Modern Scots


Modern Scots comprises the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, from 1700.
Throughout its history, Modern Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations of speakers have adopted more and more features from English, largely from the colloquial register. This process of language contact or dialectisation under English has accelerated rapidly since widespread 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 towards Scottish English, sometimes also termed language change, convergence or merger.
By the end of the twentieth century Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland. Residual features of Scots are often simply regarded today as slang, especially by people from outwith Scotland, but even by many Scots.

Dialects

The varieties of Modern Scots are generally divided into five dialect groups:
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. Like many languages across borders there is a dialect continuum between Scots and the Northumbrian dialect, both descending from early northern Middle English. The Scots pronunciation of come contrasts with in Northern English. The Scots realisation reaches as far south as the mouth of the north Esk in north Cumbria, crossing Cumbria and skirting the foot of the Cheviots before reaching the east coast at Bamburgh some 12 miles north of Alnwick. The Scots –English Empty set#Use in linguistics|/ cognate group can be found in a small portion of north Cumbria with the southern limit stretching from Bewcastle to Longtown and Gretna. The Scots pronunciation of wh as becomes English south of Carlisle but remains in Northumberland, but Northumberland realises “r” as, often called the burr, which is not a Scots realisation. The greater part of the valley of the Esk and the whole of Liddesdale have been considered to be northern English dialects by some, Scots by others. From the nineteenth century onwards influence from the South through education and increased mobility have caused Scots features to retreat northwards so that for all practical purposes the political and linguistic boundaries may be considered to coincide.
As well as the main dialects, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow have local variations on an Anglicised form of Central Scots. In Aberdeen, Mid Northern Scots is spoken by a minority. Due to their being roughly near the border between the two dialects, places like Dundee and Perth can contain elements and influences of both Northern and Central Scots.

Orthography

As of 2014, there is no official standard orthography for modern Scots, but most words have generally accepted spellings.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, when Scots was a state language, the Makars had a loose spelling system separate from that of English. However, by the beginning of the 18th century, Scots was beginning to be regarded "as a rustic dialect of English, rather than a national language". Scots poet Allan Ramsay "embarked on large-scale anglicisation of Scots spelling". Successors of Ramsay—such as Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott—tended to follow his spelling ideas, and the general trend throughout the 18th and 19th centuries was to adopt further spellings from English, as it was the only accessible standard. Although descended from the Scots of the Makars, 18th-19th century Scots abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings for standard English ones; although from the rhymes it was clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended. Writers also began using the apologetic apostrophe, to mark "missing" English letters. For example, the older Scots spelling taen/tane became ta’en, even though the word had not been written or pronounced with a "k" for hundreds of years. 18th-19th century Scots drew on the King James Bible and was heavily influenced by the conventions of Augustan English poetry. All of this "had the unfortunate effect of suggesting that Broad Scots was not a separate language system, but rather a divergent or inferior form of English". This 'Scots of the book' or Standard Scots lacked neither "authority nor author". It was used throughout Lowland Scotland and Ulster, by writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Murray, David Herbison, James Orr, James Hogg and William Laidlaw among others. It is described in the 1921 Manual of Modern Scots.
By the end of the 19th century, Scots spelling "was in a state of confusion as a result of hundreds of years of piecemeal borrowing from English". Some writers created their own spelling systems to represent their own dialects, rather than following the pan-dialect conventions of modern literary Scots. The variety referred to as 'synthetic Scots' or Lallans shows the marked influence of Standard English in grammar and spelling. During the 20th century, with spoken Scots and knowledge of the literary tradition waning, phonetic spellings became more common.
In the second half of the 20th century a number of spelling reform proposals were presented. Commenting on this, John Corbett writes that "devising a normative orthography for Scots has been one of the greatest linguistic hobbies of the past century". Most proposals entailed regularising the use of established 18th-19th century conventions and avoiding the 'apologetic apostrophe'. Other proposals sought to undo the influence of standard English conventions on Scots spelling, by reviving Middle Scots conventions or introducing new ones.
A step towards standardizing Scots spelling was taken at a meeting of the Makar's Club in Edinburgh in 1947, where the Scots Style Sheet was approved. J. K.Annand, Douglas Young, Robert Garioch, A.D. Mackie, Alexander Scott, Tom Scott and Sydney Goodsir Smith all followed the recommendations in the Style Sheet to some extent. Some of its suggestions are as follows:
In 1985, the Scots Language Society published a set of spelling guidelines called "Recommendations for Writers in Scots". They represent a consensus view of writers in Scots at the time, following several years of debate and consultation involving Alexander Scott, Adam Jack Aitken, David Murison, Alastair Mackie and others. A developed version of the Style Sheet, it is based on the old spellings of the Makars but seeks to preserve the familiar appearance of written Scots. It includes all of the Style Sheet's suggestions, but recommends that writers return to the more traditional -aw, rather than -aa. Some of its other suggestions are as follows:
The SLS Recommendations says "it is desirable that there should be traditional precedents for the spellings employed and writers aspiring to use Scots should not invent new spellings off the cuff". It prefers a number of more phonetic spellings that were commonly used by medieval Makars, such as: ar, byd, tym, wyf, cum, sum, eftir, evin, evir, heir, neir, hir, ir, im, littil, sal speik, thay, thaim, thair, thare, yit, wad, war, wes, wul. David Purves's book A Scots Grammar has a list of over 2500 common Scots words spelt on the basis of the SLS Recommendations. Purves has also published dozens of poems using the spellings.
In 2000 the Scots Spelling Committee report was published in Lallans. Shortly after publication Caroline Macafee criticised some aspects of that, and some previous spelling suggestions, as "demolishing the kind-of-a standardisation that already existed where Scots spelling had become a free-for-all with the traditional model disparaged but no popular replacement", leading to more spelling variation, not less.

Phonology

Consonants

Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but:
The vowel system of Scots:
Aitken
1short
long
2
31
4
5
6
72
8
8a
9
10
11
12
133
14
15
16
17
184
19

  1. With the exception of North Northern dialects this vowel has generally merged with vowels 2, 4 or 8.
  2. Merges with vowels 1 and 8 in central dialects and vowel 2 in Northern dialects. Also or before and depending on dialect.
  3. Vocalisation to may occur before.
  4. Some mergers with vowel 5.
In Scots, vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish 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 spellings used below are those based on the prestigious literary conventions described above. Other spelling variants may be encountered in written Scots.
Not all of the following features are exclusive to Scots and may also occur in some varieties of English.

Definite article

The is used before the names of seasons, days of the week, many nouns, diseases, trades and occupations, sciences and academic subjects. It is also often used in place of the indefinite article and instead of a possessive pronoun: the hairst, the Wadensday, awa tae the kirk, the nou, the day, the haingles, the Laitin, The deuk ett the bit breid, the wife etc.

Nouns

Nouns usually form their plural in -s but some irregular plurals occur: ee/een, cauf/caur, horse/horse, cou/kye, shae/shuin.
Nouns of measure and quantity are unchanged in the plural: fower fit, twa mile, five pund, three hunderwecht.
Regular plurals include laifs, leafs, shelfs and wifes.

Pronouns

Personal and possessive pronouns

The second person singular nominative thoo survived in colloquial speech until the mid 19th century in most of lowland Scotland. It has since been replaced by ye/you in most areas except in Insular Scots where thee is also used, in North Northern Scots and in some Southern Scots varieties. Thoo is used as the familiar form by parents speaking to children, elders to youngsters, or between friends or equals. The second person formal singular ye or you is used when speaking to a superior or when a youngster addresses an elder. The older second person singular possessive thy, and thee still survive to some extent where thoo remains in use. See T–V distinction.

Relative pronoun

The relative pronoun is that for all persons and numbers, but may be left out Thare's no mony fowk bides 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 and thir, the plurals of that and this respectively.
In Northern Scots this and that are also used where "these" and "those" would be in Standard English.

Other pronouns

Verbs

Modal verbs

The modal verbs mey, ocht tae/ocht ti, and sall, are no longer used much in Scots but occurred historically and are still found in anglicised literary Scots. Can, shoud, and will are the preferred Scots forms.
Scots employs double modal constructions He'll no can come the day, A micht coud come the morn, A tae coud dae it, but no nou.
Negation occurs by using the adverb no, in the North East nae, as in A'm no comin, A'll no learn ye, or by using the suffix -na sometimes spelled nae, as in A dinna ken, Thay canna come, We coudna hae telt him, and A hivna 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?
EnglishScots
are, aren'tare, arena
can, can'tcan, canna
could, couldn'tcoud, coudna
dare, daren'tdaur, daurna
did, didn'tdid, didna
do, don'tdae, daena/dinna
had, hadn'thaed, haedna
have, haven'thae, haena/hinna/hivna
might, mightn'tmicht, michtna
must, mustn'tmaun, maunna
need, needn'tneed, needna
should, shouldn'tshoud, shoudna
was, wasn'twis, wisna
were, weren'twar, warna
will, won'twill, winna
would, wouldn'twad, wadna

Present tense of verbs

The present tense of verbs adhere to the Northern subject rule whereby verbs end in -s in all persons and numbers except when a single personal pronoun is next to the verb, Thay say he's ower wee, Thaim that says he's ower wee, Thir lassies says he's ower wee, etc. Thay're comin an aw but Five o thaim's comin, The lassies? Thay'v went but Ma brakes haes went. Thaim that comes first is serred first. The trees growes green in the simmer.
Wis 'was' may replace war 'were', but not conversely: You war/wis thare.

Past tense and past participle of verbs

The regular past form of the weak or regular verbs is -it, -t or -ed, according to the preceding consonant or vowel: The -ed ending may be written -'d if the e is 'silent'.
Many verbs have forms which are distinctive from Standard English :
The present participle and gerund in are now usually but may still be differentiated and in Southern Scots and, and North Northern Scots.

Adverbs

Adverbs are usually of the same form as the verb root or adjective especially after verbs. Haein a real guid day. She's awfu fauchelt.
Adverbs are also formed with -s, -lies, lins, gateand wey -wey, whiles, mebbes, brawlies, geylies, aiblins, airselins, hauflins, hidlins, maistlins, awgates, ilkagate, onygate, ilkawey, onywey, endweys, whit wey.

Prepositions

Interrogative words

In the North East, the 'wh' in the above words is pronounced.

Word order

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

Diminutives

s in -ie, burnie small burn, feardie/feartie, gamie, kiltie, postie, wifie, rhodie, and also in -ock, bittock, playock, sourock and Northern –ag, bairnag, bairn, Cheordag, -ockie, hooseockie, wifeockie, both influenced by the Scottish Gaelic diminutive -ag.

Subordinate clauses

Verbless subordinate clauses introduced by an express surprise or indignation. She haed tae walk the hale lenth o the road an her seiven month pregnant. He telt me tae rin an me wi ma sair leg.

Suffixes

Ordinal numbers end mostly in t: seicont, fowert, fift, saxt— etc., but note also first, thrid/third—.
EnglishScots
one, firstane/ae, first
two, secondtwa, seicont
three, thirdthree, /third
four, fourthfower, fowert
five, fifthfive, fift
six, sixthsax, saxt
seven, seventhseiven, seivent
eight, eighthaicht, aicht
nine, ninthnine, nint
ten, tenthten, tent
eleven, eleventheleiven, eleivent
twelve, twelfthtwal, twalt

Ae, is used as an adjective before a noun such as : The Ae Hoose, Ae laddie an twa lassies. Ane is pronounced variously, depending on dialect,, in many Central and Southern varieties, in some Northern and Insular varieties, and, often written yin, een and wan in dialect writing.
The impersonal form of 'one' is a body as in A body can niver bide wi a body's sel.

Times of day

Literature

The eighteenth century Scots revival was initiated by writers such as Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson, and later continued by writers such as Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Other well-known authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, William Alexander, George MacDonald, J. M. Barrie and other members of the Kailyard school like Ian Maclaren also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue, as did George Douglas Brown whose writing is regarded as a useful corrective to the more roseate presentations of the kailyard school.
In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions.
In the early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid whose benchmark poem A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle did much to demonstrate the power of Scots as a modern idiom. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young, John Buchan, Sidney Goodsir Smith, Robert Garioch and Robert McLellan. The revival extended to verse and other literature.
William Wye Smith's New Testament translations appeared in 1901 and in 1904 in a new edition.
In 1983 William Laughton Lorimer's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published.

Sample texts

From Hallow-Fair
From The Maker to Posterity
From The House with the Green Shutters
From Embro to the Ploy
From The New Testament in Scots
Mathew:1:18ff