Scottish English

Scotland (here Edinburgh’s Royal Mile) where English comes with shades of Scots

Language information: English is currently the most important language in the world. Its origin is highly complex. It began as a mixture of Anglish, Old Saxon, Old Jutish, Old Frisian and possibly other Old Germanic varieties imported from the Continental Lowlands, as well as numerous Medieval Latin loans. The resulting Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) language came to supplant most Celtic language varieties of Britain. Viking and Norman invasions resulted in layers of Scandinavian and Norman French influences. English morphology underwent radical simplification, and this caused the syntax to lose much of its earlier flexibility.
     Dialectical diversity is considerable, the most densely occurring diversity being in the British Isles and Ireland, followed closely by the North American East Coast, especially New England and Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Having changed little since the fourteenth century, today’s English orthography is one of the most historical systems and takes much time and effort to master.

Scottish English is often confused with Scots, but the two are quite distinct. “Scottish English” correctly denotes any English dialect that is specific to Scotland, whereas Scots is a separate language, although closely related to English. Typically, Scottish English varieties have Scots substrates. In other words, superimposed on Scots varieties they have taken on Scots features and borrowings.

Genealogy: Indo-European > Germanic > Western > Anglo-Scots > English

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Author: Reinhard F. Hahn