Central Scots Explained

Central Scots is a group of dialects of Scots. Central Scots is spoken from Fife and Perthshire to the Lothians and Wigtownshire, often split into North East Central Scots (Northeast Mid Scots) and South East Central Scots (Southeast Mid Scots), West Central Scots (West Mid Scots) and South West Central Scots (Southwest Mid Scots).

Like other varieties of Scots, Central Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations of speakers have adopted more and more features from Standard English. By the end of the twentieth century Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland.^[1]

Phonology

Consonants

Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but:

• ch is traditionally realised pronounced as //x//^[2] in, for example, Scots: bocht (bought), Scots: coch (cough), Scots: dochter (daughter), Scots: focht (fought), Scots: socht (sought) and Scots: troch (trough).
• ld and nd elision to pronounced as //l// and pronounced as //n// occurs in all Central Scots dialects but in the Lothians ‘’ld’’ only simplifies to ‘’l’’ finally where the next word begins with a consonant.^[3]
• ng: is always pronounced as //ŋ//.^[4]
• nch: usually pronounced as //nʃ//.^[5] Scots: brainch (branch), Scots: dunch (push), etc.
• r: pronounced as //r// or pronounced as //ɹ// is pronounced in all positions,^[6] i.e. with rhoticity.
• t: may be a glottal stop between vowels or word final.^[7]
• wh: usually pronounced as //ʍ//, older pronounced as //xʍ//.^[8]

Vowels

Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish vowel length rule (SVLR).

• a (vowel 17) is usually pronounced as //a// but to the north and east pronounced as //ɑ// also occurs.^[9] Note final a (vowel 12) in awa (away), twa (two) and wha (who) is usually realised pronounced as //eː// South of the Forth,^[10] often written awae, twae and whae in dialect writing.
• aw and au (vowel 12) is usually pronounced as //ɑː// in the East and parts of Perthshire or pronounced as //ɔː// in the West to West Lothian, however, pronounced as //ɔː// is spreading eastwards,^[11] for example aw (all), cauld (cold), braw (fine, pleasant), faw (fall) and snaw (snow).
• ai, ay and a (consonant)e, ae (vowel 4 or 8) are usually realised pronounced as //e//,^[12] for example baith (both), braid (broad), cake, claes (clothes), grape (grope), kail (cole), laid (load), laif (loaf), made, raip (rope), saip (soap), spae (foretell). South of the Forth the initial realisation is often pronounced as //jɪ//,^[13] for example acre, aik (oak), aits (oats), ale, ane (one) and ance (once) often written yicker, yick, yits, yill, yin and yince in dialect writing. Where that occurs, ae (one-before nouns) is realised pronounced as //je//, often written yae in dialect writing.
• e (vowel 16) is usually realised pronounced as //ɛ//, for example bed, het (heated), yett (gate), etc.
• ea, ei (vowel 3), has generally merged with pronounced as //i(ː)// (vowel 2) or pronounced as //e(ː)// (vowel 4 or 8) depending on dialect. With pronounced as //i(ː)// prevailing in the south east and west and pronounced as //e(ː)// prevailing in the north east of the dialect area.^[14] Before pronounced as //r//, pronounced as //ɛ// may occur.^[15] For example, deid (dead), heid (head), meat (food), clear etc.
• ee (vowels 2 and 11), e (consonant)e (vowel 2). Occasionally ei and ie with ei generally before ch (pronounced as //x//), but also in a few other words, and ie generally occurring before l and v. The realisation is generally pronounced as //i(ː)//^[16] e.g. dree (endure), ee (eye), een (eyes), flee (fly), here, lee (lie, fib), see, speir (enquire), steek (shut), thee (thigh) and tree etc. The digraph ea also occurs in a few words such as lea and sea.
• eu (vowel 7 before pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //x// see ui) is usually realised pronounced as //(j) ʌ// in the west^[17] and Fife,^[18] and pronounced as //j u// in the southwest^[19] and south of the Forth,^[20] for example beuk (book), eneuch (enough), ceuk (cook), leuk (look) and teuk (took).
• o^[21] (vowel 18): pronounced as //ɔ// has merged with vowel 5 (pronounced as //o//) throughout much of the dialect area,^[22] often spelled phonetically oa in dialect spellings such as Scots: boax (box), Scots: coarn (corn), Goad (God) Scots: joab (job) and Scots: oan (on) etc.^[23]
• oa^[24] (vowel 5) is usually pronounced as //o://.^[25]
• ou the general literary spelling^[26] of vowel 6, also u (consonant)e in some words, is realised pronounced as //u//, often represented by oo, a 19th-century borrowing from Standard English.^[27] e.g. cou (cow), broun (brown), hoose (house), moose (mouse) etc.
• ow,^[28] owe (root final), (vowel 13) is usually pronounced as //ʌu//^[29] in bowe (bow), howe (hollow), knowe (knoll), cowp (overturn), yowe (ewe), etc. Vocalisation to pronounced as //o// often occurs before pronounced as //k//, for example bowk (retch), howk (dig) often written boak and hoak in dialect writing.
• ui, the usual literary spelling^[30] of vowel 7 (except before pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //x// see eu). The older realisation pronounced as //ø// may still occur in Perthshire and pronounced as //e(ː)// in Parts of Fife otherwise, as is the norm elsewhere, vowel 7 merges with vowel 15 (pronounced as //ɪ//) in SVLR short environments and vowel 8 (pronounced as //eː//) in long environments,^[31] e.g. buird (board), buit (boot), cuit (ankle), fluir (floor), guid (good), schuil (school), etc. Note that Scots: uise v. and Scots: uiss n. (use) are pronounced as /[jeːz]/ and pronounced as /[jɪs]/. The realisation pronounced as //e(ː)// is often written ai in dialect writing, e.g. flair for fluir (floor), shair for shuir (sure), Scots: yaise for Scots: uise (use v.) and yiss for Scots: uiss (use n.).

See also

• Glasgow dialect
• Berwick-upon-Tweed#Berwick dialect

Notes and References

1. Macafee C. Studying Scots Vocabulary in Corbett, John; McClure, Derrick; Stuart-Smith, Jane (Editors)(2003) The Edinburgh Companion to Scots. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. . p. 51
2. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p.505
3. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p.502
4. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p.510
5. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p.500
6. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p.510-511
7. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p.501
8. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p.499
9. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 486
10. Web site: SND Introduction – Dialect Districts . Dsl.ac.uk . 2009-05-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612121445/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/INTRO/intro2.php?num=16 . 12 June 2012 . dmy-all .
11. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 489-490
12. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 461/465
13. Web site: SND:E 3 (2) . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . 3 July 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703204357/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=6959&startset=10343167&query=E&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . dead .
14. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 458
15. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 455
16. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 454-455
17. Web site: SND Introduction – Dialect Districts. p. xxvi . https://archive.today/20130419110438/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/INTRO/intro2.php?num=17 . dead . 2013-04-19 . Dsl.ac.uk . 2009-05-21 .
18. Web site: SND Introduction – Dialect Districts. p. xxv . Dsl.ac.uk . 2009-05-21 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120612121445/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/INTRO/intro2.php?num=16 . 12 June 2012 . dmy-all .
19. Web site: SND Introduction – Dialect Districts. p. xxviii . Dsl.ac.uk . 2009-05-21 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120321185149/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/INTRO/intro2.php?num=19 . 21 March 2012 . dead .
20. Web site: SND Introduction – Dialect Districts. p. xxv . Dsl.ac.uk . 2009-05-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120321185149/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/INTRO/intro2.php?num=19 . 21 March 2012 . dead .
21. Web site: SND:O . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703202201/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=10072&startset=27366693&query=O&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . 3 July 2014 . dead .
22. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 482
23. Web site: SND:O 3 (1) . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703202201/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=10072&startset=27366693&query=O&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . 3 July 2014 . dead .
24. Web site: SND:O 3 . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703202201/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=10072&startset=27366693&query=O&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . 3 July 2014 . dead .
25. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 480
26. Web site: SND: U 3 (4)(i) . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703202201/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=10072&startset=27366693&query=O&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . 3 July 2014 . dead .
27. Web site: SND:O 5 (1) . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703202201/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=10072&startset=27366693&query=O&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . 3 July 2014 . dead .
28. Web site: SND:O 3 (4)(ii) . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703202201/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=10072&startset=27366693&query=O&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . 3 July 2014 . dead .
29. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 498
30. Web site: SND:U 2 (4)(i) . Dsl.ac.uk . 2013-02-09 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140703202753/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/getent4.php?plen=8382&startset=44916040&query=U&fhit=letter+AND+alphabet&dregion=entry&dtext=snd#fhit . 2014-07-03 .
31. Johnston, Paul (1997) Regional Variation in Jones, Charles (ed.) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh. p. 467