Older Scots

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Early Scots or Older Scots describes the emerging literary language of Anglic-speaking Lowland Scotland in the period 1100 to 1450 which began diverging from the early Middle English which had descended from Northumbrian Old English (or Early Northern English). During this period, it was mostly referred to as Inglis (Cognate with "English"). Early examples such as Barbour’s Bruce and Wyntoun’s Chronicle were orthographically indistinguishable from contemporary writing from northern England but by the end of the period when Middle Scots began to emerge, orthography and phonology had diverged significantly from that of Northumbrian Middle English.

History

One interpretation of the linguistic divide in 1400, here based on place-name evidence.

Northumbrian Old English had been established in south-eastern Scotland as far as the River Forth in the 7th century and largely remained there until the 13th century, which is why in the late 12th century Adam of Dryburgh described his locality as "in the land of the English in the Kingdom of the Scots" "in terra Anglorum et in regno Scottorum", Adam of Dryburgh, De tripartito tabernaculo, II.210, tr. Keith J. Stringer, "Reform Monasticism and Celtic Scotland", in Edward J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages, (East Lothian, 2000), p. 133. and why the early 13th century author of de Situ Albanie thought that the Firth of Forth "divides the kingdoms of the Scots and of the English" A.O. Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History: AD 500–1286, 2 Vols, (Edinburgh, 1922), v.i, pp. cxv–cxix; see also Dauvit Broun, “The Seven Kingdoms in De Situ Albanie: A Record of Pictish political geography or imaginary Map of ancient Alba”, in E.J. Cowan & R. Andrew McDonald (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Mediæval Era, (Edinburgh, 2000, rev. 2005), pp. 24–42..

Malcolm II's victory at the battle of Carham in 1018 secured the Gael's control over the Anglic-speaking territory in what is now south east Scotland. Following the Norman conquest in 1066, Edgar the Atheling and his sisters Margaret and Christina fled as refugees to Scotland along with many Scandinavian-influenced English-speaking loyalists. Malcolm III took Margaret as his wife. Malcolm had learned English while in exile and his wife had no Gaelic thus English became the private language of the royal household. Margaret endeavoured to bring the Celtic church into line with Rome and invited English bishops to Scotland. Through Margaret's influence the Gaelic aristocracy merged with that of the new Anglo-Norman feudal landowners.

From this time the Anglo-Norman burghs as proto-urban institutions were established by David I, mostly in the south and east of Scotland. From the outset these burghs were Anglic-speaking centres. Incoming burghers were mainly English (especially from Northumbria, and the Earldom of Huntingdon), Flemish and French. Although the military aristocracy employed French and Gaelic, these small urban communities appear to have been using English as something more than a lingua franca by the end of the 13th century. They absorbed further English speaking refugess fleeing William I and II and the chaos of Stephen's reign.

The increasing economic influence of the burghs attracted further English, Fleming and Scandinavian immigration. As the economic power of the burghs grew, Gaelic-speakers from the hinterland found it advantageous to acquire a working knowledge of English. The institutional language of the burghs consisted of vocabulary almost entirely Anglo-Saxon in origin such as toft (homestead and land), croft (smallholding), ruid (land let by a burgh), guild (a trade association), bow (an arched gateway), wynd (lane) and raw (row of houses). J. Derrick McClure in "The Cambridge History of The English Language" Vol.5 1994 p.29

Norman French and English were becoming functional languages of the Kingdom and in the 12th century the people of the realm were addressed as "Franci, Angli, Scoti et Gallovidiani" (French, English, Scots and Galloway-men). The end of the House of Dunkeld led to the throne being passed to three lowland families, the Balliols, Bruces and Stewarts who increasingly identified themselves with the Anglic-speaking part of the kingdom. As a result the capital moved from Perth to Edinburgh, although Robert the Bruce was himself a Gaelic-speaker, and James IV (Stewart) also spoke it.

By the 14th century, the variety of Northern English that resulted from the above influences, called Inglis by its speakers, had replaced Gaelic (Scottis) and Cumbric in much of the lowlands and the Norman French of the court. It had also come to replace Latin as a language for records and literature. In Caithness, it came into contact with both Norn and Gaelic.

Vocabulary

The core vocabulary is of Anglo-Saxon origin though Scots retained many words which became obsolete further south. The pattern of foreign borrowings, such as Romance via ecclesiastical and legal Latin and French, was much the same as that of contemporary English but was often different in detail because of the continuing influence of the Auld Alliance and the imaginative use of Latinisms in literarure.

During this period a number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, such as anerly (alone), berynes (grave), clenge (cleanse), halfindall (a half part), scathful (harmful) , sturting (contention) thyrllage (bondage) and umbeset (surround), were now almost or completely unique to Scots.

French derived warfare terms such as arsoun (saddle-bow), bassynet (helmet), eschell (batallion), hawbrek (coat of mail), qwyrbolle (hardened leather), troppell (troop), vaward (vanguard) and vyre (crossbow bolt) became part of the language along with other French vocabulary such as cummer (godmother), disjone (breakfast), dour (stern, grim), fasch (annoy), grosar (gooseberry), ladron (rascal), moyen (means), plenissing (furniture) and vevaris (provisions).

The vocabulary of Scots was augmented by the speech of Scandinavians, Flemings, Dutch and Middle Saxon speakers through trade with, and immigration from, the low countries.

From scandinavian (often via Scandinavian influenced Middle English) came at (that/who), byg (build), bak (bat), bla (blae), bra (brae), ferlie (marvel), flyt remove, fra (from), gar (compel), gowk (cuckoo), harnis (brains), ithand (industrious), low (flame), lug (an appendage, ear), man (must), neve (fist), sark (shirt), spe (prophesy), þa (those), til (to), tinsell (loss), wycht (valiant) and wyll (lost, confused).

The flemings introduced bonspell (sporting contest), bowcht (sheep pen), cavie (hen-coop), crame (a booth), furisine (flint striker), grotkyn (a gross), howff (courtyard), kesart (cheese vat), lunt (match), much (a cap), muchkin (a liquid measure), skaff (scrounge), wapinschaw (muster of militia), wyssill (change of money) and the coins plak, stek and doyt.

A number of Gaelic words such as breive (judge), cane (a tribute), couthal (court of justice), davach (a measure of land), duniwassal (nobleman), kenkynolle (head of the kindred), mare (tax collector) and toschachdor (leader) occurred in early legal documents but most became obsolete early in the period. Gaelic words for topographical features have endured bogg (bog), carn (pile of stones), corrie (hollow in a hill), crag (rock), inch (small island), knok (hill), loch (lake or fjord) and strath (river valley).

Literature

The language first appeared in literary form in the mid-14th century, when its written form differed little from that of northern English dialects, and so Scots shared many Northumbrian borrowings from Old Norse and Anglo-Norman French.

Text from Legend of the Saints
14th Century
XXXIII.--GEORGE.

Ȝete of sancte george is my wil,
gyf I connandes had þere-til
to translat þe haly story,
as wrytine in þe buk fand I.
for he wes richt haly mañ
& fele tynt saulis to god wane,
nocht anerly thru his techynge
bot erare thru sample geffine,
hou men to god suld stedfast be
& thole for hyme perplexite,
of lyfe na ded dout hafand nane,
bot to resyst ay to sathane
& lordis of mykil mycht.
& men callis hym oure lady knycht
& men of armys ofte se I
in til his helpe mykil affy,
& namely quhen þai are in ficht.

Text from The Brus
by Barbour (1375 Transcribed by Ramsay in 1489)
(a) THE POET’S PROEM.

Storyß to rede ar delitabill,
suppoß þat þai be nocht bot fabill,
þan suld storyß þat suthfast wer,
And þai war said on gud maner,
Hawe doubill plesance in heryng.
þe fyrst plesance is þe carpyng,
And þe toþir þe suthfastnes,
þat schawys þe thing rycht as it wes;
And suth thyngis þat ar likand
Tyll mannys heryng ar plesand.
þarfor I wald fayne set my will,
Giff my wyt mycht suffice þartill,
To put in wryt a suthfast story,
þat it lest ay furth in memory,
Swa þat na lenth of tyme it let,
na ger it haly be forȝet.
For auld storys þat men redys,
Representis to þaim þe dedys
Of stalwart folk þat lywyt ar,
Rycht as þai þan in presence war.
And, certis, þai suld weill hawe pryß
þat in þar tyme war wycht and wyß,
And led thar lyff in gret trawaill,
And oft in hard stour off bataill
Wan [richt] gret price off chewalry,
And war woydit off cowardy.
As wes king Robert off Scotland,
þat hardy wes off hart and hand;
And gud Schyr Iames off Douglas,
þat in his tyme sa worthy was,
þat off hys price & hys bounte
In fer landis renoenyt wes he.
Off þaim I thynk þis buk to ma;
Now god gyff grace þat I may swa
Tret it, and bryng it till endyng,
þat I say nocht bot suthfast thing!

Phonology

The Early Scots vowel system (c 1375)

Long vowels		Diphthongs		Short vowels
Realisation	Examples	Realisation	Examples	Realisation	Examples
	mine		pain		pin
	sene (seen)		noise		men
	lene (lean)		point		man
	bane (bone)		dey (die)		fon (folly)
	cole (coal)		law		gun
	doun (down)		lown (calm)
/yː/)	mone (moon)		spew, grew
			dew

The major differences to contemporary southern English are the outcome of Anglo-Saxon /oː/ as /øː/, the distribution of the unchanged Anglo-Saxon /aː/ and /oː/ from Anglo-Saxon /o/. The Scandinavian-influenced /k/ in words such as birk (birch), brekis (breeches), brig (bridge), kirk (church), kist (chest), mekil (much) and rig (ridge), and the retention of Germanic /ou/ in words such as lowp (leap), cowp (cf. cheap, to trade) and nowt (cattle).

References