History of the Scots language
Scots language |
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History |
Dialects |
The history of the Scots language refers to how
.Origins
Speakers of
Scholars of the language generally use the following chronology:[1]
- Northumbrian Old English to 1100
- Pre-literary Scots to 1375
- Early Scots to 1450
- Middle Scots to 1700
- Modern Scots 1700 onwards
Pre-literary Scots
The nature of early forms of the language are obscure due to
Early Scots
Northumbrian Old English had been established in south-eastern 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 Scottish Gaelic was the court language until displaced by Norman French in the early 12th century. English then spread further into Scotland via the burgh.
After the 12th century early northern Middle English began to spread north and eastwards. It was from this dialect that Early Scots, known to its speakers as "English" (Inglis), began to develop, which is why in the late 12th century Adam of Dryburgh described his locality as "in the land of the English in the Kingdom of the Scots"[4] and why the early 13th century author of de Situ Albanie thought that the Firth of Forth "divides the kingdoms of the Scots and of the English".[5]
Most of the evidence suggests that English spread further into Scotland via the burghs,
Divergence from Northumbrian Middle English was influenced by the
Eventually the royal court and barons all spoke Inglis. Further spreading of the language eventually led to Scottish Gaelic being confined mostly to the
Middle Scots
By the early 16th century what was then called Inglis had become the language of government, and its speakers started to refer to it as Scottis and to Scottish Gaelic, which had previously been titled Scottis, as Erse (Irish). The first known instance of this was by Adam Loutfut c. 1494. In 1559 William Nudrye was granted a monopoly by the court to produce school textbooks, two of which were Ane Schort Introduction: Elementary Digestit into Sevin Breve Tables for the Commodius Expeditioun of Thame That are Desirous to Read and Write the Scottis Toung and Ane Intructioun for Bairnis to be Learnit in Scottis and Latin. In 1560 an English herald spoke to Mary of Guise and her councillors, at first they talked in the "Scottish tongue" but because he could not understand they continued in French.[7]
By this time Scots had diverged significantly from its neighbour south of the border and had become the vehicle for an extensive and diverse
From 1610 to the 1690s during the
Modern Scots
In the 18th century 'polite society' now considered Scots as 'provincial and unrefined' and much of the gentry endeavoured to rid itself of the former national tongue. Elocutionists such as
Notes
- ^ Such chronological terminology is widely used, for example, by Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. (Formally SNDA), Dr. Anne King Archived 16 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine of The University of Edinburgh Archived 18 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine and by The University of Glasgow Archived 18 December 2005 at the Wayback Machine. It is also used in The Oxford Companion to the English Language and The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.
- ^ Anglo-Danish population movement Archived 8 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Johnston, Paul (1997), Older Scots Phonology and its Regional Variation
- ^ "in terra Anglorum et in regno Scottorum", Adam of Dryburgh, De tripartito tabernaculo, II.210, tr. Keith J. Stringer, "Reform Monasticism and Celtic Scotland", in Edward J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages, (East Lothian, 2000), p. 133.
- ^ A.O. Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), v.i, pp. cxv–cxix; see also Dauvit Broun, "The Seven Kingdoms in De Situ Albanie: A Record of Pictish political geography or imaginary Map of ancient Alba", in E.J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, (Edinburgh, 2000, rev. 2005), pp. 24–42.
- ^ Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070 (2007: Edinburgh University Press), pp. 292
- ^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 1 (1898), 322.
- ^ A History of Scots to 1700 in A Dictionary of Older Scots Vol. 12. Oxford University Press 2002. p. lxxi
- ^ Macafee, Caroline; Aitken, A. J. (2002). "A history of Scots to 1700". Dictionaries of the Scots Language :: History of Scots to 1700. Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue. Vol. 12. p. xxix-clvii.
See also
- Phonological history of the Scots language
References
- A History of Scots to 1700 in A Dictionary of Older Scots Vol. 12. Oxford University Press 2002. ISBN 9780198605409
- Aitken, A.J. (1977) How to Pronounce Older Scots in Bards and Makars. Glasgow, Glasgow University Press. ISBN 978-0852611326
- Aitken, A. J. (1987) The Nuttis Schell: Essays on the Scots Language. Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press. ISBN 0-08-034530-1
- Caldwell, S.J.G. (1974) The Relative Pronoun in Early Scots. Helsinki, Société Néophilique. ISBN 9789519040035
- Corbett, John; McClure, Derrick; Stuart-Smith, Jane (Editors)(2003) The Edinburgh Companion to Scots. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1596-2
- 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