1. There are two main varieties of English spoken in Scotland: Scots and Standard Scottish English. Scots developed from Old English and is typically used by working classes, while SSE is used by educated middle classes. 2. Both varieties are distinct from other forms of English with their own pronunciations, grammatical structures, and lexicons. For example, Scottish English is usually rhotic and may use words like "out-with." 3. While Scots and SSE were once more distinct, the boundaries have blurred over time as many Scots speakers adopt elements of SSE. However, Scots remains influential in literature and some rural communities.

1. English in Scotland
Fiona Douglas

2. Historical Development of Scottish Varieties:
 There are two key strands:
i. The development of variety I will be termed as Scots (SC)
ii. The development of variety II will be termed as Standard Scottish English (SSE)
Scots: Scots is generally, but not always, spoken by the working classes.
Scottish Standard English: SSE is typical of educated middle-class speakers.

3. English in Scotland:
 The most socially prestigious forms of English spoken in Scotland contain elements that are
characteristically Scottish.
 The variety of speech as educated Scottish English contains the occasional words:
Out-with for ‘outside’
Grammatical Structures- I’ve not heard for ‘I haven’t heard’ that is distinctively Scottish.
 Scottish English is recognizable by its pronunciation and the vast majority of speakers in
Scotland are Rhotic.
That is, they pronounce the <r> sound after a vowel in words like farm, first and better.

4. Scots Dialect:
 Standard Scottish English, the local vernacular language, Scots, a dialect descended from Old English
and closely related to Northumbrian dialects has maintained a strong presence, especially in rural
communities.
 Scots boasts a literary tradition dating back long before Rober Burns in 18th Century.
 They are still thriving today as demonstrated by contemporary authors such as Irvine Welsh.

5. Blurred Boundaries:
 In practice, the distinction between those who speak Scots and those who speak Standard
Scottish English is rather blurred.
 They might speak a version of Standard English with a local accent.
 Features of Scots:
i. ‘Wee’ for ‘little’
ii. ‘does nae’ for ‘doesn’t’
iii. ‘house with ‘goose’ or ‘’head’ with ‘heed’

6. Characteristics of present-Day Scottish English Varieties:
 Phonological Characteristics:
 The Lateral Sonorant [l]:
Eighteenth century Scots commentators rarely seem to differentiate between fronted and
retracted [l] sounds.
 Examples:
'bright' and 'dark' /l/.

7.  /r/ Segments:
/r/ segment that it is "pronounced in Scottish differently from English r.
 Scots would either pronounce [ɾ] with a tap or a trill, regardless of where it occurs
in a word (Johnston 1997:510).
 They pronounce adder, bladder with an intervocalic voiced dental fricative, where
in bother, worthy they would use a voiced dental obstruent (Jones 1997:326;
Elphinston 1787:26).

8. Vowels:
The length of vowels in Scots is an important feature.
Miller believes that all Scots dialects have four phonemic diphthongs: CHOICE,
OWER, BITE and TRY.
i. The [e]/[a] Merger: Words such as make, take, brake and apple in Scots are
pronounced with the [a] vowel; mak, tak, brak and apel (Jones 1997:294).
ii. The [a]/[ɛ] Merger: Words that consist of a short open [ɑ] vowel were
pronounced with a 'slender ɑ', as in cattle/ kettle, vassal/ vessel, ketch/ catch,
black/ bleck, lamb/ lemb and hand/ hend (Jones 1997:296).

9.  Syntax:
 Noun Phrase:
 Relative Clause:
Scots use Wh- forms but in ungrammatical way.
 Example:
Do you know who you speak to?
‘Who’is often used ungrammatically for ‘whom’(Beal 1997, p.358).
They use Wh- forms to signal that speech has some degree of formality.

10. Use of Definite Articles:
 A well-known characteristic of Scottish English is the use of ‘the’ with nouns
denoting institutions, certain illnesses, certain periods of time, and with qualifiers
such as ‘both’and ‘all’(Miller1993, p.128).
 Examples:
Definite articles are
i. the day ‘today’
ii. the now ‘just now’

11. Use of Possessive Pronouns:
 The use of possessive by Scots as ‘Scotticism’ was noted by (Beattie 1787:56).
 But (Macaulay 1991:71) suggested that he does not recognize it as a Scotticism,
he found this use of possessive pronouns only in lower-class.
 Examples:
i. We were in for wer lunch. .: wer = our
ii. I’m away to my bed.

12. Lexis:
Formation of New Words:
 Scots has a special status, as it is widely used literary and spoken language with
no agreed standard vocabulary.
 There was scope for expansion of vocabulary by many means.
 They were able to add to the meaning of existing words.
There are many kinds of words that have been ‘invented’ such as compounds,
derivations, blends etc.
Examples:
Galdroch  greedy
Gallion  Lean Horse
Gally-gander  a fight with knives
Skintie  (a blend of two words skimpy and scanty)

13. Scottish English: Looking to the Future:
 SSE seems secure, while, the future of Scots may be less.
 Scots has always been strongest in literature.
 Modern Scottish writers, such as, Irvine Welsh and James Kelman,
enjoy huge popularity and critical acclaim and incorporate
representations of modern, thin urban SC.
 (Macafee 2003:51) diagnosing SC as being in ‘’an advanced stage of
language death’’ in much of lowland Scotland.