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Scots Language - Doric, Lallans, Ullans

Aye Can Speakl Scots - As part of the 2011 census people in Scotland were asked to say if they can understand, speak, read and / or write Scots.  According to Aye Can Speak Scots: Many people have heard about the Scots language but aren't sure what it is. Scots has been spoken in Scotland for many centuries and is found today throughout the Lowlands and Northern Isles. English, Scots and Gaelic are the three indigenous languages spoken in Scotland today.  Scots is mainly a spoken language with a number of different varieties, each with its own distinctive character. Scots is spoken in Glasgow, Dundee, Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as in the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, central Scotland, Fife, the Lothians, Tayside, Caithness, the North East and Orkney and Shetland.  Scots is spoken by young and old people and is used in cities and country areas.

Scotland's Languages provides an annotated lin list of articles and books about Scots, Scottish English, and Scottish Gaelic.

According to the Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech, a program at the University of Glasgow, Scotland has a distinctive and colourful language heritage.  The present-day linguistic situation in Scotland is complex, with speakers of Scottish English, Scots, Gaelic and numerous community languages making up Scottish society.  However, surprisingly little reliable information is available on a variety of language issues such as the survival of Scots, the distinguishing characteristics of Scottish English, or the use of non-indigenous languages such as Chinese and Urdu. ... The SCOTS project is the first large-scale project of its kind for Scotland.  It aims to build a large electronic collection of both written and spoken texts for the languages of Scotland.  This is a resource which is urgently needed if we are to address the gap which presently exists in our knowledge of Scotland's languages.  There is a list of recommended publications for more information about Scots and SCOTS.  There is also a search engine to locate links to references in the database.

Visit the Scots Language Centre for a lot of information about and in Scots dialect.

There are numerous Scots language Web sites

Download Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language [Acrobat 40 MB].  This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the worldÕs books discoverable online.  It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain.  A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired.  Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country.  Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge thatÕs often difficult to discover.  Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this bookÕs long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you.  You can also search through the full text of this book online and also Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language on the web at

The Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL) comprises electronic editions of the two major historical dictionaries of the Scots language:  the 12-volume Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) and the 10-volume Scottish National Dictionary (SND).  DOST contains information about Scots words in use from the twelfth to the end of the seventeenth centuries (Older Scots); and SND contains information about Scots words in use from 1700 to the 1970s (modern Scots).  Together these 22 volumes provide a comprehensive history of Scots, and a New Supplement now (2005) brings the record of the language up to date.  These are therefore essential research tools for anyone interested in the history of either Scots or English language, and for historical or literary scholars whose sources are written in Scots or may contain Scots usages..  The site has search and browse functions, abbreviations, and search help.

The Online Scots Dictionary lets you translate from Scots to English and from English to Scots.  Mynd an read the guideance afore-haund!

The Scots Language Society greets the reader with:  Walcome til the wabsteid o the Scots Language Society.  Gin ye dab wi yer mouse on the airtin til the corrie o this, ye'll can hear a pleyback o the Scots makar Robert Garioch readin Robert Fergusson's 'To the Tron-kirk Bell', gin yer computer and lood-speakers is able for MP3 files:  it michtna work weel yit gin ye'r aye dependent on a dial-up modem - gie us a puckle feedback anent this, an we'll aiblins see aboot bringin doun the file size.

The Scots Language Resource Center greets the reader with:  the knitrae's main provider o wittins anent the Scots leid.  Here on oor steid ye'll finn aa kin o material aboot Scots.  Ye can read aboot the language, whit it is, wha spiks it an whaur ye can read it.  Suin ye'll be able ti hear it tae.  A new ingaitherin o Scots by-leid recordins will be on the steid in the next wee whilie.  Learn and listen to the Scots tongue.

Omniglot provides an explanation of Scots pronunciation.  Scots is a Germanic language closely related to English and spoken by about 1.5 million people in Scotland.  Scots is descended from the language of the Angles who settled in northern Britain, in an area now known as Nortumbria and southern Scotland, in the 5th century AD.  The language was originally know as 'Inglis' and has been influenced by Gaelic, Norse, Latin, Dutch, Norman French, Standard French and English.

Elphinstone Kist brings new and fresh writing in North East Scots to the attention of schools.  Having made various requests for materials, we found ourselves with an embarrassment of riches: it is marvellous to know that so many people are writing in Scots.  Spelling in 'Doric' is a perennial problem and we decided to accept the spelling adopted by our contributors  Any difficulty with word meanings can be solved by reference to the Scottish National Dictionary. [Popups!]

See a history of the Scots language.  A lesson on the alphabet and spelling may be found at Mid Northern Scots.  You can also learn to conjugate verbs in Scots.

The Ullans Language is very close linguistically to English spoken by 'Ulster Scots', Scottish settlers who left Scotland and brought their native language Scots (also known as Lallans) to Ulster, the north-eastern province of Ireland.  'Ullans' is short for 'Ulster Lallans'.  Advocates of the Scots-Irish dialect in Ulster coined the phrase in 1993 as part of the process of trying to make the Scots-Irish dialect into a recognised language. ... Well, the Ullans language itself isn't new.  The Scottish first settled in Ireland in large numbers in the mid 17th century.  They brought their own language with them, a tongue generally known as Scots but known to the Scottish as 'Lallans' (which means 'Lowlands' in Scots).  Ullans evolved out of Lallans over the three and a half centuries since that first settlement.  A reader pointed out that this is truly an Irish form of speech:  the name Ullans is jist used in Norlan Irland, an isna ane fowk in Scotland kens/uses.  Mibby ye shuid mak this clear.

Pittin the Mither Tongue on the Wab - Howp ye enjoy whit we hae tae offer.  This site has links to resources for learning Scots and learning more about the Scots language.

Mozilla in Scots - A search engine in Scots - Ah am currently attemptin tae translate Mozilla intae Scots.  As far as ah'm aware this is the first computer program iver tae be translated intae Scots.

See these articles:
   Young Scots breathe new life into auld slang rhymes.  The Scots tongue, already incomprehensible to many south of the border, is about to become even more abstruse with the emergence of a new form of Scottish rhyming slang. ... there had always been examples of rhyming slang in Scots but its use had become much more widespread thanks to a growing national pride in the country's native tongue following the creation of the Scottish parliament and the breakdown of the class system. ... 'For nice, middle-class people, Scots would have been something of a taboo, it would have been seen as bad English. Today that's not the case.'
   The Scotsman Heritage and Culture page Parliamo Glesga ya radge bampot? ... You too should be able to 'parliamo Scots' with the best of us.  Why not test yourself with a quick quiz?

The Wedderburn pages provide a glossary of archaic terms, as well as a number of Modern Scots words and phrases, useful for genealogical research. Legal terms, words linked to property and possessions, found in wills and testaments.  This glossary is under constant revision.  All contributions of archaic or Modern Scots terms, that may help with genealogical research, are welcome.

The Scottish Parliament has a cross-party group for the Scots Language.

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