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 language|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:

Insular Scots – spoken in Orkney and Shetland.
Northern Scots – Spoken north of the Firth of Tay.
*Northern Scots|North Northern] – spoken in Caithness, Easter Ross and the Black Isle.
*Mid Northern – spoken in Moray, Buchan, Aberdeenshire and Nairn.
*South Northern – spoken in east Angus and the Mearns.
Central Scots – spoken in the Central Lowlands and South west Scotland.
*North East Central – spoken north of the Forth, in south east Perthshire and west Angus.
*South East Central – spoken in the Lothians, Peeblesshire and Berwickshire
*West Central – spoken in Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Ayrshire, on the Isle of Bute and to the southern extremity of Kintyre.
*South West Central – spoken in west Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire.
Southern Scots – spoken in mid and east Dumfriesshire and the Scottish Borders counties Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire, in particular the valleys of the Annan, the Esk, Dumfries and Galloway|Esk], the Liddel Water, the Teviot and the Yarrow Water. It is also known as the "border tongue" or "border Scots".
Ulster Scots – spoken primarily by the descendants of Scottish settlers in Ulster, particularly counties Antrim, Down and Donegal. Also known as "Ullans".

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.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

is usually conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule.

Aitken	IPA	Notes
1	short long
2
3		With the exception of North Northern dialects this vowel has generally merged with vowels 2, 4 or 8. In northern varieties the realisation may be after and, and in the far north may occur in all environments.
4
5
6
7		Merges with vowels 1 and 8 in central dialects and vowel 2 in northern dialects. in parts of Fife, Dundee and north Antrim. Usually in northern dialects, but after and. Mid Down and Donegal dialects have. In central and north Down dialects, merger with vowel 15 occurs when short and with vowel 8 when long.
8		Always long in many varieties.
8a
9
10
11		Always long in many varieties. Final vowel 11 may be in Southern dialects.
12		Always long in many varieties.
13		Vocalisation to may occur before, especially in western and Ulster dialects.
14
15		Always short. Often varies between and especially after 'w' and 'wh'. occurs in much of Ulster except Donegal which usually has.
16
17		Usually, often in south west and Ulster dialects, but in Northern dialects.
18		Some mergers with vowel 5.
19		Always short.

Orthography

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.

Alphabet

Consonant digraphs

ch:
* Usually. loch, nicht, dochter, dreich, etc.
* word initial or where it follows 'r'. airch, mairch, etc.
* usually where it follows 'n'. brainch, dunch, etc.
gh:.
gn:. In Northern dialects may occur.
kn:. In Northern dialects or may occur. knap, knee, knowe, etc.
ng:.
sh:.
th: or. Initial 'th' in thing, think and thank, etc. may be.
wh:.
wr: ; more often realised as but may be in Northern dialects: wrack, wrang, write, wrocht, etc.
Vowel digraphs
ae : Vowel 4. Also occurs for vowel 7 in dae, tae and shae. In Southern Scots and many central and Ulster varieties ae, ane and ance may be realised, and often written yae, yin and yince in dialect writing.
ai: Vowel 8 in initial and medial positions. Often before. The merger of vowel 8 with 4 has resulted in the digraph ai occurring in some words with vowel 4 and a'e occurring in some words with vowel 8, e.g. saip, hale, ane, ance, bane, etc. and word final brae and day etc. Long vowel 7 is often written ai in dialect writing for central and north Down dialects.
ay : Vowel 8. Usually but in ay and aye. In Dundee it is noticeably.
au, aw: Vowel 12 in southern, central and Ulster dialects but in northern dialects, with au usually occurring in medial positions and aw in final positions. Sometimes a' or a' representing L-vocalisation. The digraph aa also occurs, especially in written representations of the realisation in northern and insular dialects. The cluster 'auld' may also be in Ulster, e.g. aw, cauld, braw, faw, snaw, etc.
ea: Vowel 3. may occur before. meat, clear etc. Vowel 2/11 in a few words such as sea and tea.
ee: Vowels 2 and 11. The realisation is generally but in Northern varieties may be after and. ee, een, steek, here, etc. Often used for vowel 7 in dialect writing for northern dialects.
ei: Vowel 3. deid, heid, etc. Occasionally vowels 2 and 11, generally before ch, but also in a few other words, e.g. speir.
eu: Vowel 7 before and, see ui. or depending on dialect. beuk, eneuch, ceuk, leuk, teuk etc.
ew: Vowel 14. In Northern dialects a root final 'ew' may be. few, new, etc.
ey: Vowels 1, 8a and 10.
ie: Vowels 2 and 11, generally occurring before l'' and v.
oa: Vowel 5.
oi, oy: Vowel 9.
oo: Vowel 6, a 19th-century borrowing from Standard English. hoose, moose etc. Vowel 7 also occurs from the spelling of Standard English cognates.
ou: The general literary spelling of vowel 6. Occasionally vowel 13. Root final may occur in southern dialects. cou, broun etc.
ow, owe : Vowel 13. bowk, bowe, howe, knowe, cowp, yowe, etc.
ui: The usual literary spelling of vowel 7. Also used for before in some areas e.g. fuird. buird, buit, cuit, fluir, guid, schuil, etc. In central dialects uise v. and uiss n. are and.
History

As of 2022, 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:

aa, baa, caa for words like aw, baw, caw – this was later discouraged
-ie for final unstressed -y
y for the sound in words like wynd and mynd, and i for the short sound in words like wind and find.
ui for the sound in words like guid
ou for the sound in words like nou and hou
ow for the sound in words like growe and fowk
throu and tho for through and though

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:

ei for the sound at the beginning or middle of words, unless ee is firmly established
y for the sound in words like wynd and mynd, but if it's at the beginning or end of a word use ey
eu for the sound in words like aneuch, speug, neuk
-k for final -ct in words like object and expect
sk- for initial
-il for final unstressed -el and -le
-ss for final unless -se follows a consonant
omit final -d where it is silent

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.

Language endangerment

The Scots language has had a long history of being devalued and marginalized in the Scottish education system.
Due to the Anglicisation of Scotland and the Education Act of 1872, the education system required that every child learn English. This caused Scots to become forgotten about in main education and considered slang. As of 2022, it is deemed a vulnerable language.

Language revitalization

In 2012, the Scottish Government released a policy approach that highlights their aim to provide opportunities for children to learn languages other than their mother tongues. And in 2014, there was a dictionary app developed to help aid students in their learning of the Scots language.
The Curriculum for Excellence is the national curriculum for schools in Scotland, for students from aged 3–18. It was implemented in Scotland in 2010 and the initiative aimed to provide support for the incorporation of the Scots language learning in classrooms in Scotland.
There is still hesitancy in acknowledging Scots as a 'proper' language in Scotland, and many believe that it should not be taught in schools. Individuals are starting to understand the cultural impact that learning Scots has on young people, and want to encourage the use of the language in everyday conversations and help re-appropriate it as a traditional.
Along with the introduction of Scots learning in Scottish classrooms, publishing companies have translated popular books into Scots. Itchy Coo has issued Scots editions of Harry Potter, and The Gruffalo, and by doing this they have made Scots more accessible to children, teachers, and families.

Grammar

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 . Do-support can be found in Modern Scots syntax, but is variable in frequency, and is likely to be a result of influence from English syntax.
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?

English	Scots
are, aren't	are, arena
can, can't	can, canna
could, couldn't	coud, coudna
dare, daren't	daur, daurna
did, didn't	did, didna
do, don't	dae, daena/dinna
had, hadn't	haed, haedna
have, haven't	hae, haena/hinna/hivna
might, mightn't	micht, michtna
must, mustn't	maun, maunna
need, needn't	need, needna
should, shouldn't	shoud, shoudna
was, wasn't	wis, wisna
were, weren't	war, warna
will, won't	will, winna
would, wouldn't	wad, 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 verb|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'.

-it appears after a stop consonant, e.g. hurtit, skelpit, mendit, cuttit, hurtit, keepit, sleepit ;
-t appears:
* after an unstressed syllable ending in l, n, r, or ie/''y, e.g. traivelt, festent, cairrit ;
* after a voiceless fricative or affricate, e.g. raxt, fasht, cocht, streetched ;
* in some irregular verbs, e.g. telt, kent ;
-d appears after a stressed syllable ending in a sonorant, a voiced fricative or affricate, or a vowel, e.g. cleaned/clean'd'', speired, scrieved/scriev'd, wadged, dee'd.

Many verbs have forms which are distinctive from Standard English :

bite/bate/bitten, drive/drave/driven~drien, ride/rade/ridden, rive/rave/riven, rise/rase/risen, slide/slade/slidden, slite/slate/slitten, write/wrate/written, pronounced vrit/vrat/vrutten in Mid Northern Scots;
bind/band/bund, clim/clam/clum, find/fand/fund, fling/flang/flung, hing/hang/hung, rin/ran/run, spin/span/spun, stick/stack/stuck, drink/drank/drunk~drucken ;
creep/crap/cruppen, greet/grat/grutten, sweit/swat/swutten, weet/wat/watten, pit/pat/pitten, sit/sat/sitten, spit/spat/spitten~sputten ;
brek~brak/brak/brakken~broken, get~git/gat/gotten, speak/spak/spoken, fecht/focht/fochten ;
beir/buir/born, sweir/swuir/sworn, teir/tuir/torn, weir/wuir/worn ;
cast/cuist/casten~cuisten, lat/luit/latten~luitten, staund/stuid/stuiden, fesh/fuish/feshen~fuishen,thrash/thrasht~thruish/thrasht~thruishen, wash/washt~wuish/washt~wuishen;
bake/bakit~beuk/bakken, lauch/leuch/lauchen~leuchen, shak/sheuk/shakken~sheuken, tak/teuk/taen ;
gae/gaed/gane, gie/gied/gien, hae/haed/haen ;
chuise/chuised/chosen, soum/soumed/soumed, sell/selt~sauld/selt~sauld, tell/telt~tauld/telt~tauld.
Present participle

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.

Numbers

Ordinal numbers end mostly in t: seicont, fowert, fift, saxt— etc., but note also first, thrid/''third—.
English Scots
one, first ane/ae, first
two, second twa, seicont
three, third three,
four, fourth fower, fowert
five, fifth five, fift
six, sixth sax, saxt
seven, seventh seiven, seivent
eight, eighth aicht, aicht
nine, ninth nine, nint
ten, tenth ten, tent
eleven, eleventh eleiven, eleivent
twelve, twelfth twal, 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.

Prepositions

Interrogative words

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

Syntax

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.

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

Negative na: or depending on dialect. Also nae or 'y' e.g. canna, dinna and maunna.
fu : 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, barrae and windae, etc.
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.

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, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir|John Buchan], Sydney 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

English	Scots
one, first	ane/ae, first
two, second	twa, seicont
three, third	three,
four, fourth	fower, fowert
five, fifth	five, fift
six, sixth	sax, saxt
seven, seventh	seiven, seivent
eight, eighth	aicht, aicht
nine, ninth	nine, nint
ten, tenth	ten, tent
eleven, eleventh	eleiven, eleivent
twelve, twelfth	twal, twalt