Scots language

Origin of the term Scots

Up to the 15th century (and beyond), Scottis (modern form: Scots) referred to the Scottish Gaelic language (a Celtic language and tongue of the ancient Scots, introduced from Ireland from the 4th century onwards). (Scots are mentioned in reference to northern Britain by Ammianus Marcellinus (XX.1) and other 4th century Roman writers.) Speakers of the Anglic language now called Scots, previously known as Inglis, would later call Gaelic Erse (meaning Irish), and then adopt Scottis as a name for their own language. 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. The Gaelic of modern Scotland is now usually referred to as Scottish Gaelic or, sometimes, Scots Gaelic. It is still spoken by some in the western Highlands and Islands (especially the Hebrides), and Erse is regarded, understandably, as a pejorative.

Origins

The Scots language descends from the northern form of the Anglian dialect brought by the Angles when they settled the east coast of Britain, from East Anglia to the Firth of Forth. External influences included Old Irish and its descendant, Scots Gaelic, Old Norse, as neighbouring tongues; Dutch and Middle Low German through trade with, and immigration from, the Low Countries; Latin via ecclesiastical and legal Latin, the Anglo-Norman language and, later, Parisian French owing to the Auld Alliance.

Anglic speakers were established in Lothian and surrounding area by the early 7th century, displacing or absorbing the Old Welsh (or Cumbric) speaking Britons of the kingdoms of Gododdin and Strathclyde who had previously lived there. The Gaelic-speaking Scots of the kingdom of Dál Riata (Argyll and the adjacent islands) joined with Pictland in or about 843 under Kenneth I Mac Ailpín as king of both Scots and Picts. The kingdom of Strathclyde (modern southwest Scotland and northwest England) and the northern part of Northumbria (modern southeast Scotland and northeast England) were added to the new realm in the course of the 10th and 11th centuries. The Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands and, for a time, the Isle of Man, all at one time under Scandinavian overlordship, came under Scottish dominion in the course of the later Middle Ages.

Malcolm Canmore, who became King of Scots in 1059, was brought up in northern England after his father Duncan II was overthrown. His tenure as king began a linguistic transition. During the reigns of his sons Edgar, Alexander I and David I, the court language of Scotland began to change from Gaelic to Scots (though in fact French was for long the most prestigious tongue).

During the 12th and 13th centuries, Norman landowners and their retainers were invited to settle by the king. It is possible that many of their retainers spoke Middle English. Although the military aristocracy employed French and Gaelic, small urban communties appear to have been using Scots as something more than a lingua franca by the end of the 13th century.

Scots made its first literary appearance in the mid-14th century, when its form differed little from other North Anglian dialects. The growth in Scottish national feeling led to the term 'Inglis' being applied to the language as spoken in England, while the Scots began to call their form of the language Scottis or "Scots." The first known instance of this was by an unknown man in 1494.

Scots has loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic. These loan words are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as loch and clan. Many Scots words have become part of English: flit, 'to move home', greed, eerie, cuddle, clan, stob, 'a post'.