot for it.
Hae a lookie at the books section - the'r bookies for bairns an adults. There's dictionaries an grammars an a Scots leid lairnin course an aa.
Students an academics micht want ti look at the research section - the'r papers an ither material here. Mind an gie us yer paper gin ye'r daein ony research yersel - we'd be gled ti pit on ony relevant material. Spik to oor staff if ye'd lik ony help wi yer ain project.
As weel's oor ain material, we'v provided information tae aboot ither fowk that's got a connection wi the Scots leid. Ye'll finn links ti Scots leid upsteerers, state funded bodies an heritage organisations.
Jist get in touch if ye'd like mair help wi ony questions anent Scots. First tho hae a read aboot us an whit we dae in the Wha we are? and Whit we dae? section o this steid.
Welcome to the Scots Language Resource Centre, the country's main provider of information about the Scots language. Here you can find a range of information about Scots. You can read about the language, what it is, who speaks it and where you can read it. Soon you should be able to listen to it too. A new collection of Scots dialect recordings will be on the site in the near future. Listen out for it!
Take a look at the books section of the site - there are books for children and adults. There are dictionaries and grammars and a "teach yourself" Scots course too.
Students and academics might want to search the research section - there are papers and other material here. If you're undertaking research yourself we would be glad to publish it online, so do remember to send us any relevant material. And do contact our staff if you think we can help you with your project.
In addition to our own material, we have provided information about other Scots language organisations. You will information about Scots language campaigners, state funded organisations and heritage bodies.
Please contact us if you'd like to ask anything about Scots. First though, why not read about us and our work in the Wha we are? and Whit we dae? sections of the site.
Kidspoem/Bairnsang
it wis January
and a gey driech day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood
birled a scarf aroon ma neck
pu'ed oan ma pixie an' my pawkies
it wis that bitter
said noo ye'll no starve
gie'd me a wee kiss and a kid-oan skelp oan the bum
and sent me aff across the playground
tae the place A'd learn to say
it was January
and a really dismal day
the first day I went to school
so my mother wrapped me up in my
best nay-blue top coat with the red tartan hood,
twirled a scarf around my neck,
pulled on my bobble-hat and mittens
it was so bitterly cold
said now you won't freeze to death
gave me a little kiss and a pretend slap on the bottom
and sent me off across the playground
to the place I'd learn to forget to say
it wis January
and a gey driech day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood,
birled a scarf aroon ma neck,
pu'ed oan ma pixie and' ma pawkies
it wis that bitter.
Oh saying it was one thing
But when it came to writing it
In black and white
The way it had to be said
Was as if you were posh, grown-up, male, English and dead.
it wis January
and a gey driech day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood
birled a scarf aroon ma neck
pu'ed oan ma pixie an' my pawkies
it wis that bitter
said noo ye'll no starve
gie'd me a wee kiss and a kid-oan skelp oan the bum
and sent me aff across the playground
tae the place A'd learn to say
it was January
and a really dismal day
the first day I went to school
so my mother wrapped me up in my
best nay-blue top coat with the red tartan hood,
twirled a scarf around my neck,
pulled on my bobble-hat and mittens
it was so bitterly cold
said now you won't freeze to death
gave me a little kiss and a pretend slap on the bottom
and sent me off across the playground
to the place I'd learn to forget to say
it wis January
and a gey driech day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood,
birled a scarf aroon ma neck,
pu'ed oan ma pixie and' ma pawkies
it wis that bitter.
Oh saying it was one thing
But when it came to writing it
In black and white
The way it had to be said
Was as if you were posh, grown-up, male, English and dead.
Liz
Lochhead
From The Colour of Black & White: poems 1984 - 2003
From The Colour of Black & White: poems 1984 - 2003
".....when Uncle Bill visited, something happened to the way we spoke.
It is difficult to describe exactly what it was that happened, but it had to do with the shape of the sentences and the words that were in them - they seemed to be just the right words in the right place. The sound of my parents chatting with Uncle Bill was a joy - they used words like scunner and glaekit and puggled and wabbit linked together by lots of dinnaes and winnaes and cannaes. Uncle Bill led the way, and my parents seemed to take their cue from him. In my recollection they seemed happier at these times than at any other, laughing a lot, sharing together, not holding back or being secretive."
".......They were relaxed in the rhythms, at ease with the words - as if they were real owners of this language, not just borrowers. And not pretenders either, for their conversation was real and full of rich meaning."
"......With its colourful dialect words and distinctive accent the Scots tongue was - still is - a vigorous, vital and varied thing. And it was something my parents clearly took pleasure in. But in common with parents the world over, they wanted the best for their children. They wanted them to get on. And it can't have escaped them that the status of the Scots language in wider society was low. If you spoke in the way it felt natural to speak, the way you heard spoken all around you, you were marked in the eyes of the world beyond. It was daylight snobbery, but that's the way it was. My mother was fiercely aspiring, and my father, perhaps in the interests of peace, went along with her. English was the thing; hence the elocution lessons and all that pitiful vowel management."
From
"Ghosting" by Jennie Erdal published by Canongate ISBN 1
84195 562 0
4 See also:
Celt
Robert Burns
Hogmany
Haggis - a very Scottish dish
The Scottish Diaspora