according to Scotland's 2011 census
nearly 2 million people have some Scots
language skills but what is less
language we call Scots
and where did it come from Scots has
many different names Scots Scotch rod
Scots lowland Scots even Lawrence it's
spoken in the United Kingdom mainly in
the central belt and in the northeast of
Scotland but also in Orkney and Shetland
and in Galloway the borders Caithness
and other parts Scots is also spoken in
pockets of Ulster the earliest
identifiable languages of the UK are
Celtic in origin we can recognize two
types boy Dalek which is the predecessor
of Irish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic and Manx
and brittonic whose descendants include
Welsh Cornish and the now extinct come
back when the Romans first arrived in
Britain they encountered several tribes
speaking varieties of brittonic to the
north of Hadrian's Wall were the pects
whose language was probably a type of
brittonic we know very little about
Pictish and what we do know comes mainly
from place names scattered across the
north and east of Scotland such as place
names beginning pet after the Romans
left a different Celtic grip this time
of Irish origin made its way into
pettish territories these readers who
the Romans called Scotty settled in the
West of Scotland then part of the
kingdom of Dario de they were speakers
of old Irish a Dalek form of Celtic
and the ancestor of present-day Scottish
Gaelic meantime in the south from the
middle of the 5th century following the
Romans departure waves of Angles Saxons
and Jutes crossed the channel settling
first in East Anglia Kent and the south
these settlers spoke closely related
varieties of West Germanic within a few
generations these Anglo Saxons had
splayed westwards and northwards
reaching the Luo Tian's in the 6th
century their language usually termed
Old English had four main dialects
Northumbrian mercian Kentish and ways
Saxon the two northern most dialects
collectively termed Anglian were a
crucial component in the development of
Scots there was of course no Scottish
nation in the 6th century instead the
kingdom of Northumbria
extended as far north as the first the
fourth with the pecs and gales holding
sway to the north
next came the Vikings in the north and
east of England
Dean's established the Danelaw a large
area under autonomous rule in northern
Scotland and in the northern and western
isles Norwegians readed and settled the
area of densest Scandinavian presence in
England is often referred to by
linguists as the great Scandinavian Belt
here the local dialects of English took
on many Norse words many of these words
are a part of standard English for
example sky egg and take and the
pronouns they them and there others have
survived as more local terms for example
northern log and lass busy with the
Vikings further south the
english-speaking northumbrian
unable to hold their northern border and
eventually seated lúthien to what had
become the galaxy became Kingdom of Alba
but although Scottish Gaelic was by then
the dominant language over most of
Scotland Anglian dialects persisted in
most of the lowlands after 1066 England
came under Norman rule and French became
the language of those in charge Scotland
was never invaded by the Normans but the
Scottish royal court did feel its
influence King David the first married
Matilda the greatness of Rome the
Conqueror and awarded Scottish lands and
possessions of power to members of the
anglo-norman elite the Scottish Normans
who came mainly from the north of
England and East Midlands brought with
them large numbers of followers
many of these followers were English
speakers from the old Danelaw area which
meant that their English was heavily
influenced by Scandinavian King David
also established Royal boroughs towns
with special treating privileges which
became magnets for the nobility and for
peasants traders and crafts folk they
attracted people from the north of
England and from abroad particularly
from the Low Countries did you know that
Scots has many words adopted from Dutch
including loon and keek so day to day
speech in the Scottish boroughs brought
together different measures of Gallic
local anglian Scandinavian influenced
English and Dutch unfortunately most
surviving documents written in Scotland
before the end of the 14th century are
written in Latin this makes it very
difficult to trace either language we
know today as Scots emerged from this
linguistic morass what we can see though
is that the most significant component
in the makeup of Scots is Old English B
at the local Anglian dialect of the Luo
Tian's or the Scandinavian influenced
English of the Dene law much of the
formal courtly and legal vocabulary of
early scots by contrast was adopted from
French and
north of the fourth Gallic speakers were
much more numerous as a result the
northwards and westward split of Scots
was slow especially outside the boroughs
this is one reason by the dialects of
those areas differ from those of the
central belt by the 17th century changes
in the relationship between Scotland and
England had caused Scots to lose much of
its prestige as a written language Scots
increasingly gave way to English once
London became the linguistic center of
gravity as a spoken language many Scots
found her advantageous to conduct their
affairs in English instead unable to
shake off the Scots pronunciations
entirely
however the variety of English they
converged on is now generally referred
to as Scottish English but as a spoken
language and one which is often
represented in its various dialects and
written works Scots endures and
continues to evolve
it has without a doubt a Germanic
language at its core and its closest
ties are to English still it carries
with it the richness of the many layers
of languages and peoples that Scotland
has brought together over the ages
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