Scots language
| Total speakers: | 1.5 Million + |
| Linguistic classification: |
Indo-European Germanic West Scots |
| Language codes | |
|---|---|
| ISO 639-3: | Sco |
Scots (or Lallans meaning lowlands) is the form of speech used in lowland Scotland, and parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland. Although, there has been some dispute as to whether Scots is a dialect of English, or a separate language in its own right, the British government now accepts Scots as a language and has recognised it under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature; in the existence of several Scots dialects; and in its former use as the official language of the original Scottish Parliament.
There is little doubt that, had Scotland remained independent, Scots would be regarded as a separate language from English. This has happened in Norway with Norwegian. Norwegian, once regarded as a dialect of Danish, has been regarded as a language in its own right since Norwegian independence in the nineteenth century.
Since England joined Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, it is probably more correct to regard Scots as a group of dialects closely related to English. However, since Scotland has distinct political, legal and religious systems there are many terms that are only used in Scotland. For instance, libel and slander, separate in English law, are bundled together as defamation in Scots law.
On the other hand, many Scots words have become part of English: flit (move home), greed, eerie, cuddle, clan, stob (a post).
There are at least five Scots dialects:
- Northern Scots, spoken north of Dundee, often split into North Northern, Mid Northern --- also known as Northeast Scots and affectionately 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 Spoken in the Border Areas.
- Insular Scots spoken in the Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands
- Ulster Scots, spoken by the descendants of Scottish settlers in Northern Ireland, and sometimes described by the neologism Ullans as a merging of Ulster and Lallans .
An example of Glaswegian Scots would be:
- D'ye ken, hen?
The article on Glasgow contains other examples of the Glasgow dialect.
In North East Scots (Doric) the same question would become
- Div ye ken, quine? [kw@in] (SAMPA)
Interest in it was also revived by Hugh MacDiarmid's Lallans Movement in the 1920s.
Scots has changed to some extent over the years, as any living language does, though some would say that it has been more loyal to its Anglo-Saxon roots than English: compare kirk (Sc) with church (En) and ken (Sc) with know (En).
Examples can be found on the Internet from John Barbour in the 14th century up to MacDiarmid in the 20th century, for those who are interested. But the most famous Scots literature worldwide is undoubtedly Robert Burns poetry of the late 18th century. An humorous example can be found in the Burns supper article, in the form of the Address To A Haggis.
The book Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh was written using the highly anglicised Edinburgh dialect of Scots (and later made into a movie of the same name, though with language allegedly watered down for an international audience). Robert Burns is the most famous of the poets to have written in Scots.
These Germanic language dialects are distinct from Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language still spoken by some in the Highlands and Islands to the west, though several Scots words, such as 'clan', 'loch', are Gaelic and others such as 'gowk' come from Norse.
