| Languages of Scotland | |
|---|---|
 Geographic distribution of Scots and Scottish Gaelic speakers in Scotland | |
| Official | Scottish English,Scots,Scottish Gaelic andBritish Sign Language[1] |
| Main | Scottish English (98.6%)[2] |
| Minority | Scots (30.1%),Scottish Gaelic (1.1%)[2] |
| Foreign | Polish (1.1%),Urdu (0.5%),Chinese (0.5%),Punjabi (0.5%)[3] |
| Signed | British Sign Language (official) |
| Keyboard layout | |
Thelanguages of Scotland belong predominantly to theGermanic andCelticlanguage families. The main language now spoken in Scotland is English, whileScots andScottish Gaelic areminority languages. The dialect of English spoken in Scotland is referred to asScottish English.
The Celtic languages of Scotland can be divided into two groups:Goidelic (or Gaelic) andBrittonic (or Brythonic).Pictish is usually seen as a Brittonic language but this is not universally accepted. They are known collectively as theInsular Celtic languages.
The Goidelic language currently spoken in Scotland isScottish Gaelic. It is widely spoken in theOuter Hebrides, and also in parts of theInner Hebrides andScottish Highlands, and by some people in other areas of Scotland. It was formerly spoken over a far wider area than today, even in the recent past, as evidenced by placenames.Galwegian Gaelic is the extinct dialect of Scottish Gaelic formerly spoken insouthwest Scotland. It was spoken by theindependent kings of Galloway in their time, and by the people ofGalloway andCarrick until the early modern period. It was also once spoken, but much less so inAnnandale andStrathnith.
Scottish Gaelic, along with modernManx and Irish, is descended fromMiddle Irish, a derivative ofOld Irish, which is descended in turn fromPrimitive Irish, the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages. Primitive Irish is known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in theOgham alphabet in Ireland and western Britain up to about the 6th century AD.
Goidelic languages were once the most prominent by far among the Scottish population, but are now mainly restricted to the West. TheBeurla-reagaird is a Gaelic-basedcant of theScottish travelling community related to theShelta of Ireland.[4]
The majority of the vocabulary of modern Scottish Gaelic is nativeCeltic. There are a large number of borrowings fromLatin, (muinntir,Didòmhnaich), ancientGreek, especially in the religious domain (eaglais,Bìoball from ἐκκλησίαekklesia and βίβλοςbiblos),Norse (eilean,sgeir),Hebrew (Sàbaid,Aba), French (seòmar) andScots (aidh,bramar).
In common with otherIndo-European languages, theneologisms which are coined for modern concepts are typically based onGreek orLatin, although written in Gaelic orthography; "television", for instance, becomestelebhisean and "computer" becomescoimpiùtar. Although native speakers frequently use an English word for which there is a perfectly good Gaelic equivalent, they will, without thinking, simply adopt the English word and use it, applying the rules of Gaelic grammar, as the situation requires. With verbs, for instance, they will simply add the verbal suffix (-eadh, or, inLewis, -igeadh, as in, "Tha mi a' watcheadh (Lewis, "watchigeadh")an telly" (I am watching the television), rather than "Tha mi a' coimhead air an telebhisean". This tendency was remarked upon by the minister who compiled the account covering the parish ofStornoway in theNew Statistical Account of Scotland, published over 170 years ago. It has even gone so far as the verbBackdatigeadh. However, as Gaelic medium education grows in popularity, a newer generation of literate Gaels is becoming more familiar with modern Gaelic vocabulary.
The influence of Scottish Gaelic can be seen particularly in surnames (notably Mac- names, where themac means "Son of...") and toponymy. The surname influence is not restricted to Mac- names: several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames:bàn (Bain – white),ruadh (Roy – red),dubh (Dow – black),donn (Dunn – brown),buidhe (Bowie – yellow), and Gille- (meaning lad or servant) gives rise to names such as Gilmour and Gillies. Common place name elements from Gaelic in Scotland includebaile (Bal-, a town) e.g.Balerno,cille (Kil-, an old church) e.g.Kilmarnock,inbhir (Inver-, Inner-, meaning aconfluence) e.g.Inverness,Innerleithen,ceann (Kin-, meaning a head or top of something) e.g.Kintyre,Kinross, anddun (meaning a fort) e.g.Dundee andDunfermline.
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None of the Brittonic languages of Scotland survive to the modern day, though they have been reconstructed to a degree.
The ancestralCommon Brittonic language was probably spoken in southern Scotland in Roman times and earlier.[5] It was certainly spoken there by the early medieval era, and Brittonic-speaking kingdoms such asStrathclyde,Rheged, andGododdin, part of theHen Ogledd ("Old North"), emerged in what is now Scotland. Eventually Brittonic evolved into a variety known asCumbric, which survived in southwestern Scotland until around the 11th century.
The main legacy of these languages has been Scotland's toponymy, e.g. names such asAberdeen,Tranent andOchiltree.
There are also many Brittonic influences on Scottish Gaelic. Scottish Gaelic contains a number of apparentlyP-Celtic loanwords, but asQ-Celtic has a far greater overlap with P-Celtic than with English in terms of vocabulary, it is not always possible to disentangle P- and Q-Celtic words. However some common words, such asmonadh ≡ Welshmynydd, Cumbric *monidh, are particularly evident. Often the Brittonic influence on Scots Gaelic is indicated by comparing with the Irish Gaelic usage which is not likely to have been influenced so much by Brittonic. In particular, the wordsrath (anglicised as "Strath") is a native Goidelic word, but its usage appears to have been modified by its Brittoniccognateystrad, whose meaning is slightly different.
The Pictish language is anInsular Celtic language. At its height, it may have been spoken fromShetland down toFife, but it was pushed back as Scots andAnglo-Saxons invaded Northern Britain, each with their own language.Pritennic may have been a precursor of Pictish.[6]
TwoWest Germanic languages in theAnglic group are spoken in Scotland today:Scots, andScottish English, adialect of theEnglish language. TheNorn language, aNorth Germanic language, is now extinct.
TheNorthumbrian Old Englishdialect of theOld English was spoken in theAnglianKingdom of Northumbria from theHumber estuary to theFirth of Forth. TheViking invasions of the 9th century forced the dialect to split in two and in the north it began to evolve into Scots.[citation needed]
Scots has its origins in the variety of early northernMiddle English spoken in southeastern Scotland, also known asEarly Scots. That began to diverge from theNorthumbrian variety due to 12th and 13th century immigration ofScandinavian-influenced Middle English-speakers from the North and Midlands of England.[7]: xliii Later influences on the development of Scots were fromRomance languages via ecclesiastical and legalLatin,Norman[7]: lxiii–lxv and later Parisian French due to theAuld Alliance; as well asDutch andMiddle Low German influences due to trade and immigration from the Low Countries.[7]: xliii Scots also includes loan words resulting from contact with Scottish Gaelic. Early medieval legal documents include a body ofMiddle Gaelic legal and administrative loanwords.[7]: lxi ContemporaryScottish Gaelic loanwords are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such asceilidh,loch andclan, and also occur in colloquialisms such asgob andjilt.
From the 13th century Early Scots spread further into Scotland via theburghs, early urban institutions which were first established by KingDavid I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the 14th century, and the complementary decline of French in Scotland, made Scots theprestige language of most of eastern Scotland. By the 16th centuryMiddle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England.[8] "Modern Scots" is used to describe the language after 1700, when southernModern English was generally adopted as the literary language.
There is no institutionalised standard variety, but during the 18th century a newliterary language descended from the old court Scots emerged. This variety abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings,[9] adopted many standard English spellings (although from the rhymes it is clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended)[10]: xv and introduced what came to be known as theapologetic apostrophe,[10]: xiv generally occurring where aconsonant exists in the Standard Englishcognate. This Written Scots drew not only on the vernacular but also on theKing James Bible, and was also heavily influenced by the norms and conventions ofAugustan English poetry.[11] Consequently, this written Scots looked very similar to contemporary Standard English, suggesting a somewhat modified version of that, rather than a distinct speech form with a phonological system which had been developing independently for many centuries.[12] This modern literary dialect, "Scots of the book" or Standard Scots[13] once again gave Scots an orthography of its own, lacking neither "authority nor author".[14] During the 20th century a number of proposals for spelling reform were presented. Commenting on this, John Corbett (2003: 260) writes that "devising a normative orthography for Scots has been one of the greatest linguistic hobbies of the past century". Most proposals entailed regularising the use of established 18th and 19th century conventions, in particular the avoidance of theapologetic apostrophe.
Spoken Scots comprises many dialects, none of which may be said to be more "true" Scots than any other. This diversity is often seen as a mark of local pride among Scots. There are four dialect groupings:Insular Scots, spoken inOrkney andShetland;Northern Scots, spoken inCaithness,Easter Ross,Moray, Aberdeenshire, andAngus;Central Scots, spoken in theCentral Lowlands and South West Scotland; andSouthern Scots, spoken in theScottish Borders andDumfriesshire. A Jewish hybrid of the early 20th century isScots-Yiddish.
Scottish (Standard) English is the result oflanguage contact betweenScots and theStandard English ofEngland after the 17th century. The resulting shift towards Standard English by Scots-speakers resulted in many phonological compromises and lexical transfers, often mistaken formergers by linguists unfamiliar with the history of Scottish English.[15]: 60–61 Furthermore, the process was also influenced by interdialectal forms,hypercorrections andspelling pronunciations.[15]: 61 Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic. The most Gaelic influenced variety being Hebridean English, spoken in theWestern Isles.
Distinct vocabulary, often from Latin and Lowland Scots, is still used inScottish legal terminology.
Norn is an extinct North Germanic,West Scandinavian, language that was spoken inShetland andOrkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and inCaithness. Norn evolved from theOld Norse that was widely spoken in theHebrides, Orkney, Shetland and the west coast of the mainland during the Viking occupation from the 8th to the 13th centuries. After theNorthern Isles were ceded to Scotland byNorway in the 15th century, its use was discouraged by the Scottish government and theChurch of Scotland (the national church), and it was gradually replaced by Lowland Scots over time. Norn persisted well into the 19th century, as theFaroese linguistJakob Jakobsen wrote:
As late as 1894, there were people inFoula who could repeat sentences in Norn, as I myself had the opportunity of hearing. The last man in Unst who is said to have been able to speak Norn,Walter Sutherland from Skaw, died about 1850. InFoula, on the other hand, men who were living very much later than the middle of the present [19th] century are said to have been able to speak Norn[16]
Most of the use of Norn/Norse in modern-day Shetland and Orkney is purely ceremonial, and mostly in Old Norse, for example the Shetland motto, which isMeð lögum skal land byggja ("with law shall land be built"), which is the same motto used by the Icelandic police force and inspired by the DanishCodex Holmiensis.
There are some enthusiasts who are engaged in developing and disseminating a modern form calledNynorn ("New Norn"), based upon linguistic analysis of the known records and Norse linguistics in general.[17][18]
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Latin is also used to a limited degree in certain official mottos, for exampleNemo Me Impune Lacessit, legal terminology (Ultimus haeres andcondictio causa data causa non-secuta), and various ceremonial contexts. Latin abbreviations can also be seen on British coins and in mottos etc. The use of Latin has declined greatly in recent years. At one time, Latin andAncient Greek were commonly taught in Scottish schools (and were required for entrance to theancient universities until 1919, for Greek, and the 1960s, for Latin[19]), andScottish Highers are still available in both subjects. Latin's presence is almost two thousand years old in Scotland, but it has rarely been a community language.
Norman French was historically used in Scotland, and appears in some mottos as well. Some works of medieval literature from Scotland were composed in this language. After the twelfth-century reign ofKing David I and the so-called "Davidian Revolution", theScottish monarchs are perhaps better described asScoto-Norman than Gaelic, often preferringFrench culture to native Scottish culture. A consequence was the spread of French institutions and social values includingCanon law. The first towns, calledburghs, appeared in the same era, and as they spread, so did theMiddle English language. These developments were offset by the acquisition of theNorse-Gaelic west, and theGaelicisation of many of the noble families of French andAnglo-French origin and national cohesion was fostered with the creation of various unique religious and cultural practices. By the end of the period, Scotland experienced a "Gaelic revival" which created an integratedScottish national identity.
The use of Ancient Greek is almost entirely gone in Scotland, but one example would be the motto ofSt Andrews University, ΑΙΕΝ ΑΡΙΣΤΕΥΕΙΝ (AIEN ARISTEUEIN) ("Ever to Excel" or "Ever To Be The Best")[20]
Scotland's deaf community tends to useBritish Sign Language. There are a few signs used in Scotland which are unique to the country, as well as variations in some signs from Dundee to Glasgow (similar to accents). Most deaf people in Scotland are educated in mainstream schools.
Other sign languages in use in Scotland includeMakaton, andSigned English, a sign language based on the English language.
There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishinglanguages fromdialects, although a number of paradigms exist, which render sometimes contradictory results. The exact distinction is therefore a subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of reference. (SeeDialect)
Scottish Gaelic and Irish are generally viewed as being languages in their own right rather than dialects of a single tongue but are sometimesmutually intelligible to a limited degree – especially between southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic and northern dialects of Irish (programmes in each form of Gaelic are broadcast onBBC Radio nan Gaidheal andRTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta), but the relationship of Scots and English is less clear, since there is usually partial mutual intelligibility.
Since there is a very high level of mutual intelligibility between contemporary speakers of Scots in Scotland and in Ulster (Ulster Scots dialect), and a common written form was current well into the 20th century, the two varieties have usually been considered as dialects of a single tongue rather than languages in their own right; the written forms have diverged in the 21st century. The government of the United Kingdom "recognises that Scots and Ulster Scots meet the Charter's definition of a regional or minority language".[21] Whether this implies recognition of one regional or minority language or two is a question of interpretation. Ulster Scots is defined in legislation (The North/South Co-operation (Implementation Bodies) Northern Ireland Order 1999) as:the variety of the Scots language which has traditionally been used in parts of Northern Ireland and in Donegal in Ireland.[22]
Some resent Scottish Gaelic being promoted in the Lowlands, although it was once spoken everywhere in mainland Scotland includingGalloway and, to an extent, the extreme south-east[23][24] (that part of Scotland which was originally Northumbria) and the extreme north-east (Caithness).
Two areas with mostly Norse-derived placenames (and some Pictish), the Northern Isles (Shetland andOrkney) were ceded to Scotland in lieu of an unpaid dowry in 1472, and never spoke Gaelic; its traditional vernacularNorn, a derivative of Old Norse mutually intelligible with Icelandic and Faroese, died out in the 18th century after large-scale immigration by Lowland Scots speakers. To this day, many Shetlanders and Orcadians maintain a separate identity, albeit through theShetland andOrcadian dialects of Lowland Scots, rather than their former national tongue. Norn was also spoken at one point inCaithness, apparently dying out much earlier than Shetland and Orkney. However, theNorse speaking population were entirely assimilated by theGaelic speaking population in the Western Isles; to what degree this happened inCaithness is a matter of controversy, althoughScottish Gaelic was spoken in parts of the county until the 20th century.
Diagrammatic representation of the development of the historicIndo-European languages of Scotland:
| Distribution of languages of Scotland | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish English | 98.6% | |||
| Scots | 30.1% | |||
| Scottish Gaelic | 1.1% | |||
According to the 2001 censusScottish Gaelic has 58,652 speakers (roughly 1% of thepopulation of Scotland). In total 92,400 people aged three and over in Scotland had some Gaelic language ability in 2001.[25] 15,723 of these reside in theOuter Hebrides, where the language is spoken by the majority of the population.[26] There are also large populations of speakers in other parts of theHighlands.
In a 2010Scottish Government study, 85% of respondents noted they speak Scots.[27] According to the 2011 census, 1,541,693 people can speak Scots in Scotland, approximately 30% of the population.[2]
The 2011 census asked people to specify the language that they used at home.[28] This found that the language used by majority of people aged 3 and over (92.6%) was English.[3]
| Mother tongue | Count of all people aged 3 or over | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| English | 4,740,547 | 94.5% |
| Scots | 55,817 | 1.1% |
| Polish | 54,186 | 1.1% |
| Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Min Nan, etc.) | 27,381 | 0.6% |
| Gaelic (Scottish and others) | 24,974 | 0.5% |
| Urdu | 23,394 | 0.5% |
| Punjabi | 23,150 | 0.5% |
| French | 14,623 | 0.3% |
| British Sign Language | 12,533 | 0.3% |
| German | 11,317 | 0.2% |
by the tenth and eleventh centuries the Gaelic language was in use throughout the whole of Scotland, including the English-speaking south-east, though no doubt the longer-established Northern English continued to be the dominant language there
