See main article: History of the Scots language. pronounced as /notice/
This is a presentation of the phonological history of the Scots language.
Scots has its origins in Old English (OE) via early Northern Middle English;[1] though loanwords from Old Norse[2] and Romance sources are common, especially from ecclesiastical and legal Latin, Anglo-Norman and Middle French borrowings.[3] Trade and immigration led to some borrowings from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch.[4] Some vocabulary has been borrowed from Scotland's other language, Scottish Gaelic.[5]
Instance of pronounced as //b// between pronounced as //m// and a following pronounced as //l// or /r/ were lost or did not develop:[6] [7]
OE æmerġe → Modern Scots emmers and English embers
OE þȳmel → Modern Scots thimmle and English thimble
OE timber → Modern Scots timmer and English timber
Certain clusters were reduced:
A word-final pronounced as //kt// reduced to pronounced as //k//[8] except in some inflected forms (e.g. Modern Scots act, expect, strict).
pronounced as //pt// reduced to pronounced as //p// in final position (e.g. Modern Scots attempt, corrupt).[8] Note that the English words like empty that come from OE words that did not have a pronounced as //pt// cluster also don’t have clusters in Scots (in this case, OE æmetiġ became Scots empy).
pronounced as //nd// often reduced to pronounced as //n// (e.g. OE frēond, 'friend', became Modern Scots freend).[8] [7]
Final pronounced as //ld// often reduced to pronounced as //l// (e.g. Modern Scots auld 'old').[8]
OE pronounced as //kn// and pronounced as //ɡn// clusters appeared word-initially, though this feature is now highly recessive (e.g. knaw, 'know'; gnegum, 'tricky nature').[8] [7]
While OE pronounced as //sk// became pronounced as //ʃ// in Modern English, Scots has retained the original pronunciation (e.g. OE sċylfe, 'shelf', became skelf).[8] Old English pronounced as //s// became pronounced as //ʃ// when adjacent to a front vowel (e.g. shinners from OE sinder, 'cinder').
OE pronounced as //f// was often dropped in certain contexts:[9]
OE delfan → Modern Scots del and English delve
OE dēofol → Modern Scots deil and English devil
OE dufe → Modern Scots dou and English dove
OE ġefan → Modern Scots gie and English give
In contexts where OE pronounced as //k// and pronounced as //ɡ// palatalized to pronounced as //tʃ// and pronounced as //dʒ//, respectively, in Modern English (that is, after a front vowel), Scots has retained the original velar pronunciation:[8]
OE birċe → Scots birk and English birch
OE brēċ → Scots breeks and English britches
OE þæċ → Scots thack and English thatch
OE ġiċċan → Scots yeuk and English itch
OE hryċġ → Scots rig and English ridge
Word final OE pronounced as //θ// (written (ð) or (þ)) was deleted in a few words (e.g. OE mūþ, 'mouth', became mou in Scots).[9] [7]
OE pronounced as //x// was lost in English, but remained in Scots, spelled (ch):[9]
OE beorht → Modern Scots bricht and English bright
OE hlōh → Modern Scots lauch and English laugh
OE þōht → Modern Scots thocht and English thought
However, some words such as tho (though) and throu ('through') have dropped the pronounced as //x//.
Old English pronounced as //hw// became pronounced as //xw// for a number of speakers, though pronounced as //hw// is widespread (e.g. OE hwæt, 'what', became whit).[9]
Metathesis occurred in some words (e.g. OE græs, 'grass', became girse).[7]
OE pronounced as //ɡ// became vocalised after pronounced as //o// resulting in the diphthong pronounced as //ʌu// in Modern Scots (e.g. boga, 'bow', became bowe).[8] [10]
Similarly, in the Early Scots period, pronounced as //l// was vocalized after:
pronounced as //u// (e.g. pullian, 'pull', became Modern Scots pou).[10]
pronounced as //o// (e.g. bolster, 'bolster', became Modern Scots bowster),[10] becoming pronounced as //ou// and then changing to pronounced as //ʌu// in Modern Scots.[11]
pronounced as //a// (e.g. healdan, 'hold', became Modern Scots haud);[10] becoming pronounced as //ɑː// and then changing to pronounced as //ɑ// or pronounced as //ɔ//, depending on dialect.
The following table shows the modern realisation of the various Scots vowels along with their pronunciation in Early Scots, the Early Middle English vowels they can largely be derived from, and the main Old English sources of these vowels. See also Middle English phonology for a more in-depth overview of the Old English sources of the Early Middle English vowels below. External sources are: For the principal Old English, Norse and Romance sources of the Early Scots vowels see Aitken, A.J, (Ed. Macafee C.) (2002) pp. 89–95; for an overview of the historical developments see Vowel systems of Scots: a rough historical outline in A History of Scots to 1700, p. lvii.
| Long vowels | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowel # | Spelling | Realisation | Early Scots | Early Middle English | Main Source(s) | Examples |
| (i.e, y.e, ey) | short pronounced as //əi// long pronounced as //aɪ// | pronounced as //iː// | OE ī, ȳ | mine ('mine') | ||
| (ee, e.e) | pronounced as //i// | pronounced as //eː// | OE ē, ēo | deed ('deed'), sene ('seen') | ||
| (ei, ea, e.e) | pronounced as //i, e// | pronounced as //ɛː// | OE ǣ, ēa | deid ('dead'), lene ('lean') | ||
| (ae, a.e) | pronounced as //e// | pronounced as //aː// | OE ā | bane ('bone') | ||
| (oa, o.e) | pronounced as //o// | pronounced as //oː// | pronounced as //ɔː// | OE o (open) | cole ('coal') | |
| (ou) | pronounced as //u// | pronounced as //uː// | OE ū | doun ('down') | ||
| (ui, eu) | pronounced as //ø// | pronounced as //øː// (pronounced as //yː//) | pronounced as //oː// | OE ō | guid ('good'), beuk ('book') | |
| Diphthongs | ||||||
| Vowel # | Spelling | Realisation | Early Scots | Early Middle English | Main Source(s) | Examples |
| (ai, ay) | pronounced as //eː// | pronounced as //ai// | pronounced as //ai/, /ɛi// | OE a, æ (open); OF ai, ei | pain ('pain') | |
| (oi, oy) | pronounced as //oe// | pronounced as //oi// | OF oi pronounced as //ɔi// | noise ('noise') | ||
| (oi, oy) | pronounced as //əi// | pronounced as //ui// | OF oi pronounced as //oi// | point ('point') | ||
| (ee) | pronounced as //iː// | pronounced as //ei// | OE eġ | ee ('eye') | ||
| (au, aw) | pronounced as //ɑː, ɔː// | pronounced as //au// | OE ag, aw | law ('law') | ||
| (ow, owe) | pronounced as //ʌu// | pronounced as //ou// | pronounced as //ɔu/, /ou// | OE og, ow | lown ('calm') | |
| (ew) | pronounced as //ju// | pronounced as //iu// | pronounced as //eu/, /iu// | OE iw, ew | spew ('spew') | |
| (ew) | pronounced as //ju, jʌu// | pronounced as //ɛu, ɛou// | pronounced as //ɛu// | OE ǣw, ēaw | dew ('dew') | |
| Short vowels | ||||||
| Vowel # | Spelling | Realisation | Early Scots | Early Middle English | Main Source(s) | Examples |
| (i) | pronounced as //ɪ// | pronounced as //ɪ// | OE i, y | pin ('pin') | ||
| (e) | pronounced as //ɛ// | pronounced as //ɛ// | OE a, æ + alveolar | men ('men') | ||
| (a) | pronounced as //ɑ, a// | pronounced as //a// | OE a, æ (closed); OE o + labial | man ('man') | ||
| (o) | pronounced as //ɔ// | pronounced as //o// | OE o (closed) | fon ('folly') | ||
| (u) | pronounced as //ʌ// | pronounced as //u// | OE u | gun | ||
Old English and Old Norse ī and ȳ, Old English i+ld and y+nd, as well as Old French i became pronounced as //iː// in Early Scots then pronounced as //ei// in Middle Scots and subsequently conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule to pronounced as //əi// when short and pronounced as //aɪ// or pronounced as //ɑɪ// when long in Modern Scots, for example: wyce (wise), wyte (blame), bide (remain), kye (cows), hive and fire from wīs, wīte, bīdan, cȳ, hȳf and fȳr. Similarly with Norse grice (pig), sile (strain), tyke (curr), lythe (shelter) and tyne (lose), and Romance advice, fine, cry, sybae (onion) but where Romance words entered Scots after this sound shift the original pronounced as //i// (Vowel 2) remained in Scots, for example bapteese (baptise), ceety (city), ceevil (civil), eetem (item), leeberal (liberal), leecence (license), meenister (minister), obleege (oblige), peety (pity), poleetical (political), poseetion, releegion (religion) and speerit (spirit).
Similarly with Old French ai and ei, for example Modern Scots chyce (choice), eynment (ointment), eyster (oyster), evyte (avoid), jyne (join), ile (oil), pynt (point), syle (soil), spyle (spoil) and vyce (voice)
Old English ē became pronounced as //eː// in Early Scots then pronounced as //iː// in Middle Scots and pronounced as //i// in Modern Scots, for example: bee, breest breast, cheese, creep, deed, freend (friend), hear, heich (high), knee, seek (sick), sheep, sleep, teeth and wheen a few from bēo, brēost, ċēse, crēap, dēd, frēond, hēran, hēah, cnēo, sēoc, sċēp, slēp, tēþ and hwēne. Also grieve (overseer) from grœfa.
Old English ea and ēa became pronounced as //ɛː// in Early Scots, merging with vowel 2 (pronounced as //i//) or vowel 4 (pronounced as //e//) in Middle Scots depending on dialect or lexeme, except for a few Northern Scots dialects where it became pronounced as //ɛi//,[12] for example Modern Scots: beard, breid (bread), deid (dead), deif (deaf), heid (head), meat (food), steid (stead) and tread from beard, brēad, dēad, dēaf, hēafod, mete, stede and tredan.Similarly with Romance words like beast, cheat, conceit, creitur (creature), deceit, ease, please, ream (cream), reison and seison.
Old English ā became pronounced as //a// in Early Scots then pronounced as //eː// in Middle Scots and pronounced as //e// in Modern Scots, for example: aik (oak), ait (oat), braid (broad), gae (go), hale (whole), hame (home), lade (load), mair (more), raip (rope), saip (soap), sair (sore) and nae (no) from āc, āte, brād, gā, hāl, hām, lād, māra, rāp, sāp and nā.
Before pronounced as //n//, now pronounced as //e// in Modern central, southern and Ulster varieties and pronounced as //i// in northern varieties, for example: ane (one), ance (once), bane (bone), gane (gone), nane (none) and stane (stone) from ān, ānes, bān, gān, nān and stān. Similarly with Norse, for example frae (from), kail (cole) and spae (foretell) from frá, kál and spá. The vowel pronounced as //e// occurs in other words of Norse origin, for example graith (harness), hain (spare) and lair (mud) from greiða, hagna and leir.
Before pronounced as //r// + consonant, depending on dialect, now pronounced as //e// or pronounced as //ɛ// in Modern Scots, for example: airm (arm), airae (arrow), bairn (child), dairn (darn), hairm (harm), hairst (harvest), wairm (warm) and shairp (sharp) from earm, arwe, derne, hearm, hærfest, wearm and sċearp. Similarly with aiple (apple), aix (axe), efter (after), peth (path), and wraith (wrath) from æpel, æx, æfter, pæþ and wræþþu. Similarly with Romance caird (card), cairy (carry), gairden (garden), regaird (regard), mairy (marry), mairtyr (martyr) and pairt (part).
In open position o became pronounced as //o̞ː// in Early Scots then eventually pronounced as //o// in Modern Scots, for example: coal, foal, hole and thole endure.
Old English ū became pronounced as //uː// in Early Scots then pronounced as //u// in Middle Scots, remaining so but Stem final it became pronounced as //ʌu// in Southern Scots, for example Modern Scots: brou (brow), broun (brown), cou (cow), dou (dove), doun (down), house (house), hou (how), mou (mouth), mouse (mouse), nou (now), sour (sour) and thoum (thumb) from brū, brūn, cū, dūfe, dūn, hūs, hū, mūþ, mūs, nū, sūr and þūma. Similarly with Norse boun (ready), couer (cower), droup (droop) and stroup (spout), and Romance allou (allow), bouat (lantern), count (count), dout (doubt), pouder (powder) and round (round).
Older Scots pronounced as //u̞l// became vocalised to pronounced as //u// by the Middle Scots period,[10] for example Modern Scots: fou (full), pou (pull) and oo (wool) from full, pullian and wull. Similarly Romance coum (culm) and poupit (pulpit).
Old English ō, ēo became pronounced as //øː// in Early Scots becoming pronounced as //ø// in Modern peripheral dialects. In Fife and parts of Perthshire Middle Scots pronounced as //øː// merged with vowel 4 (pronounced as //e//). In Modern central varieties it has merged with vowel 15 (pronounced as //ɪ//) in short environments conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, for example: bluid (blood), duin (done), muin (moon) and spuin (spoon) from dōn, blōd, mōna, and spōn. Similarly with Romance words like bruit (brute), fruit, schuil (school), tuin (tune), uiss (use n.).
In central varieties Middle Scots pronounced as //øː// merged with vowel 4 (pronounced as //eː//) in long environments conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, for example Modern Scots: buird (board), fuird (ford), fluir (floor) and muir (moor) from bōrd, fōrd, flōr and mōr along with dae (do), shae (shoe) and tae (to) from dō, scō and tō. Similarly with Norse words like Fuirsday (Thursday), luif (palm) and ruise (praise), and Romance words like puir (poor), shuir (sure), uise (use v.).
In northern varieties Middle Scots pronounced as //øː// merged with vowel 2 (pronounced as //i//), in Mid Northern varieties after pronounced as //ɡ// and pronounced as //k// it became pronounced as //wi//, for example Modern Scots: guid (good), cuil (cool), from gōd, cōl and Dutch cuit (ankle), and Romance schuil (school).Note: But not Modern Scots fit (foot), wid (wood), wad (would), oo (wool), coud (could) and shoud/su(l)d (should).
A following pronounced as //k// or pronounced as //x// resulted in Modern Scots pronounced as //ju//, pronounced as //u//, pronounced as //jʌ// and/or pronounced as //ʌ// depending on dialect, for example: beuch (bough), beuk (book), ceuk (cook), eneuch (enough), heuch (cliff), heuk (hook), leuch (laughed), leuk (look), pleuch (plough), sheuch (ditch), teuch (tough) and teuk (took) from bōh, bōc, cōc, ġenóh, hōh, hōc, hlōh, tōc, plōh, sōh, tōh and tōc.
Old English a or æ in open position became pronounced as //ai// in Early Scots then pronounced as //ɛ// in Middle Scots and subsequently pronounced as //e̞ː//, pronounced as //e// or pronounced as //eə// in Modern Scots, though pronounced as //ɛː// may also occur, especially in Ulster, for example: faither (father), gaither (gather), haimer (hammer), day, brain, fair, nail and tail from fæþer, gaderian, hamer, dæġ, bræġen, fæġer, næġel and tæġel. Similarly with Norse cake, gate (street), sale and scaith (damage).
Older Scots stem final pronounced as //ai// became pronounced as //ɛi// in Middle Scots merging with vowel 1 (pronounced as //əi//) in Modern Scots.
Older Scots pronounced as //o̞i// became pronounced as //oe// in Modern Scots.
Early Scots pronounced as //ui// merged with vowel 1 (pronounced as //əi//) in Modern Scots.
Early Scots pronounced as //ei// in stem final positions, became pronounced as //eː// then pronounced as //iː// in Middle Scots merging with vowel 2 (pronounced as //i//) in Modern Scots.
Old English ag-, aw- and āw became pronounced as //au// in Early Scots then pronounced as //ɑː// in Middle Scots and subsequently, depending on dialect, pronounced as //ɑ// or pronounced as //ɔ// in Modern Scots, for example:draw, gnaw, and law from dragan, gnagan, haga and lagu, and Norse maw (seagull) and claw from maga and clawa. blaw (blow), craw (crow), maw (mowe), sawe (sow), saul (soul) and snaw (snow) from blāwan, crāwe, māwan, sāwan, sāwol and snāwan. Similarly with Old English āg and Norse lágr which became awn (to own) and law (low).
Before pronounced as //x// and pronounced as //n// + consonant, Middle Scots pronounced as //a// also became pronounced as //ɑ// or pronounced as //ɔ// in Modern Scots, for example: caunle (candle), draucht (draught), haund (hand), lauch (laugh), saund (sand) and slauchter (slaughter) from candel, draht, hand, hlæhhan, sand and slæ. Similarly with Norse baund (band), Dutch fraucht (freight), and Romance chancy, glanders, graund, and stank (a drain).
Older Scots pronounced as //al// became vocalised to pronounced as //ɑː// by the Middle Scots period[10] and subsequently, depending on dialect, pronounced as //ɑ// or pronounced as //ɔ// in Modern Scots, for example: aw (all), caw (call), fauch (fallow), faw (fall), gaw (gall), haud (hold), haw (hall), maut (malt), sauch (sallow), saut (salt), smaw (small), staw (stall) and waw (wall) from eal, ceallian, fealh, fallan, gealla, healdan, hall, mealt, salh, sealt, smæl, steall and wall. Similarly with Norse hause (neck) and Romance aum (alum), baw (ball) and scaud (scald).
Old English ów became pronounced as //o̞u// in Older Scots then pronounced as //ʌu// in Modern Scots, for example: flowe (flow), glowe (glow), growe (grow) and stowe (stow) from flōwan, glōwan, grōwan and stówiġan.
Early Scots pronounced as //ol// became vocalised to pronounced as //o̞u// by the Middle Scots period[10] and subsequently diphthongised to pronounced as //ʌu// in Modern Scots.[11] In some dialects this is vocalising to pronounced as //o// especially before pronounced as //k//, for example Modern Scots: bowster (bolster), bowt (bolt), cowt (colt), gowd (gold), howe (hollow), knowe (knoll), powe (poll) and towe (toll) from bolster, bolt, colt, gold, holh, cnol, polle and toll. Similarly with Romance rowe (roll) and sowder (solder), also Dutch gowf (golf).
Older Scots pronounced as //iːu// (a) and Older Scots pronounced as //ɛːu// (b(i)) became pronounced as //iu// in Middle Scots then pronounced as //iu// or pronounced as //(j)u// in Modern Scots.
Older Scots pronounced as //ɛo̞u// became pronounced as //iuu// in Middle Scots then pronounced as //(j)ʌu// in Modern Scots.
Old English i and y became pronounced as //ɪ// in Early Scots, remaining so, but approach pronounced as //ʌ// in some Modern dialects especially after pronounced as //w// and pronounced as //hw//, for example Modern Scots: hill, filthy, will, win, wind, whip, whisper and whisky.
Before alveolars Old English æ became pronounced as //ɛ// in Early Scots, remaining so, for example Modern Scots: bress (brass), clesp (clasp), ess (ash), fest (fast), gled (glad), gless (glass), gress (grass) and hesp (hasp) from bræs, claspe, æsċe, fæst, glæd, glæs, gæs and hæpse.
Old English a or æ in close position became pronounced as //a// in Older Scots, remaining so, although pronounced as //ɑ// or pronounced as //ɒ// occasionally occur, for example Modern Scots:back, bath, blad (leaf/blade), cat, clap, hack, mak (make), ram, rax (stretch), tak (take), wall (well for water), wash, watter (water) and waps (wasp) from bæc, bæþ, blæd, catt, clappian, haccian, macian, ram, raxan, tacan, wælla, wæsċan, wæter, and wæps. Similarly with Norse bag, flag (flagstone) and snag and Dutch pad (path).
Also before pronounced as //n// and pronounced as //ŋ//, for example Modern Scots: can, lang (long), man, pan, sang (song), sank, strang (strong), than (then) and wran (wren) from cann, lang, mæn, panne, sang, sanc, strang, þanne and wrænna. Similarly with Norse bann (curse), stang (sting), thrang (busy) and wrang (wrong).
Similarly with Old English o before pronounced as //m//, pronounced as //p//, pronounced as //b// and pronounced as //f//, for example Modern Scots: craft (croft), crap (crop), drap (drop), laft (loft), pat (pot), saft (soft) and tap (top) from croft, cropp, dropa, loft, pott, softe and top.
Similarly with a w before e, for example Modern Scots: Scots: wab (web), Scots: wast (west), Scots: wadge (wedge), Scots: twal (twelve) and Scots: dwall (dwell) from Scots: web, west, weċġ, twelf and Scots: dwellan.
Old English o in close position became pronounced as //o̞// in Older Scots then pronounced as //o// in Modern Scots but in some dialects became pronounced as //ɔ//, for example: box, lock and rock.
Old English u became pronounced as //u̞// in Early Scots then pronounced as //ʌ// in Modern Scots, for example but and cut, but in some words it merged with vowel 15 (pronounced as //ɪ//), for example Modern Scots: din (dun), hinnie (honey), simmer (summer), son and nit (nut) from dunn, huniġ, sumor, sunne and hnut. Similarly in some Romance words, for example Modern Scots: kimmer (commère), kiver (cover), ingan (onion), stibble (stubble) and tribble (trouble).
Various Old English word endings became any of pronounced as //ɪ//, pronounced as //i//, pronounced as //a//, pronounced as //ɑ//, pronounced as //e//, or pronounced as //ə// depending on dialect, for example Modern Scots: borrae (borrow), follae (follow), marrae (marrow), meidae (meadow), pillae (pillow), sheddae (shadow), swallae (swallow), weedae (widow) and yallae (yellow) from borgian, folgian, mearh, maedwe, pyle, sċeadu, swelgan/swealwe, widwe and ġeolo. Similarly with Norse windae (window).
