I.

History of SE
------ not the same as Scots! -------
Scots = autonomous Germanic language dating from 1100
= a dialect of English / a language in its own right ?
Altogether separate is Gaelic, the English name for the Celtic language of Scotland, now
spoken by just over one percent of the population
Greatest prominence in the 15th and 16th centuries
1707: Act of Union (Union of Parliaments) = the official written language of Scotland
became aligned with that of England  Standard English: the language of religion,
education and government  the socially prestigious form adopted by the aspiring
middle classes  a decline in the prestige and use of SE

II. Demography
Continuum from broad Scots to Scottish Standard English
Different varieties even within Scotland
Scots: generally by the working classes <-> SSE: typically educated middle-classers
 style/dialect switching = switching discretely between points on the continuum (more
common in rural varieties)
!!SE: mostly in rural areas!!
 style/dialect drifting = drifting up and down the continuum (more characteristic of the
urban dialects of cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow)
Scots: increasingly becoming limited
 for example amongst family and friends
SSE: more formal occasions
Overlapping boundaries

III. Language use

1. Vocabulary
Second person plural: yous or yous yins – avoided by educated speakers
Us is informal but widespread instead of me
Mines (such as yours, theirs, ...)
Hisself, theirselves
Thae (= those) is still alive but the most frequent form is now them: them cakes was awfy
dear.
Wee (little)
Does nae (doesn’t) / cannae (can not)
Outwith (outside)
I’ve not heard (I haven’t heard)
2. Pronounciation
Rhotic – r is usually flap or tap (think about the Spanish ’pörgős’ r)
Long and short vowels = no distinction

RP – the regionally non-specific accent of the upper middle classes in England – has a
negligible presence in Scotland (unlike Wales, for example, where it retains a certain
degree of prestige in some areas). This means that even the most socially prestigious forms
of English spoken in Scotland contain elements that are characteristically Scottish. The
variety of speech we might recognise as educated Scottish English contains the occasional
word – outwith for ‘outside’ – or grammatical structure – I’ve not heard for ‘I haven’t heard’
– that is distinctively Scottish.

Above all, though, Scottish English is recognisable by its pronunciation: speakers do not make the
same distinctions in vowel length made by speakers with other English accents and the vast
majority of speakers in Scotland are rhotic – that is, they pronounce the <r> sound after a vowel in
words like farm, first and better.

Scots dialect
Alongside Standard Scottish English, the local vernacular language, Scots, a dialect descended
from Old English and closely related to Northumbrian dialects has maintained a strong presence,
especially in rural communities. There has been heated debate among linguists for many years as to
whether Scots constitutes a dialect or a distinct language in its own right. It has recently been
officially classified as a ‘traditional language’ by the Scottish Executive and recognised by the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but even in Scotland experts remain divided
over the issue. Whatever its status – language or dialect – large numbers of speakers would certainly
claim to speak Scots, not English. Indeed Scots boasts a literary tradition dating back long before
Robert Burns in the 18th century and still thriving today, as demonstrated by contemporary authors