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| Lowland Scots (Lallans Leid) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland |
| Region: | Scotland: Lowlands, Northern Ireland: County Antrim, County Down, County Derry, Republic of Ireland: County Donegal |
| Total speakers: | 1.5 million (Scotland); 30,000 (Northern Ireland) |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Scots |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sco |
Whether the varieties of Lowland Scots are dialects of English or constitute a separate language in their own right is often disputed. There is little doubt that, had Scotland remained independent, Lowland 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 19th century. All the same, the British government now accepts Lowland 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 Lowland Scots literature; in the existence of several Lowland Scots dialects; in the substantial lexical, grammatical, and phonological differences from other varieties of English 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 Lowland 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, when England joined Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, it has probably been more correct to regard Lowland Scots as a group of dialects closely related to English. There is no standard literary form. During the second half of the 20th century, enthusiasts developed regularised cross-dialect forms, but these have had little impact. When Lowland Scots is written, 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 Lowland Scots, though English lessons may cover it superficially. This is often not much more than reading some Lowland Scots literature and observing local dialect. Much of the material used is often little more than Standard English disguised as Lowland Scots. Lowland 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 Lowland Scots as an autonomous alternative to English, thus confirming its de facto status as a series of local dialects of English. The use of Lowland 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 Lowland Scots, although the Scottish Parliament website offers some information in it.
Among the earliest Lowland Scots literature is Barbour's Brus (14th century). Whyntoun's Kronykil and Blind Harry's Wallace (15th century) From the 13th century much literature based around the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St. Andrews was produced by writers such as Henrysoun, Dunbar, Douglas and Lyndsay.
After the 17th century, anglicisation increased, though Lowland 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 Sempill, Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie.
In the 18th century, writers such as Ramsay, Fergusson, Burns and Scott continued to use Lowland 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 Lowland Scots or used it in dialogue.
In the early 20th century, a renaissance in the use of Lowland 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 Lowland Scots is often used in contemporary fiction, for example, the Edinburgh dialect of Lowland Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a movie 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 http://www.scots-online.org/grammar Wir Ain Leid (Our Own Language) calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms.
There are at least five Lowland Scots dialects:
As well as the main dialects, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow have local variations on an anglicised form of Central Lowland Scots. In Aberdeen, Mid Northern Lowland Scots is spoken.
Many writers now strictly avoid apostrophes where they supposedly represent "missing" English letters. Such letters were never actually missing in Lowland Scots. For example, in the 12th century, Barbour spelled the Lowland Scots equivalent of 'taken' 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 X-SAMPA.
Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but:
<c> for /k/ or /s/, much as in English.
<ch> for /x/, also
<ch> word initial or where it follows <r> /tS/. airch (arch), mairch (march), etc.
<kn> /n/. In Northern dialects /kn/ or /tn/ may occur. knap (talk), knee, knowe (knoll), etc.
<ng> is always /N/.
<nch> usually /nS/. brainch (branch), dunch (push), etc.
<s> and <se> for /s/ or /z/.
<r> /r/ is always pronounced.
<t> may be a glottal stop between vowels or word final.
<wh> usually /W/, older /xW/. 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> may occur in some words as a substitute for the older <3> ( yogh) /jI/ or /N/. e.g. brulzie (broil), gaberlunzie (a beggar) and the name Menzies, etc.
The word final
In Lowland Scots, vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scots vowel length rule. Words which differ only slightly in pronunciation from Scots English are generally spelled as in English. Other words may be spelled the same but differ in pronunciation, e.g. aunt, swap, want and wash with /a/, bull, full v. and pull with /V/, bind, find and wind v., etc. with /I/.
Negative <na> /A, I/ or /e/ depending on dialect. Also
<fu> (ful), /u, I, A/ or /e/ depending on dialect. Also
The word ending <ae> /A, I/ or /e/ depending on dialect. Also ,
Not all of these are exclusive to Lowland Scots and may also occur in varieties of English.
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), 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), aren’t usually used in Lowland Scots but occur in anglicised literary Lowland Scots. Can, shoud (should). shoud and will are the preferred Lowland Scots forms. Lowland 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 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 (laugh/laughed), gae/gaed/gane (go/went), gie/gied/gien (give/gave/given), pit/pat/pitten (put/put/put/), git/gat/gotten (got/got/got).
Scots prefers the word order He turnt oot the licht to He turned the light out and Gie me it to Give it me.
Certain verbs are often used progressively He wis thinkin he wad tell her, He wis wantin tae tell her.
Verbs of motion may 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 gey 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 Lowland Scots this and that are also used where "these" and "those" would be in Standard English.
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