The Scottish vowel length rule, also known as Aitken's law, describes how

vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many ...

in Scots,

Scottish English Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined ...

, and, to some extent,

Ulster English Ulster English, also called Northern Hiberno-English or Northern Irish English, is the variety of English spoken mostly around the Irish province of Ulster and throughout Northern Ireland. The dialect has been influenced by the local Ul ...

and

Geordie Geordie ( ), sometimes known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English, is an English dialect and accent spoken in the Tyneside area of North East England. It developed as a variety of the old Northumbrian dialect and became espe ...

is conditioned by the

phonetic environment In linguistics (particularly phonetics and phonology), the phonetic environment of any given instance of a '' phone'', a human speech sound, consists of the other phones adjacent to and surrounding it. A speech sound's phonetic environment, sometime ...

of the

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

. Primarily, the rule is that certain vowels (described below) are phonetically long in the following environments: *Before . *Before a voiced fricative (). *Before a

morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...

boundary. *In a word-final open

syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

, save for the vowel (or, in Geordie, ). Exceptions can also exist for particular vowel phonemes, dialects, words, etc., some of which are discussed in greater detail below.

Phonemes

The underlying

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

s of the Scottish vowel system (that is, in both Scottish Standard English dialects and Scots dialects) are as follows: ★ = Vowels that definitively follow the Scottish Vowel Length Rule.

Rule specifics and exceptions

The Scottish Vowel Length Rule affects all vowels except the always-short vowels 15 and 19 ( and ) and, in many

Modern Scots Modern Scots comprises the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, from 1700. Throughout its history, Modern Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations ...

varieties, the always-long Scots-only vowels 8, 11, and 12 (here transcribed as , and ) that do not occur as phonemes separate from in Scottish Standard English.Aitken A.J. (1984) 'Scottish Accents and Dialects' in 'Language in the British Isles' Trudgill, P. (ed). p. 98. The further north a Scots dialect is from central Scotland, the more it will contain specific words that do not adhere to the rule. * Vowel 8a, which only occurs stem-finally, and vowel 10 are always short; therefore, vowel 1 in its short form (according to the Rule), vowel 8a, and vowel 10 all merge as the

diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...

. In its long form, the quality of vowel 1 changes, so it is here transcribed as to reflect that. * and (vowels 15 and 19) are usually short in all environments. * In some Modern Scots varieties may merge with in long environments. In

Ulster Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect Ulster Scots or Ulster-Scots (), also known as Ulster Scotch and Ullans, is the dialect (whose proponents assert is a dialect of Scots language, Scots) spoken in parts ...

, and are usually always long and the realisation of is short before a

voiceless consonant In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...

or before a

sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels a ...

followed by a voiceless consonant but long elsewhere. * , , , , , , and ,(vowels 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, and 14) are usually long in the following environments and short elsewhere:

A.J. Aitken Adam Jack Aitken (19 June 1921 – 11 February 1998) was a Scottish lexicographer and leading scholar of the Scots language. Education and military service Aitken was born on 19 June 1921 in Edinburgh, grew up in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, and was ...

in ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'', Oxford University Press 1992. p. 894 ** In stressed syllables before voiced fricatives, namely , and also before . So in Scottish English, for example, ''save'' eːv ''doze'' oːz ''teethe'' iːðand ''confusion'' ənˈfjʉːʒənhave longer vowels than ''safe'' ef ''dose'' os ''teeth'' iθand ''Confucian'' ənˈfjʉʃən *** In some Modern Scots varieties, also before the monomorphemic end-stresses syllables , + any voiced consonant, and . *** In

Shetland dialect Shetland dialect (also variously known as Shetlandic; broad or auld Shetland or Shaetlan; and referred to as Modern Shetlandic Scots (MSS) by some linguists) is a dialect of Insular Scots spoken in Shetland, an archipelago to the north of main ...

the realisation of underlying , usual in other Scots varieties, remains a long environment. ** Before another vowel ** Before a morpheme boundary, so for example "stayed" is pronounced with a longer vowel than "staid" . * (vowel 12) usually occurs in all

s in final stressed

History

The Scottish Vowel Length Rule is assumed to have come into being between the early

Middle Scots Middle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 15th century, its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtual ...

and late Middle Scots periods.Aitken A.J. (1981) 'The Scottish Vowel-Length Rule' in 'So meny People Longages and Tonges' Benskin, M. and Samuels M.S. (eds). p. 137.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish Vowel Length Rule Scottish English Scots language Vowel shifts Germanic sound laws