Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English"... Scottish Standard English, the standard form of the English language spoken in Scotland", Ordnance Survey or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined as "the characteristic speech of the professional class [in Scotland] and the accepted norm in schools".McClure (1994), pp. 79–80 IETF language tag for "Scottish Standard English" is en-scotland.
In addition to distinct pronunciation, grammar and expressions, Scottish English has distinctive vocabulary, particularly pertaining to Scottish institutions such as the Church of Scotland, local government and the education and legal systems.
Scottish Standard English is one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum, with broad Scots at the other.Stuart-Smith J. "Scottish English: Phonology" in Varieties of English: The British Isles, Kortman & Upton (Eds), Mouton de Gruyter, New York 2008. p. 47 Scottish English may be influenced to varying degrees by Scots.Stuart-Smith J. Scottish English: Phonology in Varieties of English: The British Isles, Kortman & Upton (Eds), Mouton de Gruyter, New York 2008. p. 48Macafee C. "Scots" in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 11, Elsevier, Oxford, 2005. p. 33 Many Scots speakers separate Scots and Scottish English as different registers depending on social circumstances, with Scottish English treated as the formal variety, and Scots as informal.Aitken A.J. "Scottish Speech" in Languages of Scotland, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Occasional Paper 4, Edinburgh:Chambers 1979. p. 85 Some speakers code switch clearly from one to the other while others style shift in a less predictable and more fluctuating manner.
Background Scottish English resulted from language contact between Scots and the Standard English of England after the 17th century. The resulting shifts to English usage by Scots-speakers resulted in many phonological compromises and lexical transfers, often mistaken for mergers by linguists unfamiliar with the history of Scottish English.Macafee, C. (2004). "Scots and Scottish English". in Hikey R.(ed.), Legacies of Colonial English: Studies in Transported Dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 60–61 Furthermore, the process was also influenced by interdialectal forms, hypercorrections and spelling pronunciations.Macafee, C. (2004). "Scots and Scottish English". in Hikey R.(ed.). Legacies of Colonial English: Studies in Transported Dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 61 (See the section on phonology below.)
History
Convention traces the influence of the English of England upon Scots to the 16th-century Reformation and to the introduction of printing.McClure (1994), pp. 33ff Printing arrived in London in 1476, but the first printing press was not introduced to Scotland for another 30 years. Texts such as the Geneva Bible, printed in English, were widely distributed in Scotland in order to spread Protestant doctrine.
King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603. Since England was the larger and richer of the two Kingdoms, James moved his court to London in England. The poets of the court therefore moved south and "began adapting the language and style of their verse to the tastes of the English market".McClure (1994), p. 36 To this event McClure attributes "the sudden and total eclipse of Scots as a literary language". The continuing absence of a Scots translation of the Bible meant that the translation of King James into English was used in worship in both countries.
The Acts of Union 1707 amalgamated the Scottish and English Parliaments. However the church, educational and legal structures remained separate. This leads to important professional distinctions in the definitions of some words and terms. There are therefore words with precise definitions in Scottish English which are either not used in English English or have a different definition.
Phonology
The speech of the middle classes in Scotland tends to conform to the grammatical norms of the written standard, particularly in situations that are regarded as formal. Highland English is slightly different from the variety spoken in the Lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically, and lexically influenced by a Gaelic substratum. Similarly, the English spoken in the North-East of Scotland tends to follow the phonology and grammar of Doric.
Although pronunciation features vary among speakers (depending on region and social status), there are a number of phonological aspects characteristic of Scottish English:
Consonants Scottish English is mostly rhotic, meaning is typically pronounced in the syllable coda, although some non-rhotic varieties are present in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The phoneme may be a postalveolar approximant , as in Received Pronunciation or General American, but speakers have also traditionally used for the same phoneme a somewhat more common alveolar flap or, now very rare, the alveolar trill Lodge, Ken (2009). A Critical Introduction to Phonetics. A & C Black. p. 180 (hereafter, will be used to denote any rhotic consonant). and are contrasted so that shore and sure are pronounced differently, as are pour and poor. before is strong. An epenthetic vowel may occur between and so that girl and world are two-syllable words for some speakers. The same may occur between and , between and , and between and . There is a distinction between and in word pairs such as witch and which. The phoneme is common in names and in SSE's many Gaelic and Scots borrowings, so much so that it is often taught to incomers, particularly for "ch" in loch. Some Scottish speakers use it in words of Greek origin as well, such as technical, patriarch, etc. (Wells 1982, 408). is usually velarised (see dark l) except in borrowings like "glen" (from Scottish Gaelic "gleann"), which had an unvelarised l in their original form. In areas where Scottish Gaelic was spoken until relatively recently (such as Dumfries and Galloway) and in areas where it is still spoken (such as the West Highlands), velarisation of may be absent in many words in which it is present in other areas, but remains in borrowings that had velarised in Gaelic, such as "loch" (Gaelic "loch") and "clan" (Gaelic "clann"). , and are not aspirated in more traditional varieties, but are weakly aspirated currently. The past ending -ed may be realised with where other accents use , chiefly after unstressed vowels: ended , carried is often used in plural nouns where southern English has (baths, youths, etc.); with and booth are pronounced with . (See Pronunciation of English th.) In colloquial speech, the glottal stop may be an allophone of after a vowel, as in . These same speakers may "drop the g" in the suffix -ing and debuccalise to in certain contexts.
Vowels
may be more open for certain speakers in some regions, so that it sounds more like (although and do not merge). Other speakers may pronounce it as , just as in many other accents, or with a schwa-like () quality. Others may pronounce it almost as in certain environments, particularly after and . The Scottish Vowel Length Rule is a distinctive part of many varieties of Scottish English, though vowel length is generally regarded as non-phonemic. According to the rule, and all pure vowels bar , and comm are lengthened before voiced fricatives or before . Lengthening also occurs before a morpheme boundary, so that short need contrasts with long kneed, crude with crewed, and side with sighed. Wells analyses the vowel's split as specifically phonemic rather than allophonic, citing the regularisation of wife-wives and similar words: both with despite Aitken's law dictating that the plural should use . Wells also describes some speakers having length distinctions in words which aren't suggested by Aitken's law: leek [lik] vs. leak [liːk], creek [krik] vs. creak [kriːk]; vane [ven] vs. vain [veːn], made vs. maid; choke vs. joke, badge vs. cadge. Scottish English has no , instead transferring Scots . Phonetically, this vowel may be pronounced or even . Thus pull and pool are homophones. Cot and caught are not differentiated in most Central Scottish varieties, but they are in some others.Wells, pp. 399 ff. In most varieties, there is no - distinction; therefore, bath, trap, and palm have the same vowel. The happY vowel is most commonly (as in face), but may also be (as in kit) or (as in fleece).Wells, p. 405. Although other accents have merged non-intervocalic , , before (fern–fir–fur merger), Scottish English makes a distinction between the vowels in fern, fir, and fur. Many varieties contrast and before so that hoarse and horse are pronounced differently (i.e. they have not undergone the - merger). Some speakers merge non-final with short .
+ Standard Scottish English vowels Pure vowels Lexical set Short ExamplesLongExamples bid, pit— leek, creekleak, creakgreed, nieceagreed, freeze sever, bed, vexedlesbianScots influencenextnever, bury vane, madevain, maidfatebay, heycadge, patbadge, badgrass, pathraspberry, rather balmfather, pa knotty, bod, cot ovulate, positive, orange, moraloff, cost— naughty, paw, caughtcause, jaws chokejokeoafovert good, foot, putbosom, zhuzh brood, brutebrewed, bruise, moo bud, putt— Diphthongs price, bind, strife, write, tide, widerprize, buy, strive, writhe, tied, spider how, pout—Scots influenceout, house finally boy, noisenon-finallyvoice, ointment Vowels followed by —beer, merebear, mare, Maryborn, forboar, four, moreboor, moor bird, fir— curse, furherd, fernScots influence earth, jerk lett runner, mercer Reduced vowels comm Rosa's, cuppa—pilothappstudied, turkey
Scotticisms
Scotticisms are idioms or expressions that are characteristic of Scots, especially when used in English. They are more likely to occur in spoken than written language.Aitken A.J. "Scottish Speech in Languages of Scotland", Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Occasional Paper 4, Edinburgh:Chambers 1979. p. 105
The use of Scottish English, as well as of Scots and of Gaelic in Scotland, were documented over the 20th century by the Linguistic Survey of Scotland at the University of Edinburgh.
Scotticisms are generally divided into two types:Aitken, A.J. "Scottish Accents and Dialects" in Trudgil, P. Language in the British Isles. 1984. pp. 105–108 covert Scotticisms, which generally go unnoticed as being particularly Scottish by those using them, and overt Scotticisms, usually used for stylistic effect, with those using them aware of their Scottish nature.
Lexical
Scottish English has inherited a number of lexical items from Scots,Aitken A.J. "Scottish Speech" in Languages of Scotland, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Occasional Paper 4, Edinburgh:Chambers 1979. pp. 106–107 which are less common in other forms of standard English.