Middle Scots was the
Anglic language
The Anglo-Frisian languages are the Anglic (English, Scots, and Yola) and Frisian varieties of the West Germanic languages.
The Anglo-Frisian languages are distinct from other West Germanic languages due to several sound changes: besides the ...
of
Lowland Scotland
The Lowlands ( sco, Lallans or ; gd, a' Ghalldachd, , place of the foreigners, ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Lowlands and the Highlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lo ...
in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 15th century, its
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
,
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
,
accidence
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
,
syntax and
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
had diverged markedly from
Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early
Northumbrian Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
. Subsequently, the orthography of Middle Scots differed from that of the emerging
Modern English standard. Middle Scots was fairly uniform throughout its many texts, albeit with some variation due to the use of Romance forms in translations from Latin or French, turns of phrases and grammar in recensions of southern texts influenced by southern forms, misunderstandings and mistakes made by foreign printers.
History
The now established
Stewart identification with the lowland language had finally secured the division of Scotland into two parts, the
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
Highlands
Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau.
Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to:
Places Albania
* Dukagjin Highlands
Armenia
* Armenian Highlands
Australia
*Sou ...
and the
Anglic Lowlands
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of p ...
. The adherence of many Highlanders to the
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
faith during the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
led to the 1609
Statutes of Iona forcing
clan chiefs to establish
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
churches, send their sons to Lowland schools and withdraw their patronage from the hereditary guardians of Gaelic culture – the
bards
In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
. This was followed in
1616 by an act establishing parish schools in the Highlands with the aim of extirpating the
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
language.
The Danish dependency of
Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
and
Shetland
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
had been held by Scottish
magnates from the late 14th century. These had introduced the Lowland tongue which then began to replace
Norn
Norn may refer to:
*Norn language, an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in Northern Isles of Scotland
*Norns, beings from Norse mythology
*Norn Iron, the local pronunciation of Northern Ireland
* Norn iron works, an old industrial c ...
. In 1467 the islands became part of Scotland.
By the early 16th century ''Scottis'' (previously used to describe
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
in Ireland as well as Scotland) had been adopted for what had become the national language of the
Stewart kingdom. The term ''Erse'' (
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
) was used instead for Gaelic, while the previously used term ''Inglis'' was increasingly used to refer to the language south of the border. The first known instance of this terminology was by an unknown man in 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'' but there is no evidence that the books were ever printed.
From 1610 to the 1690s, during the
Plantation of Ulster, some 200,000 Scots settled in the north of Ireland, taking what were to become the
Ulster Scots dialects with them.
Later in the period southern influence on the language increased, owing to the new political and social relations with England prior to and following the accession of
James VI
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
to the English throne. By the
Union of Parliaments in 1707 southern
Modern English was generally adopted as the literary language though
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 ...
remained the vernacular.
Orthography
On the whole Middle Scots scribes never managed to establish a single
standardised
Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...
spelling for every word, but operated a system of free variation based on a number of spelling variants. Some scribes used their own variants, but this was relatively rare. The least variation occurred in the later 16th century as printers moved towards fixed
spellings. This ended in the 17th century when printers began to adopt imported English conventions. Middle Scots used a number of now obsolete letters and letter
combinations:
* ''þ'' (
thorn
Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to:
Botany
* Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants
* ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species
Comics and literature
* Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...
) was equivalent to the modern ''th'' as in ''thae. þ'' was often indistinguishable from the letter ''y'' and often written so.
* ' (
yogh
The letter yogh (ȝogh) ( ; Scots Language, Scots: ; Middle English: ) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing ''y'' () and various velar consonant , velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular G, Insular form of the letter ...
) in ' was as in the French ''Bretagne''. It later changed to or leading to the modern spellings with ''z'' and ''y as'' in ''
Menzies
Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges.
Derivation and history
The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...
'' and ''Cunyie'' .
* ' (
yogh
The letter yogh (ȝogh) ( ; Scots Language, Scots: ; Middle English: ) was used in Middle English and Older Scots, representing ''y'' () and various velar consonant , velar phonemes. It was derived from the Insular G, Insular form of the letter ...
) in initial position was as in ''ȝear'' 'year'.
* ''quh'' was equivalent to the modern ''wh''.
* ''sch'' was equivalent to the modern ''sh''.
* A ligature of
long s
The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaism, archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" ...
and short s (ſs, italic ''ſs''), similar to German ''
ß'', is sometimes used for ''s'' (with variant readings like ''sis''). Encoded in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
as and .
* The
initial ''ff'' was a stylised single ''f''.
* The
inflection
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
-''ys'', -''is'' was realised after sibilate and affricate consonants and other voiced consonants, and after other voiceless consonants, later contracted to and as in Modern Scots -''s''. The spelling -''ys'' or -''is'' also occurred in other words such as ''Inglis'' and ''Scottis'' . The older Scots spelling surviving in place names such as ''Fowlis'' , ''
Glamis
Glamis is a small village in Angus, Scotland, located south of Kirriemuir and southwest of Forfar. It is the location of Glamis Castle, the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
History
The vicinity of Glamis has prehistoric ...
'' and ''
Wemyss'' .
* ''d'' after an ''n'' was often (and still is) silent i.e. ''barrand'' is = barren.
* ''i'' and ''j'' were often interchanged.
* ''h'' was often silent.
* ''l'' after ''a'' and ''o'' had become
vocalised and remained in use as an orthographic device to indicate
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
. Hence the place names ''Balmalcolm'' , ''
Falkirk
Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a ...
'' , ''
Kirkcaldy'' , ''
Culross
Culross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cuileann Ros'', 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland.
According to the 2006 estimate, the village has a population of 395. Originally, Culross ...
'' and ''
Culter'' .
* ''i'' after a vowel was also used to denote vowel length, e.g. ''ai'' , ''ei'' ''oi'' and ''ui'' .
* ''u'', ''v'' and ''w'' were often interchanged.
* After -''ch'' and -''th'', some scribes affixed a
pleonastic
Pleonasm (; , ) is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as "black darkness" or "burning fire". It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria and might be considered a fault of style. Pleonasm may also be used for em ...
final ''-t'' (''-cht, -tht''); this was unpronounced.
* The word ''ane'' represented the numeral ''ane'' as well as the indefinite
article
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
''an'' and ''a'', and was pronounced similar to
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 ...
usage. For example, ''
Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis'' was pronounced '.
* The verbal noun (
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiab ...
) ''-yng (-ing)'' differentiated itself from the present
participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
''-and'' , in Middle Scots, for example '—-the motto of the
Gordon Highlanders
Gordon may refer to:
People
* Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters
* Gordon (surname), the surname
* Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War
* Clan Gord ...
. Both the verbal noun and present participle had generally merged to by 1700.
Phonology
The development of Middle Scots vowels:
The
Scottish Vowel Length Rule
The Scottish Vowel Length Rule (also known as Aitken's law after A. J. Aitken, the Scottish linguist who formulated it) describes how vowel length in Scots, Scottish English, and, to some extent, Ulster English and Geordie is conditioned by th ...
is assumed to have come into being between the early Middle Scots and late Middle Scots period. Here
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
is conditioned by
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
and
morphemic
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
environment. The affected vowels tended to be realised fully long in end-stressed
syllables before voiced oral
continuants except , in
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
*Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
* Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes''
* Gl ...
, before word or morpheme boundaries and before and .
The major differences to contemporary southern English were the now well established early merger of with (''dey'' 'die', ''ley'' 'lie'), early 15th century
l-vocalisation
''L''-vocalization, in linguistics, is a process by which a lateral approximant sound such as , or, perhaps more often, velarized , is replaced by a vowel or a semivowel.
Types
There are two types of ''l''-vocalization:
* A labiovelar approxi ...
where (except intervocalically and before ), and usually merged with , and , medial and final was lost (''deil'' 'devil', ''ser'' 'serve').
The
Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through ...
occurred partially, and remained unaffected, became , , , and became , , and .
Literature
Sample text
This is an excerpt from Nicol Burne's anti-reformation pamphlet ''Of the praying in Latine'' (1581):
See also
*
History of the Scots language
The history of the Scots language refers to how Anglic varieties spoken in parts of Scotland developed into modern Scots.
Origins
Speakers of Northumbrian Old English settled in south eastern Scotland in the 7th century, at which time ...
*
Phonological history of the Scots language
This is a presentation of the phonological history of the Scots language.
Scots has its origins in Old English (OE) via early Northern Middle English; though loanwords from Old Norse and Romance sources are common, especially from ecclesiasti ...
*
Dictionary of the Scots Language
The ''Dictionary of the Scots Language'' (DSL) ( sco, Dictionar o the Scots Leid, gd, Faclair de Chànan na Albais) is an online Scots-English dictionary, now run by Dictionaries of the Scots Language, formerly known as Scottish Language Dicti ...
References
Further reading
* ''A History of Scots to 1700'' in A Dictionary of Older Scots Vol. 12. Oxford University Press 2002.
* Aitken, A.J. (1977) ''How to Pronounce Older Scots'' in Bards and Makars. Glasgow, Glasgow University Press.
*Jones C. (ed) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh Press. {{ISBN, 0-7486-0754-4
External links
Scottish Language Dictionaries LtdThe Palaeography of Scottish Documents 1500 - 1750The Scottish Text Society
Scots
Scots language
Scots, Middle