{{language
|name=Scots
|familycolor=Indo-European
|states=
Scotland,
Northern Ireland,
Republic of Ireland,
England
|region=Parts of the
Scottish Lowlands,
Caithness, the
Northern Isles,
Ulster
|speakers=over 1.5 million:
— Scotland: 1.5 million
(General Register Office for Scotland, 1996).
— Northern Ireland: 30,000
(''Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey'', 1999).
— Republic of Ireland: no official figures, but several thousand in eastern
County Donegal.
|fam2=
Germanic
|fam3=
West Germanic
|fam4=
Anglo-Frisian
|fam5=
Anglic
|nation=None.
— Classified as a ''"traditional language"'' by the
Scottish Executive.
— Classified as a ''"regional or minority language"'' under the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, ratified by the
United Kingdom in
2001.
— Classified as a ''"traditional language"'' by ''The North/South Co-operation (Implementation Bodies) Northern Ireland Order
1999''.
|agency=— 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").
— Ireland: None,
although the cross-border Ulster-Scots Agency, established by the Implementation Agreement following the Good Friday Agreement promotes usage.
|iso2=sco|iso3=sco
|map=}}
Scots refers to the
Anglic varieties derived from early northern
Middle English spoken in parts of
Scotland. In Scotland it is sometimes called ''Lowland Scots'' or its contraction ''Lallans'' to distinguish it from
Scottish Gaelic spoken by some in the
Highlands and Islands (especially the
Hebrides)and small communities in the urban lowlands. 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 for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results (See
Dialect). Consequently, Scots has, on the one hand, been traditionally regarded as one of the ancient dialects of
English, but with its own ancient and distinct dialects. Scots has often been treated as part of English as spoken in Scotland but differs significantly from the
Standard Scottish English taught in schools. On the other hand, it has been regarded as a distinct
Germanic language the way
Swedish is distinct from
Danish. Its subordination to Anglo-English has also been compared to the subordination of
Frisian to
Dutch in the Netherlands.
[The Oxford Companion to the English Language p.894] However, use of the word ''subordination'' in this context also implies that a standard or proper version of the language, in this case English, actually exists. Thus ''Scots'' can be interpreted as a collective term for the dialects of English spoken or originating in Scotland, or it can be interpreted as the
autochthonous language of Lowland Scotland. See
Status below for further discussion.
Native speakers in Scotland and Ireland usually refer to their
vernacular as (braid) Scots (Eng: ''Broad Scots'') or use a dialect name such as ''the
Doric'' or ''the Buchan Claik''. The old fashioned ''
Scotch'' occurs occasionally, especially in Ireland. Some
literary forms are often referred to as
Lallans (''Lowlands'').
History
The word Scot was borrowed from
Latin to refer to
Scotland and dates from at least the first half of the 10th century.
Up to the
15th century ''Scottis'' (modern form: ''Scots'') referred to
Gaelic (a
Celtic language and tongue of the
ancient Scots, introduced from
Ireland perhaps from the
4th century onwards). Since the late 15th century
[A.J. Aitken in ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'', Oxford University Press 1992.], Anglic speakers in Scotland also started occasionally referring to their
vernacular as ''Scottis'' and increasingly called Gaelic ''Erse'' (from Erisch, or "Irish"), now often considered pejorative.
Northumbrian Old English had been established in southeastern Scotland as far as the
River Forth by the 7th century. It remained largely confined to this area until the 13th century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the court language. Early northern Middle English, also known as
Early Scots, then spread further into Scotland via the
burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King
David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the 14th century, and the complementary decline of French in Scotland, made Scots the
prestige language of most of eastern Scotland.
Modern Scots thus grew out of the early northern form of
Middle English spoken by the people of southeastern Scotland and northern England. Northern
Middle English, or Early Scots as it is also known, made its first literary appearance in Scotland in the mid-14th century, when its form differed little from other northern Anglic dialects, and so Scots shared many Northumbrian borrowings from
Old Norse and
Anglo-Norman French. Later influences include
Dutch and
Middle Low German through trade with and immigration from the low countries, as well as
Romance via ecclesiastical and legal
Latin and French owing to the
Auld Alliance. Scots has loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic. Early medieval legal documents show a language peppered with Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Today Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ''ceilidh'', ''loch'' and ''clan''. Many Scots words have also
become part of English: ''flit'' (to move home), ''greed, eerie, cuddle, clan, stob'' (a post).
Status
Before the
Treaty of Union 1707, when Scotland and England joined to form the
Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent language
[''NOSTRA VULGARI LINGUA:]
SCOTS AS A EUROPEAN LANGUAGE 1500 - 1700'' http://www.scots-online.org/airticles/eurlang.htm as part of a
pluricentric diasystem.
The linguist
Heinz Kloss considered Modern Scots a ''Halbsprache'' (half language) in terms of a ''
Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache'' framework although 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). Since standard English now generally has the role of a ''Dachsprache'' disputes often arise as to 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 — if somewhat fluid —
orthographic conventions and in its former use as the language of the original
Parliament of Scotland.
[See for example Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560 , written in Scots and still part of British Law] Since Scotland retained distinct political, legal and religious systems after the Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. For instance,
libel and slander, separate in
English law, are bundled together as ''defamation'' in
Scots law.
After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as was the notion of Scottishness itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as
David Hume, considered themselves Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed Union. Enthusiasm for this new Britishness waned over time, and the use of Scots as a
literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as
Robert Burns. Such 18th and 19th century writers were well aware of cross-dialect standard literary norms but during the first half of the 20th century knowledge of such norms waned and currently there is no institutionalised standard literary form
[Eagle, Andy (2006) ''Aw Ae Wey - Written Scots in Scotland and Ulster''. Available at http://www.scots-online.org/airticles/AwAeWey.pdf]
. During the second half of the
20th century, enthusiasts developed regularised cross-dialect forms following historical orthographic conventions, but these have had a limited impact. In much contemporary
written Scots language, local loyalties usually prevail, and the written form usually adopts standard English sound-to-letter correspondences to represent the local pronunciation.
No education takes place through the
medium of Scots, though English lessons may cover it superficially, which usually entails reading some Scots literature and observing local dialect. Much of the material used is often Standard English disguised as Scots, which has upset both proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots
[''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 – 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 ]. This can be seen as revealing the institutionalised disregard for the idea of treating Scots as a language on a par with English and as a teaching method to perpetuate the experience of the pupils' and teachers' parents being taught in school that Scots is 'bad spelling', so that pupils will self-censor any Scots that they do know.Scots can also be studied at university level. The educational system often fails to further the objective to produce people able to read, write, and speak Scots as an autonomous alternative to English, thus contributing to its perceived status 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.
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.
Language change
After the Union of Scotland and England, the issue of language became topical, and foremost was the question of whether Scottish people should speak standard 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 ''Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland''. This was not universally welcomed, as was illustrated by the summary by F. Pottle,
James Boswell's 20th century biographer, concerning James' view of his father
Alexander Boswell's speech habits: ''He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar''.
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 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 . Residual features of Scots are often regarded as
slang.
Literature
Examples of the first English literature include
the Lord's Prayer in
Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon from c. 650, which begins "Faeder ure, Thu the eart on heofonum,". Some Scottish and Northumbrian folk still say "oor faither" and "thoo art".
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
Allan 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.
Dialects
There are at least five Scots dialects:
Northern Scots, spoken north of Dundee, often split into North Northern, Mid Northern—also known as North East Scots and referred to as "the Doric"—and South Northern.
Central Scots, spoken from Fife and Perthshire to the Lothians and Wigtownshire, often split into North East and South East Central, West Central and South West Central Scots.
South Scots or simply the "Border Tongue" or "Borders' Dialect" spoken in the Border areas.
Insular Scots, spoken in Orkney and Shetland.
Ulster Scots, spoken by the descendants of Scottish settlers (and also many of Irish and English descent) in littoral Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the The Republic of Ireland, 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 by a minority.
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'' (fjord or lake), ''nicht'' (night), ''dochter'' (daughter), ''dreich'' (dreary), etc. Similar to the German "Nacht".
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), ''eneuch'' (enough), ''ceuk'' (cook), ''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.
Some grammar features
Not all of the following features 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 ti the kirk'' (off to church), ''the nou'' (at the moment), ''the day'' (today), ''the haingles'' (influenza), ''the Laitin'' (Latin), ''The deuk ett the bit breid'' (The duck ate a piece of bread), ''the wife'' (my wife) etc.
Nouns
Nouns usually form their plural in -(''e'')''s'' but some irregular plurals occur: ''ee''/''een'' (eye/eyes), ''cauf''/''caur'' (calf/calves), ''horse''/''horse'' (horse/horses), ''cou''/''kye'' (cow/cows), ''shae''/''shuin'' (shoe/shoes).
Nouns of measure and quantity unchanged in the plural: ''fower fit'' (four feet), ''twa mile'' (two miles), ''five pund'' (five pounds), ''three hunderwecht'' (three hundredweight).
Regular plurals include ''laifs'' (loaves), ''leafs'' (leaves), ''shelfs'' (shelves) and ''wifes'' (wives), etc.
Diminutives
Diminutives in -''ie'', ''burnie'' small ''burn'' (brook), ''feardie''/''feartie'' (frightened person, coward), ''gamie'' (gamekeeper), ''kiltie'' (kilted soldier), ''postie'' (postman), ''wifie'' (woman), ''rhodie'' (rhododendron), and also in -''ock'', ''bittock'' (little bit), ''playock'' (toy, plaything), ''sourock'' (sorrel) and Northern –''ag'', ''bairnag'' (little) ''bairn'' (child), ''Cheordag'' (Geordie), -''ockie'', ''hooseockie'' (small house), ''wifeockie'' (little woman), both influenced by the Scottish Gaelic diminutive -''ag'' (-''óg'' in Irish Gaelic).
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 adhere to the
Northern subject rule whereby verbs end in -''s'' in all persons and numbers except when a single personal pronoun is next to the verb, ''Thay say he's ower wee'', ''Thaim that says he's ower wee'', ''Thir lassies says he's ower wee'' (They say he's too small), etc. ''Thay're comin an aw'' but ''Five o thaim's comin'', ''The lassies? Thay've went'' but ''Ma brakes haes went''. ''Thaim that comes first is serred first'' (Those who come first are served first). ''The trees growes green in the simmer'' (The trees grow green in summer).
''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), ''A'll no learn ye'' (I will not teach you), 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.
References
Corbett, John; McClure, Derrick; Stuart-Smith, Jane (Editors)(2003) ''The Edinburgh Companion to Scots''. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1596-2
Eagle, Andy (2005) ''Wir Ain Leid''. Scots-Online. Available in full at http://www.scots-online.org/airticles/WirAinLeid.pdf
Gordon Jr., Raymond G.(2005), editor ''The Ethnologue'' Fifteenth Edition. SCI. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. Available in full at http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=sco
Jones, Charles (1997) ''The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language''. Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh Press. ISBN 0-7486-0754-4
Jones, Charles (1995) ''A Language Suppressed: The pronunciation of the Scots language in the 18th century''. Edinburgh, John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-427-3
Kingsmore, Rona K. (1995) ''Ulster Scots Speech: A Sociolinguistic Study''. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0711-7
MacAfee, Caroline (1980/1992) ''Characteristics of Non-Standard Grammar in Scotland'' (University of Aberdeen: available at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~enl038/grammar.htm)
McClure, J. Derrick (1997) ''Why Scots Matters''. Edinburgh, Saltire Society. ISBN 0-85411-071-2
Niven, Liz; Jackson, Robin (Eds.) (1998) ''The Scots Language: its place in education''. Watergaw Publications. ISBN 0-9529978-5-1
Robertson, T.A.; Graham, J.J. (1991) ''Grammar and Use of the Shetland Dialect''. Lerwick, The Shetland Times Ltd.
Ross, David; Smith, Gavin D. (Editors)(1999) ''Scots-English, English-Scots Practical Dictionary''. New York, Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-7818-0779-4
Scottish National Dictionary Association (1999) ''Concise Scots Dictionary ''. Edinburgh, Polygon. ISBN 1-902930-01-0
Scottish National Dictionary Association (1999) ''Scots Thesaurus''. Edinburgh, Polygon. ISBN 1-902930-03-7
Warrack, Alexander (Editor)(1911) ''Chambers Scots Dictionary''. Chambers.
Yound, C.P.L. (2004) ''Scots Grammar''. Scotsgate. Available in full at http://www.scotsgate.com/scotsgate01.pdf
External links