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Scottish English is usually taken to mean the standard form of the English language used in Scotland, often termed Scottish Standard English"The SCOTS Corpus contains documents in Scottish Standard English, documents in different varieties of Scots, and documents which may be described as lying somewhere between Scots and Scottish Standard English.", Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech"... Scottish Standard English, the standard form of the English language spoken in Scotland", Ordnance Survey. It is the language normally used in formal, non-fiction written texts in Scotland. Although the terminology has often been used vaguely, modern usage distinguishes clearly between Scottish English and Scots.
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Scottish English is the result of language contact between Scots and English after the 17th century (dialect contact may be more accurate in that the indigenous language Lowland Scots was a related variety). The resulting shift to English by Scots-speakers resulted in many phonological compromises and lexical transfers, often mistaken for mergers by linguists unfamiliar with the history of Scottish English (Macafee, 2004). Furthermore, the process was also influenced by interdialectal forms, hypercorrections and spelling pronunciations. (See Phonology below.)
The standard spelling, grammar, and punctuation of Scottish English tend to follow the style of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). However, there are some unique characteristics, mainly in the phonological and phonetic systems, many of which originate in the country\'s two autochthonous languages, the Scottish Gaelic language and Scots. The speech of the middle classes in Scotland often conforms to the grammatical norms of the written standard, particularly in situations that are regarded as formal. Highland English is slightly different from the variety spoken in the lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically, and lexically influenced by a Gaelic substratum.
An example of "outwith" on a sign in Scotland
Scottish English has a number of lexical items which are rare in Southern British English (and possibly other forms of standard English). General items are outwith, meaning "outside of"; wee, the Scots word for small (which also occurs in Hiberno-English); pinkie for little finger and janitor for caretaker (both of which also occur in North American English). Examples of culturally specific items are caber, haggis, and landward for rural.
In some areas there is a substantial[citation needed] non-standard lexis (shared with Scots) apparently acquired from the Romany language and from Eastern European languages[citation needed]; examples include shan (harsh, unfair), gadge (lad, chap) and peeve (alcoholic drink).
There is a wide range of (often anglicised) legal and administrative vocabulary inherited from Scots, e.g., depute /ˈdɛpjut/ for deputy, proven /ˈproːvən/ for proved, interdict for injunction and sheriff substitute for acting sheriff.
Often, lexical differences between Scottish English and Southern Standard English are simply differences in the distribution of shared lexis, such as stay for "live" (as in: where do you stay?); doubt for "think the worst" (I doubt it will rain meaning "I fear it will rain"). Correct is often preferred to right (meaning "morally right" or "just") when the speaker means "factually accurate"..........
Sample:
An example of a Scottish male with a middle-class Renfrewshire accent
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While pronunciation features vary among speakers (depending on region and social status), there are a number of phonological aspects characteristic of Scottish English:
| Pure vowels | ||
|---|---|---|
| Help key | Scottish | Examples |
| /ɪ/ | /ɪ/ | bid, pit |
| /iː/ | /i/ | bead, peat |
| /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ | bed, pet |
| /eɪ/ | /e/ | bay, hey, fate |
| /æ/ | /a/ | bad, pat |
| /ɑː/ | balm, father, pa | |
| /ɒ/ | /ɔ/ | bod, pot, cot |
| /ɔː/ | bawd, paw, caught | |
| /oʊ/ | /o/ | beau, hoe, poke |
| /ʊ/ | /ʉ/ | good, foot, put |
| /uː/ | booed, food | |
| /ʌ/ | /ʌ/ | bud, putt |
| Diphthongs | ||
| /аɪ/ ~ /əɪ/ | /ae/ ~ /əi/ | buy, ride, write |
| /aʊ/ | /ʌu/ | how, pout |
| /ɔɪ/ | /oi/ | boy, hoy |
| /juː/ | /jʉ/ | hue, pew, new |
| R-colored vowels (these do not exist in Scots) | ||
| /ɪr/ | /ɪr/ | mirror (also in fir) |
| /ɪər/ | /ir/ | beer, mere |
| /ɛr/ | /ɛr/ | berry, merry (also in her) |
| /ɛər/ | /er/ | bear, mare, Mary |
| /ær/ | /ar/ | barrow, marry |
| /ɑr/ | bar, mar | |
| /ɒr/ | /ɔr/ | moral, forage |
| /ɔr/ | born, for | |
| /ɔər/ | /or/ | boar, four, more |
| /ʊər/ | /ur/ | boor, moor |
| /ʌr/ | /ʌr/ | hurry, Murray (also in fur) |
| /ɜr/ (ɝ) | /ɪr/, /ɛr/, /ʌr/ | bird, herd, furry |
| Reduced vowels | ||
| /ɨ/ | roses, business | |
| /ə/ | /ə/ | Rosa’s, cuppa |
| /ər/ (ɚ) | runner, mercer | |
Syntactical differences are few though the progressive verb forms are used rather more frequently than in other varieties of standard English, for example with some stative verbs (I\'m wanting a drink). The future progressive frequently implies an assumption (You\'ll be coming from Glasgow).
Prepositions are often used differently. The compound preposition off of is often used parallel to English into (Take that off of the table).
In colloquial speech shall and ought are wanting, must is marginal for obligation and may is rare. Many syntactical features of SSE are found in other forms of English, e.g. English English and North American English:
The use of "How?" meaning "Why?" is distinctive of Scottish , Northern English and Northern Irish English.
Note that in Scottish English, the first person declarative I amn\'t invited and interrogative "Amn\'t I invited?" are both possible. Contrast English English, which has "Aren\'t I?" but no contracted declarative form. (All varieties have "I\'m not invited".)
As many Scots use both Scots and Scottish English depending on the situation, there is a strong influence of Scots, and sometimes it is difficult to say whether a Scots form also belongs to Scottish English or whether its occasional appearance in Scottish English is simply code-switching. Borderline examples might be aye for "yes", ken for "know" (Ken what I mean?), or no for "not" (Am I no invited?). The touchstone is whether the speaker would feel comfortable using these in a very formal situation.
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