Phonological history of Scots

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; though loanwords from Old Norse and Romance sources are common, especially from ecclesiastical and legal Latin, Anglo-Norman and Middle French borrowings. Trade and immigration led to some borrowings from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch. Some vocabulary has been borrowed from Scotland's other language, Scottish Gaelic.

Consonants

Instance of between and a following or /r/ were lost or did not develop:A History of Scots to 1700, p. ci
: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 reduced to Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xxii except in some inflected forms (e.g. Modern Scots ''act'', ''expect'', ''strict'').
: reduced to in final position (e.g. Modern Scots ''attempt'', ''corrupt''). Note that the English words like ''empty'' that come from OE words that did not have a cluster also don’t have clusters in Scots (in this case, OE ''æmetiġ'' became Scots ''empy'').
: often reduced to (e.g. OE ''frēond'', 'friend', became Modern Scots ''freend'').
:Final often reduced to (e.g. Modern Scots ''auld'' 'old').
:OE and clusters appeared word-initially, though this feature is now highly recessive (e.g. ''knaw'', 'know'; ''gnegum'', 'tricky nature').

While OE became in Modern English, Scots has retained the original pronunciation (e.g. OE ''sċylfe'', 'shelf', became ''skelf'').
Old English became when adjacent to a front vowel (e.g. ''shinners'' from OE ''sinder'', 'cinder').

OE was often dropped in certain contexts:Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xxiii
: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 and palatalized to and , respectively, in Modern English (that is, after a front vowel), Scots has retained the original velar pronunciation:
: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 (written or ) was deleted in a few words (e.g. OE ''mūþ'', 'mouth', became ''mou'' in Scots).

OE was lost in English, but remained in Scots, spelled :
: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 .

Old English became for a number of speakers, though is widespread (e.g. OE ''hwæt'', 'what', became ''whit'').

Metathesis occurred in some words (e.g. OE ''græs'', 'grass', became ''girse'').

OE became vocalised after resulting in the diphthong in Modern Scots (e.g. ''boga'', 'bow', became ''bowe'').A History of Scots to 1700, p. xc

Similarly, in the Early Scots period, was vocalized after:
: (e.g. ''pullian'', 'pull', became Modern Scots ''pou'').
: (e.g. ''bolster'', 'bolster', became Modern Scots ''bowster''), becoming and then changing to in Modern Scots.Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xxiv
: (e.g. ''healdan'', 'hold', became Modern Scots ''haud''); becoming and then changing to or , depending on dialect.

Vowels

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.

Vowel 1

Old English and Old Norse ''ī'' and ''ȳ'', Old English ''i''+''ld'' and ''y''+''nd'', as well as Old French ''i'' became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and subsequently conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule to when short and or 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 (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)

Vowel 2

Old English ''ē'' became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and 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.

Vowel 3

Old English ''ea'' and ''ēa'' became in Early Scots, merging with vowel 2 () or vowel 4 () in Middle Scots depending on dialect or lexeme, except for a few Northern Scots dialects where it became ,A History of Scots to 1700, pp. xcviii 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''.

Vowel 4

Old English ''ā'' became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and 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 , now in Modern central, southern and Ulster varieties and 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 occurs in other words of Norse origin, for example ''graith'' (harness), ''hain'' (spare) and ''lair'' (mud) from greiða, hagna and leir.

Before + consonant, depending on dialect, now or 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).

Vowel 5

In open position ''o'' became in Early Scots then eventually in Modern Scots, for example: ''coal'', ''foal'', ''hole'' and ''thole'' endure.

Vowel 6

Old English ''ū'' became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots, remaining so but Stem final it became 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).

Vowel 6a

Older Scots became vocalised to by the Middle Scots period, for example Modern Scots: ''fou'' (full), ''pou'' (pull) and ''oo'' (wool) from full, pullian and wull. Similarly Romance ''coum'' (culm) and ''poupit'' (pulpit).

Vowel 7

Old English ''ō'', ''ēo'' became in Early Scots becoming in Modern peripheral dialects. In Fife and parts of Perthshire Middle Scots merged with vowel 4 (). In Modern central varieties it has merged with vowel 15 () 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 merged with vowel 4 () 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 merged with vowel 2 (), in Mid Northern varieties after and it became , 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 or resulted in Modern Scots , , and/or 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.

Vowel 8

Old English ''a'' or ''æ'' in open position became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and subsequently , or in Modern Scots, though 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).

Vowel 8a

Older Scots stem final became in Middle Scots merging with vowel 1 () in Modern Scots.

Vowel 9

Older Scots became in Modern Scots.

Vowel 10

Early Scots merged with vowel 1 () in Modern Scots.

Vowel 11

Early Scots in stem final positions, became then in Middle Scots merging with vowel 2 () in Modern Scots.

Vowel 12

Old English ''ag''-, ''aw''- and ''āw'' became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and subsequently, depending on dialect, or 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 and + consonant, Middle Scots also became or 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).

Vowel 12a

Older Scots became vocalised to by the Middle Scots period and subsequently, depending on dialect, or 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).

Vowel 13

Old English ''ów'' became in Older Scots then in Modern Scots, for example: ''flowe'' (flow), ''glowe'' (glow), ''growe'' (grow) and ''stowe'' (stow) from flōwan, glōwan, grōwan and stówiġan.

Vowel 13a

Early Scots became vocalised to by the Middle Scots period and subsequently diphthongised to in Modern Scots. In some dialects this is vocalising to especially before , 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).

Vowel 14

Older Scots (a) and Older Scots (b(i)) became in Middle Scots then or in Modern Scots.

Vowel 14b(ii)

Older Scots became in Middle Scots then in Modern Scots.

Vowel 15

Old English ''i'' and ''y'' became in Early Scots, remaining so, but approach in some Modern dialects especially after and , for example Modern Scots: ''hill'', ''filthy'', ''will'', ''win'', ''wind'', ''whip'', ''whisper'' and ''whisky''.

Vowel 16

Before alveolars Old English ''æ'' became 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.

Vowel 17

Old English ''a'' or ''æ'' in close position became in Older Scots, remaining so, although or 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 and , 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 , , and , 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: ' (web), ' (west), ' (wedge), ' (twelve) and ' (dwell) from and .

Vowel 18

Old English ''o'' in close position became in Older Scots then in Modern Scots but in some dialects became , for example: ''box'', ''lock'' and ''rock''.

Vowel 19

Old English ''u'' became in Early Scots then in Modern Scots, for example ''but'' and ''cut'', but in some words it merged with vowel 15 (), 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).

Word endings

Various Old English word endings became any of , , , , , or 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).

See also

*History of the Scots language

References

* Aitken, A.J, (Ed. Macafee C.) (2002) ''The Older Scots Vowels: A History of the Stressed Vowels of Older Scots from the Beginnings to the Eighteenth Century'', The Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh.
*William Grant and David D. Murison (eds) The ''Scottish National Dictionary'' (SND) (1929–1976), The Scottish national Dictionary Association, vols. I–X, Edinburgh.
* ''A History of Scots to 1700'' in the ''Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue'' (DOST) Vol. 12. Oxford University Press 2002.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phonological History Of Scots
Phonology
Germanic phonologies
Sound laws