The 'apologetic'Graham W. (1977) The Scots Word Book, The Ramsay Head Press, Edinburgh, p.11 or parochial apostrophePurves D. (1997) A Scots Grammar, The Saltire Society, p. 111 is the distinctive use of apostrophes in some Modern Scots spelling. Apologetic apostrophes generally occurred where a consonant exists in the Standard English cognate, as in (all), (give) and (with).
The practice, unknown in Older Scots, was introduced in the 18th centuryRennie, S. (2001) "The Electronic Scottish National Dictionary (eSND): Work in Progress", Literary and Linguistic Computing 2001 16(2), Oxford University Press, pp. 159 by writers such as Allan Ramsay,Murison d. (1977) The Guid Scots Tongue, Blackwell, Edinburgh, p.31 Robert Fergusson and Robert Burns as part of a process of Anglicisation. The 18th-century practice was also adopted by later writers such as Walter Scott, John Galt and Robert Louis Stevenson. It produced an easily understood spurious Scots that was very popular with English readers and on the English stage. It was also sometimes forced on reluctant authors by publishers desirous of a wider circulation for their books.Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction §18.1 p. xiv Vol. 1
The custom "also had the unfortunate effect of suggesting that Broad Scots was not a separate language system, but rather a divergent or inferior form of English".Corbett, John; McClure, Derrick; Stuart-Smith, Jane (Editors)(2003) The Edinburgh Companion to Scots. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. pp. 12-13 The use of the apologetic apostrophe has become less widespread since the appearance of the 'Style Sheet'The Scots Style Sheet in 1947.
L-vocalisation
Early Scots had undergone a process of L-vocalisation where /l/ was preceded by the vowels and in closed syllables, which was completed by the end of the 14th century.A History of Scots to 1700, p.xc The cluster vocalised to and to hence spellings such as a (all), ba (ball), ca (call), sa't (salt) and ha'd (hold),Scottish National Dictionary, p.xxi, Entry: A and fu and pu with the doublets full and pull .Scottish National Dictionary, p.xxiii-xxiv The standardScottish National Dictionary, Entry: U, Entry: W literary apostrophe-less spellings for (also ) were and Scottish National Dictionary, Entry: A with generally occurring word initially or medially, and occurring word finalScottish National Dictionary, p. xix thus aw (all), baw (ball), caw (call), saut (salt) and haud (hold).
The standard literary spelling of was , generally preferred in the Scottish National Dictionary,Scottish National Dictionary, p. xiv, Entry: O although the use of , borrowed from Standard English, became popular by the 19th century.Scottish National Dictionary, Entry: O Thus fou and pou, but the form fu functioning as the cognate of the suffix 'ful'. L also vocalised after in closed syllables resulting in a diphthong which became in Modern Scots, for example knowe (knoll), fowk (folk), gowf (golf) and gowd (gold).Scottish National Dictionary, p.xxi, xxiii-xxiv
Inflectional endings The consonant clusters in the inflectional endings and , cognate with Standard English , changed to in Early Scots:A History of Scots to 1700, p.ci the modern realisations generally being and Scottish National Dictionary, Entry: -IN(G) hence the spelling in.
Consonant clusters The cluster had been reduced to in Early Scots hence spelling such as num'er (number), cham'er (chamber) and tim'er (timber), the standard literary apostrophe-less spellings being nummer, chaumer and timmer.Scottish National Dictionary, p. xxii
The cluster is reduced to in some Scots dialectsJohnston, Paul (1997b). Regional variation in Charles Jones ed. The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, p. 502. hence spellings such as caun'le (candle), haun (hand) and staun (stand) though the is generally written in the literary standard, thus caundle, haund and staund.
The cluster is also reduced to in some Scots dialects, hence spellings such as aul (old), caul (cold) and faul (fold) though the is generally written in the literary standard, thus auld, cauld and fauld.
Loss of consonants By the Middle Scots period, and deletion had occurred intervocalically and between a nasal/liquid consonant and a vowel. Hence spellings such as de'il (devil), gi'e (give), ha'e (have), lo'e (love), o (of), o'er (over) and sil'er (silver), the standard literary apostrophe-less spellings being deil, gie, hae, lue, o, ower and siller.Scottish National Dictionary, p. xxiii
Also by that period, word-final had been lost in a number of words. Hence spellings such as fro' (froth), quo' (quoth), wi' (with) and mou''' (mouth), the standard literary apostrophe-less spellings being fro, quo, wi and mou, the latter having the doublet mooth.
Change of vowel In some Scots words the realisation differs from that of the Standard English cognate; hence spellings such as bak (bake), mak (make) and tak (take), the standard literary apostrophe-less spellings being bak, mak and tak.
Legitimate use of the apostrophe in Scots Many words in Scots have both a full form and a contracted form. In contracted forms, an apostrophe is generally used in place of the elided graphemes, for example, e'en and even, e'er and iver (ever), eneu and eneuch (enough), lea and leave, ne'er and niver (never), ne'er's day and new year's day, nor'land and northland.
In the construction of the past tense or past participle, Scots often appends the apostrophe to verbs ending with ee to prevent three es from occurring in a single word:dee (die) > dee'dgree (agree) > gree'dScots also uses, as does English, the apostrophe to indicate contractions of multiple words: A'm (I'm), wi't (with it), ye're (you're), o't (of it).
Notes
References
William Grant and David D. Murison (eds) The Scottish National Dictionary (SND) (1929–1976), The Scottish national Dictionary Association, vol. I Edinburgh. A History of Scots to 1700'' in A Dictionary of Older Scots Vol. 12. Oxford University Press 2002.
External links Phonetic Description of Scottish Language and Dialects