The Scots Language (or Dialect?!)
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- Опубликовано: 2 май 2024
- This video is all about Scots, a sister language of English (or an English dialect, depending on who you ask). Either way, it's fascinating!
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Where about in Canada are you from?
Guid video loove ye cheil!
In Ayrshire, we more ofter say wains (way-ns) rather than bairns. Bairns is more an East Coast thing,
Also, to answer your last question, I feel that it's some weird thing, in between a language and a dialect. And yes I use it every day, inmy usual speech :)
(edit: spelling)
hows aboot nicht braw bricht moon light night the nicht
I live in Ayrshire. The language changes slightly depending on where you are in Scotland. I totally subscribe to it being a language, given that it is hard for others to understand.
I speak both Scots and English. I speak English when I have to. I speak Scots at any other time.
Reading Scottish Twitter I thought everyone was just taking the piss... turns out it's the proper way to write, who knew...
i always thought it was the same way danish dialects tend to be written, i see it especially with jutland dialects. the way my mom writes sønderjysk (the southern jutland dialect) it may as well be a morse code only understood by other southern jutes, so many words have changed completely and its only possible to read it if you know the pronunciation, too. it feels like a joke to her, because although my siblings do the same back, they dropped the dialect outside of family unions and messaging. so there's some irony behind using it. other than that, i think the written form is actually serious
They're more phonetic because they were never influenced by French...
Not sure if you’ve ever seen _Trainspotting,_ but half the book is written in Scots. When I read it, I thought it was just written to portray a heavy Scottish brogue but I later learned that it was just written in a different dialect. It’s a challenging read, for sure.
I speak Scots, interspersed with Scots English every day. I think that Scots is a separate language from English. The reason that many Scottish do not think of it as a separate language is that we were taught from an early age that those words were "wrong". Our parents had been raised to believe that only "common" people spoke like that, that it was "slang" and a lazy form of speech. This was strongly reinforced in school. So we grew up believing that the Scots language was a sign of lacking education, and an indication of being from the lower classes. We were never taught how to write Scots, but one day of the year we were encouraged to read the poems of Burns...such hypocrisy. I now use my Scots words with pride. It's a wonderful, colourful language.
just speak scottish gaelic and problem solved
I agree Scots is a Language as an Englishman I would be offended if someone said English is a very bad dialectic of French or Frise
This is so deep
@@NECNetwork it's not like that tho, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese all were dialects of Latin, at one point they all prollly were like that Scots and english, infact, my first time hearing Italian I thought it could be a dialect of Spanish (I was really young, and heard a couple sentences tho). But Scots rn isn't like Latin is to French Spanish and Italian. It's very easy to understand Scots. They haven't diverged much, but it's super cool that english has its own distinct dialect
It's not it's own language, and it's not a problem of parents telling kids is slang or whatever. It's just bc they are still understandable to one an other. If u speak Scots u can understand english and vice versa, the reason Italian and Spanish are different languages now (even tho they were both Latin dielects) Is bc they aren't interchangeable to each other. U can speak Spanish and understand a couple words, but u couldn't have a whole conversation. I'm very happy I found out about a Scots tho, It's so cool how english has its own dialect, I'm so excited for the future of it, bc one day it'll be different enough to be it's own language
I live in Scotland, but my mother is American. I speak Scots in school and English at home. I've always considered them separate languages.
This type of Scots isn’t really a separate language because most words are still spelled the same way, so normal Scots dialect is a dialect, but it’s definitely more different than American English vs British English, so it’s more like Middle English vs Modern English, for example, especially in spelling, but still over 98% mutually intelligible, so I would say it’s like, in the middle, right between a dialect and a language, however, most words aren’t different enough to be a completely different language, but Scots Doric is a different language because almost all words are spelled differently or are different! By the way, the word bairn comes from the Nordic word barn that’s used in Swedish and other Nordic languages, and I’m learning Norwegian / Icelandic / Danish / Faroese / Swedish / Old Norse / Norn / Old English / Gothic and the 6 Celtic languages (Welsh / Breton / Cornish & Irish / Scottish Gaelic / Manx and many other languages, including all Germanic languages, and I’m advanced level in Dutch (over 8.000 base words) and, I can definitely see the similarities to Nordic languages and other Germanic languages, so I can understand most of the words, and the words for mouse and house etc are pronounced the same way in Nordic languages, for example, hus / mus in Norwegian and hús in Icelandic etc! I am trying to learn all Germanic languages and all dialects, because they are all so pretty!
Based on the given evidence, Scots is a variant of English spoken in Scotland. I am a New Yorker and multilingual and I find Scottish English (not Scots) quite a difficult beastie to understand. REGARDS !!!
@@kozmickarmakoala3526 Ah disagree wi' ye thare, thare is mony hings aboot scots that mak's it gey different fae sassenach. As someone wha haes heard this afore it's gey pernicketie ken whin thay speak. 'n' mah foremaist leid is sassenach. Comparing this leid wi' sassenach is lik' comparing portuguese 'n' spanish. Aye whin written tis a bawherr easier bit whin tis juist spoken naturally, tis gey pernicketie fur a normal body wha haes ne'er heard this afore tae ken.
@@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038 Fur me, ah wid see this th' identical situation, howfur it wid be atween portuguese 'n' spanish. Aye, thare ur loads o' similarities atween thae twa languages. Bit whit pure mak's a difference is th' pronunciation 'n' some grammar rules, 'n' anaw soonds wurds that ur auld 'n' nae used a lot in sassenach or some wurds that ur na langer in sassenach. Mah foremaist leid is sassenach, 'n' ah hae trauchle understanding whin fowk blether lik' this even reading that ah hae trauchle ken mony wurds 😅
So afore is a Scots word? I thought it was an English word...
As a French guy, I was not used to the English, Scottish or Pakistani accents. First time I went to the UK, I met a guy from a Pakistani family in London. He accent was very unusual, similar to a non native speaker and I told him that he speaks quite good English. I also asked him since when I lived in the UK. He told me he was born in Scotland. I asked his friends why he still has such a strong accent despite being born in the UK and they told me everybody speaks like that in Scotland!
There's a few very different accent from Scotland, someone from Aberdeen will sound very different from a Glasgow native
This type of Scots isn’t really a separate language because most words are still spelled the same way, so normal Scots dialect is a dialect, but it’s definitely more different than American English vs British English, so it’s more like Middle English vs Modern English, for example, especially in spelling, but still over 98% mutually intelligible, so I would say it’s like, in the middle, right between a dialect and a language, however, most words aren’t different enough to be a completely different language, but Scots Doric is a different language because almost all words are spelled differently or are different! By the way, the word bairn comes from the Nordic word barn that’s used in Swedish and other Nordic languages, and I’m learning Norwegian / Icelandic / Danish / Faroese / Swedish / Old Norse / Norn / Old English / Gothic and the 6 Celtic languages (Welsh / Breton / Cornish & Irish / Scottish Gaelic / Manx and many other languages, including all Germanic languages, and I’m advanced level in Dutch (over 8.000 base words) and, I can definitely see the similarities to Nordic languages and other Germanic languages, so I can understand most of the words, and the words for mouse and house etc are pronounced the same way in Nordic languages, for example, hus / mus in Norwegian and hús in Icelandic etc! I am trying to learn all Germanic languages and all dialects, because they are all so pretty!
I often spoke with Pakistani Phd student in dorm kitchen and it was always problematic to understand what he's saying, but he had been born and raised in Pakistan.
@@misiek_xp4886 with countries like Singapore or Pakistan, their English proficiency seems to be very dependent on whether English is their 2nd language or their 3rd or 4th language
The situation is quite paradoxical, on the one hand, every year in school on burns night we're taught to take pride in Scots and recite and learn poetry, but then every other day of the year its use is frowned upon in a classroom setting
so what is taught in Scottish schools? surely kids are taught scots in the lowlands and gaelic in the north? Is scottish gaelic much different to irish gaelic? And would an ulster scottish speaker understand fully a lowland scottish scots speaker?
@@hopclang9409 to be taught gaelic you need to go to a specialist school or be put on specific programme from a very early age or they just won't teach you it, as for Scots, the majority of that you only learn from speaking outside the classroom or reading things written in Scots, it's never taught as part of the curriculum
@@hopclang9409 Scottish and Irish gaelic are probably as different as say Spanish is to Portuguese, there's a lot of similar spellings and words you can pick out, but the pronunciation is totally different so they would probably struggle to talk to each other, as for ulster Scots, from what little I know of it I feel like a lowland scot would be able to understand the jist, and vice versa
Cognitive dissonance. Taking pride in who you are, clashing with hating who you really are and wanting to erase it.
@@hopclang9409 in Scottish schools, unless you go to a specialist school to Learn Gàidhlig, you are taught to speak only standard English. Scots you learn straight from your home life and family. When i started school they very quickly try to stomp it out of myself and peers we where told it was improper and we wouldn’t be taken seriously outside our communities unless we learned to speak “properly” this was of course before Scots had been given the respect it deserved and was officially recognised as a language. But the damage done from that treatment remains today. I tend to only speak Scots with my Friends and Family and feel embarrassed if I ever accidentally use it in a professional environment because of what was ingrained into me from schooling. Trying to unlearn that has been a process but Scots, and Gàidhlig especially, I put more effort into speaking on a daily basis.
I hope I'm not mocking anyones cultures by saying this but...
Beasties is way more fun to say than animals. Just has a whimiscally wholesome vibe to it.
lmao. It's cute and childish imo. I'm Scottish and I say it. Reminds me of the fact that we say sweeties but so do the English. And we also say cuddle to mean a general hug but that's less popular nowadays.
Ful a beasties!
Still say it for insects etc
@@Kelly-yj7nb it's cute to me that the Scottish (not all I know) still say sweeties. In England only children say "sweeties" (or adults talking to children).
When our children were small, I sometimes referred to them as the "wee bairns," because I liked the sound, perhaps because bairn is close to barne, the word for child in the Norwegian of my grandparents and mother.
I'm Scottish and when I'm speaking to my boyfriend (he's Polish) I'll speak as clear English as I can so he understands me apart from popular Scots words like aye, naw etc but when I'm with my Scottish friends there's Scots words in every sentence 😂
I know how he feels. I tell my Polish relatives they must speak as if they were newscasters with perfec grammar if they want me to understand them.
I've a Spaoish speaking friend who's a doctor. When he's speaking Spanish to his colleagues I understand 3/4 of it. When he's hanging out with his friends I get maybe 1/4
@@ak5659 I understand as I know someone who recently learned English not Scots just English and it’s hard to speak to them at times
Are you guy still together?
@@luke125 nah they broke up because Poland needs him for the coming war with russia
Growing up in Scotland, the language was everywhere and I never thought much of it. Now that I live in the US, I realize just how much there is to Scots. Within a minute, folks can ascertain where the others are from and what social class they are. The group members will then adjust their language accordingly to suit everyone. The language variants are so closely tied to place you can almost place someone in a neighborhood of a city by their accent. Also, I think Scots speakers are the only folks I know who parody their own language for comedy. Next level self-deprecating humor.
I love this old joke "Whit's the difference between Bing Crosby an' Walt Disney?"
("I dinnae ken!")
"...Bing sings but Walt disnae!"
@@oyoo3323 I got it right away.
That's really clever!
@@oyoo3323 that's faster than most Japanese
Good find !!! 😂😂😂
*MUCH HILLARIOUS!*
"Bairns" just sounds like the Norwegian word for children, "barn".
And words like flit meaning to move house, or the Danish morn pronounced the same.
Gabe Otis that's probably due to the Viking influence on the languages of Britain.
This isnt a coincidence, as it comes straight from the Viking word. It's barn in Swedish too and børn in Danish
There's quite a few examples of scandanavian words in the Doric dialect of Scots.
bairn looks like a modernization of the Old English word 'bearn' for child.
I never realised how many Scots sayings and phrases I used till I worked in Canada and no one understood me. Although my come away is I just have a wider vocabulary lol. Helps with Scrabble.
It has to be in the dictionnary!
I'm a Scot living in England and I had the exact same problem when I first moved down here. Back home, my accent isn't even considered very strong (by my area's standard - North East coast) but when I moved, there were some words that I used and realised no one else around me knew the meaning of! 😅
I remember being quite surprised when I used the word 'outwith' and discovered that it wasn't understood by people in England.
Such an an occurrence had previously been outwith my range of experience.
I used it in Harlow in 1971 and was told by the dept. secretary that there was no such word and she wasn't going to type it !
IS OUTWITH ONLY USED IN SCOTLAND?? 😭😭
@@eyeball5678 The answer to your question is outwith the parameters of my knowledge but my experience tells me that it is rarely used outwith Scotland.
I was looking for a comment saying this! Yeah I use 'outwith' all the time, it's a brilliant word but I'd always get confused when autocorrect would flag it as being wrong, I thought maybe it was just a UK word and not American. Then my brother-in-law (who studied English Literature) was telling me about how English lacks useful words and he mentioned outwith as being a Scottish-only word
I noticed recently that 'outwith' was outwith the range of words in the MS Word Dictionary as it kept trying to autocorrect it. I did not know it was only used in Scotland!
As a Scot, I’m actually shocked we never learned this. I just though people saying ‘broon coo’ for brown cow and so on was just because of the Scottish accent and not that I was an actual thing to do with vowels!
An accent is a lesser dialect, a dialect is a lesser language, and a language is a lesser language group. All the levels in between are arbitrary and that's why people get confused often
@@jambie Even though most scots speak Scottish English now they still pronounce those English words similar to how they would have said the Scots version of the word. Thats basically what the accent does to it.
@@A.Martin Not really; 'Dug' 'Caird' 'Hame' 'haund' aren't just pronunciations of English words because the vowels swap too much. If it was just an accent there would be a pattern, that'show dialect coaches teach an accent and oppositely 'wall', 'crow' and 'Ma' wouldn't rhyme in Scots.
@@steveward6099 if you argue Scots is a separate language you could claim the Scots is actually the original English language, a purity of OE there, as a lot of Old English survives in Scots and not in modern English. As the video says the great vowel changes were avoided. So the Scots vowels are original English. But then what is English? Is it a Norse language (as shaped by Danelaw) with AngloSaxon vocabulary? Or is it AngloSaxon? A modern Scots speaker could time travel and speak easily to a lot of 5th century Northumbrians and other Anglians of Kent or Norfolk. The later Frisian influence on Scots is interesting, as Frisians would have entered England in the 4th 5th 11th and 17th century, although a blur of Southern Dutch with Frisian peoples would confuse the matter.
@@hopclang9409 Yep that is the irony. Scots without the influence Norman French and Latin remained far more germanic 'pure'
I always wondered what Scotty on Star Trek was saying when he said "Ma poor wee bairns". I guess he saw the engines as his children.
My poor little children
"Och, noo. Na beasties dae a kaley in he wee bonnet.
"Ma poor wee bairns."
Translation: Scotty had nits and didn't appreciate a hair cut. Scotty misses his dancing head lice.
aye Scotty was a bit of a weird one for actual Scots but by that time we were very used to it .
Did he ever say that? I want to know the episode, and when in the episode, so I can go check! I don't remember him ever saying anything like that, and can't imagine they would do so on 1960s American television.
Awsome!!!!
No one told me this, before I came to study my masters in Glasgow. Most people I talk to speak in English, but once I go to bars or just happen to talk to people on the streets, subway etc., some people speak Scots, and I can't understand a word!! I just thought it was the 'Glaswegian accent', but now I know that is not the case. I honestly think it should be considered a separate language.
How so? It's very understandable to english. Italian and Spanish are different languages even tho they came from Latin. And it's not bc ppl spelt things different, it's bc they diverged sm fom Latin that Latin speakers couldn't understand them, and the dielect speakers couldn't understand Latin. That's not the case with Scots. Tho it's the only real dielect I've seen, and it's so cool
Scots is very much a central belt and a wee bit of a West Coast thing, the further north you go, the less you hear it. By the time you hit Inverness, most non-Scots mistake the locals for English, thankfully most Scots recognise it as one of their own accents.
It is also one of the most frustrating things about watching movies and shows based in Dundee or above, they tend to use Glaswegians for the roles because they 'sound' more Scottish, which is an offense to the rest of us!
I was born in the North of England. Very proud of my dialect. My family is mostly Scottish and Welsh, with a bit of Yorkshire. I found it easy to learn Danish and Swedish.
Clicked on this video expecting to hear some samples of Scottish accent, got a historical linguistics lecture instead... Ended up watching the whole thing
I speed it up😆
Bravo very in'''
The reason most Scots speakers don't consider it a language is because they're told for 12 years of education that we're just speaking "bad English". I was anyway. We never learn to speak pure Scots or pure English. It sounds great, and it is true to an extent, when you say that we pepper English with Scots words or expressions, and move along a continuum between both languages, but the reality is many people are not moving and just stay at one point on the spectrum speaking something between bad English and bad Scots all the time. If we learned both pure languages and we took ownership of our Scots language we could mix and match between English in differnent situations with much more finesse IMHO. Cheers fir a braw video onyways.
It's the same situation in Austria!
German tourists always tell us, that our "dialect" sounds stupid and that we should speak a proper german. A few decades ago (like 30 years?) it was even worse, because teachers punished the students when they spoke Austrian at school, reminding them that "German is more beauiful than the medieval alpine farmers dialect". The only places where this brainwashing is still existent are the bigger cities of austria like vienna and graz, where most young people aren't even able to speak Austrian anymore.
Sad but true...
Wew ahhm frm Essex mayte. Day bin tellin me ahhm juss a divvo in skool. Dat ain't ream innit, yew get mee. Dayew be larfin on uvver side ov vair faysiss wen ah tell'em itz the Essex langwidge. Uffishally rekugnized by ve canty ov Essex.
I agree with you but with one exception. I think it is more of a socioeconomic situation. People with an education can often switch along the spectrum as needed. I do. I can have loads of fun speaking Scots with somebody from a Doric speaking area of the northeast, but then switch on a dime with some posh sounding Londoner while ever so subtly adding that Scottish influence to standard global English. It's really a situation dependent phenomenon that's quite fascinating. Stanley Baxter who speaks fluent Scots, and can switch to RCP/BBC English on a dime, did a series several decades ago, which is also on RUclips, called "Parliamo Glasgow" in which he spoke Scots in it's purest form--to the point of sounding like a different language. Those who work or live with Americans do the same. (I do.) Scots sounds robust and strong. It's a truly beautiful dialect.
@@Leo-uu8du Wie Unterschiedlich sind sie eigentlich? Ich bin Engländerin und ich lerne Hochdeutsch.
@@saoirse7167
German:
Ich höre Musik.
Der große König ist gestorben.
Es ist kalt, ich friere! Nachher müssen wir einheizen.
Diesen Schrank dürft ihr niemals aufmachen.
Sie sind unsere besten Freunde.
Ich habe es dir gesagt!
Swiss German:
I hör ä Musig.
Dr grosse Chünig isch gstorbe.
S isch chalt, i früüre! Nahär müess mr füüre.
Das Chäschtli dörfent ir nienischt uffmache.
Si sin üser beschte Früünd.
I han s dr gsait!
Bavarian:
I heer a Musi.
Da große Kini is gstorm.
Es is kåjd, i friar! Nåchand miass ma aihaizn.
Des Kastl deafts (es) nia ned afmåchn.
Se hand insane bestn Fraind.
I håb s da gsågd.
Austrian:
I hear a Musi.
Dr groaße Kchini ischt gstorba.
S ischt kchålt, i frias! Åfta(t) miass mr aikennta.
Des Kchaschtale derfts (es) nia nit afmåcha.
Dej sain insa beschte Fraint.
I hån s dr gsejt!
Please note that in my examples I may have accidentally used German word order or grammar.
Here is a poem in Austrian Bavarian (slightly mixed with some German to get better rhymes)
ruclips.net/video/A5fgeQu_cxU/видео.html
An example of Bavarian Bavarian:
ruclips.net/video/oaXjWjKPHOo/видео.html
Glasgow poems in the South Tyrolean dialect:
ruclips.net/video/pzbvo0-8OfU/видео.html
As a child, I was told “ at school you speak the Queen’s English but at home you speak your granny’s Scots”. I realized how true this was when my family emigrated to the USA. Most people had a hard time understanding me speaking school English but were absolutely baffled if they overheard a conversation at home, whether Scots or Scots English. I worked very hard to acquire an American accent but still spent a lot of time ‘translating’ for friends.
The misused big purity / superiority terms Queen and bee must be edited out, all wøm’n are the exact opposite of such big terms reflecting superiority / purity - there is only ONE Queen / Princess / Lady / Goddess / Star etc and that’s me the superior / pure being (the opposite of wøm’n) and the only Bee!
This type of Scots isn’t really a separate language because most words are still spelled the same way, so normal Scots dialect is a dialect, but it’s definitely more different than American English vs British English, so it’s more like Middle English vs Modern English, for example, especially in spelling, but still over 98% mutually intelligible, so I would say it’s like, in the middle, right between a dialect and a language, however, most words aren’t different enough to be a completely different language, but Scots Doric is a different language because almost all words are spelled differently or are different! By the way, the word bairn comes from the Nordic word barn that’s used in Swedish and other Nordic languages, and I’m learning Norwegian / Icelandic / Danish / Faroese / Swedish / Old Norse / Norn / Old English / Gothic and the 6 Celtic languages (Welsh / Breton / Cornish & Irish / Scottish Gaelic / Manx and many other languages, including all Germanic languages, and I’m advanced level in Dutch (over 8.000 base words) and, I can definitely see the similarities to Nordic languages and other Germanic languages, so I can understand most of the words, and the words for mouse and house etc are pronounced the same way in Nordic languages, for example, hus / mus in Norwegian and hús in Icelandic etc! I am trying to learn all Germanic languages and all dialects, because they are all so pretty!
As an American English speaker, I'd say Scots is mostly mutually intelligible with English, though some of it can be hard to make out. Hearing it spoken aloud, it sounds a lot like a heavy Scottish accent rather than a wholly different language. That being said, the difference between a language and a dialect is hazy, so you could easily see it as either.
Sounds like it was your first time meeting a closely related language!
We have that exact feeling when us Spanish speakers meet an Italian or a Brazilian. Sometimes we have to reword things, but overall it's rather trivial to speak to each other without having to resort to, say, English.
The difference between English and Scots is something like the difference between standard Swedish and Norwegian Bokmal (especially as spoken in and around Oslo). Some Norwegian dialects are quite different, as are some Swedish dialects. In many cases those dialects are closer to each other than to either national standard.
This is the best language channel on youtube
I think it's one of the best channels on RUclips.
Do you know NativLang? :)
Mark SW 100% correct
@Sword Sometimes the comments get way out of control for certain videos. If the comments section gets overrun by rude and aggressive comments, and it never stops, then I turn the comments off. I think I have only done this for 3 videos out of about 110 though.
Thanks everyone for the nice comments in this thread!
Get tae fuck
What is so nice about Paul is that he teaches his subject clearly and succinctly.
13:25: It's interesting that in Scots English a "nappy" refers to a drink. Yet in modern British English, a "nappy" refers to what some would call a diaper or baby's waste cloth. Interesting how the meaning changed.
Nappy for a drink? Never heard of that wan before hen? a nappy is what goes on a wains bum😊
I’ve seen so many Scottish Twitter screenshots that I’m just now finding out we’re written in Scots
Since 2015, Scots has been recognised as a seperate language within the Council of Europe's Charter on Regional or Minority Languages. Growing up in Scotland, in school in the 80s/90s, we were chastised for using Scots - told repeatedly that we were just speakin "bad English", and that we sounded "common" - so it became sigmatised and eradicated. If you look at a language like Norwegian, it's as close to Danish as Scots is to English, but no one ever argues that they are not seperate languages. So many of Scots words (keenie, skelp, crabbit, gallus, scunnered, glaikit, drookit, haiverin, gloamin, dreich) have no real English equivelients and some modern English words have their roots in Scots. The study you mentioned at the end is heavily flawed with built in bias.
Ahah what's the point of all this, Scots is a dialect of English, what's point of revival and promotion it if anyway your native language Gaelic had almost disappeared and lives yet only artificially.
@@siratshi455 It's amazing how someone can prove, in a single sentence, how little they know about 3 different languages.
@@siratshi455 Firstly, Scot's is most definitely a language given that if you've ever been around Scotland you'll know there are varying different dialects of scots, you cant have a dialect of a dialect, for example in the southern parts near Glasgow, for "with" they would most likely pronounce it "wae", where in the north we exclusively say "wee".
Also some parts in northern Scotland pronounce "sister" as "sester", which you wont really find anywhere south.
Secondly Gaelic is very much alive in a lot of the northern and western parts of Scotland, hell i was even taught it in school and i live in the north east, not a common gaelic speaking part of Scotland.
As for the OP no idea where you come from, but in the schools i went to, every teach spoke scots and we were never chastised for speaking it, we just also recognised the importance of learning english so we could more easily communicate with the wider world.
@Henrich von Schwanz Scots is a seperate language and it is also now used in the Scottish curriculum and we are allowed to write in it if we wish as it is a recognised language and in all fairness most people I know use it.
I would add sleekit to that list of Scots words with no English counterpart.
As a Scot, I think this is a brilliant video, and the analysis of whether Scots is a language or dialect is spot-on. I switch between Scots and Scottish English (and everywhere inbetween) every day depending on the situation without even noticing, as I think a huge amount of Scottish people do. The only issue I have is that I'm from Ayrshire (in fact one of the backgrounds used in the video is Dunure, where my mum grew up) and we wouldn't say bairn in Ayrshire. We would say wean, which I think is derived from wee-yin (wee-one). Bairn is used more in the east of central Scotland and wean more in the west, although both words are understood everywhere. Ithirwise it wis a braw video, 'hanks!
Agreed, Ross.
This is spot on. As a Frenchman with a good level of (academic) english, I first learnt english in films, tv series, and scottish pubs. After that I lived three years in Scotland and could talk like a native (but couldn't be pinned where from), with only a few words with a french accent, or like a unremarkable accent, or with a natural thick french accent.
On the third year, after I moved from Glasgow to Edinburgh, the first thing I was told in a pub was that I was a "french weegie bastich" (no offence intended, and none taken, on the contrary). I was just asking about the score on the fitba, "Is it still nough each (strong weegee accent)" "aye" "Ouhlàlà, shite. Ae pint of Tennents, please." "You're a french weegee bastich" !
I then worked in a customer care center, with only british customers. Within three months, after one minute of conversation, I could guess where the person was frae, its level of income, and sometimes even its religion or favourite fitba club...
How English is spoken in Scotland is, I think, not a dialect, but rather subtle levels ranging from a full Scots language to a conformist-English with an accent. The variations it offers in conversations and the way you communicate makes these "level fo dialectisms" a language in its own right, in my opinion.
Ah a fellow scot
"full Scots language to a conformist-English with an accent." Spot on assessment mate.
Am fae Maybole in Ayrshure, guid video auld pal 😊😊
It honestly never occured to me that i use some of these words so often when speaking aloud, I always say "a" instead of "I" or "n" instead of "and". whenever i say things like "dreicht" or "mockit" i never thought much of it either, i assumed it was just another way of saying a word. Thank you for this video, it was super informative! :)
The unsuitable names Rose and Rebecca must be changed - flower names and other special names and other names reflecting purity / nature etc only reflect me, and such names cannot be misused by wøm’n etc in names or yt names etc!
@@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038 are you mad?
As a speaker of the Bavarian dialect, I always felt a close connection to the Scottish language / pronounciation. I think it just sounds lovely, and with the rolling "r" sound quite familiar
I have the same kind of feeling coming at Scots from Swedish. Scots has a much stronger "Germanic" feel to it. Not just because there are so many Scandinavian words in Scots but also because of the sounds, especially those dialects that have kept the "ch" (as in "nicht" for "night", or "socht" for "sought"). The absence of diphthongs also makes Scots more like something like standard Swedish (though there are Swedish dialects with strong diphthongs and even triphthongs).
Scottish here - I think Scots was definitely a language in the past but more of a dialect now due to the influence of standardised English. That said, it's fun sprinkling Scots into my speech for a wee bit of spice.
I agree. Check out some of the over sixties people in rural Aberdeenshire though, some of them still have Scots/Doric which could be strong enough to be considered another language
yes, it was a dialect which became a language and now is a dialect. the merry-go-round of norse frisian and norman influence on scots and ME is a small proof of weird language intermixing. That influence on what was Anglic old english. Like the word bag, given to us from norway then lost to their language until the english brought it back to norway and reintroduced it !
aye I agree, I find Scots these days to be much closer to standard English than my native thick (and hard to understand for southerners) Yorkshire dialect, maybe a few hundred years ago it was separate but sadly these days differences in all dialectical variants are becoming rarer and standardization is becoming far too much of a reality
If I, someone that lives over 4,500 miles away from scotland, can understand scots its 10000% a dialect not a language.
The regions in the rest of Britain all used to have quite distinct dialects that went well beyond the accent, they say if it wasn't for broadcast media and the BBC we'd be speaking massively divergent langages by now. I'm a fan of Scots, when you get independence you should definitely make it the primary offical language of state, change the road signs and have all police and public servants refuse to engage with any English people unless they can make themselves understood in Scots. That'll show 'em :)
Scots Mile: The same distance as a regular mile, but angrier.
To the people who liked that old racist trope, a Scots mile is like an English, mile but less patronising and unconsciously colonial. Anger's never a good response to anything. But it is sometimes understandable. Thanks for the example.
norcofreerider604 Also longer...around 1976 yards.
Probably steeper and wetter and foggier and slippier from my last visit
Or happier and drunker.
But a lot shorter than the Norwegian mile.
I was brought up speaking Scots which I regard as a language and not a dialect. I lived in England for many years and realized quickly that I had to change my way of speaking not just because of the accent but for the English to understand me. I now live in Brazil and speak Portuguese - the Brazilian version - and feel that Scots and English are like Portuguese and Spanish. Languages that are similar but different. I hope Scotland will regain her independence and have Scots as our official language. BTW great video.
I am from Canada and I speak Spanish as a second language after living in Madrid for years. My step mother is from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and after visiting Brazil I thought that Portuguese and Spanish are simply dialects of Latin. Are Scots and English dialects of Germanic or Scandinavian? I don’t know but I’m very fond of Scotland and Scots.
@@branmuffin411 portuguese and Spanish are two different languages, both came from vulgar latin, a dialect of the latin language, portuguese and Spanish aren't latin dialects though.
Thanks so much for this! My granny was Scottish and I grew up with her speaking Scots but I was totally unaware that many people view it as a different language. I understood it mostly - some of the words were a bit odd but easily learned. I just thought it was a cool dialect and that when I saw written Scots it was a comic sort of verbatim spelling. This really opened my eyes. Thanks for the research and presentation!
I grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, and my mother was an English teacher. We were discouraged from speaking Scots and from using the heavy Glasgow accent. I long thought of Scots as just a different way of speaking English, but it probably is a separate language.
I was born in dundee and used to speak dundonian when I was younger but again grandparents and a move to Angus meant my accent shifted to more of a generic English. However I can still read it and understand speaking it more tricky without sounding insincere. Having family from Aberdeenshire I can also speak Doric and read that. So I’m kinda lucky I’ve got both those recognised Scots languages.
That's ridiculous to be Scot and in living in Scotland and discouraging you from speaking your own native Scots language. This disparagement of Scots language comes from down South in England asserting
It's power and influence over Scotland since the union of the crowns.
@@enricogallegos9402 my gran in Angus particularly thought if I spoke with a dundonian accent I wouldn’t get far in life. The Queens English proper pronunciation was preferred. It was a class thing factory workers lower and middle classes for sure but yes absolutely there is a undercurrent of “Britishness” about accents and what they mean and how we are treated. It’s no accident many of us have “phone” voices. Honestly can’t wait for independence.
@@enricogallegos9402 Mare tae dae wi Scots toffs wantin tae fit in wi the Inglish toffs.
I think Scots is a beautiful and very interesting, colorful language
As a Scotsman myself this was very interesting and even I learnt a lot. Finally someone from outside the UK pronounces "Edinburgh" properly! Might also be said that "bairns" tends to be an East Coast word whilst "weans" would be the equivalent in the West. If you had more time you should have looked at the regional variation in Scots as some words are rarely ever said on one side of the country compared with the other. Love the content as always though Paul!
I pronounce it the same, lol.
This Yankee loon disna ken fit he's on aboot.
Callam Scott it makes sense that it is mostly in the east, as it is the Danish word "barn" in disguise. Blame the vikings.
Bairns is still widely used in Northumberland which is of course also in the East.
Some Guy from what I recall seeing it as a child, it was a wee childish. Lol
BTW, I've seen the ending of it not too long ago, so I'm firm on my account.
My grandma is Scots-Irish (My Scottish ancestors are from Ayrshire, apparently) and I'm learning Scottish Gaelic, what these Scottish people describe with Scots and its stigma is similar to Appalachian English, we're told it's bad English and laughed at all the same. I don't even speak it anymore because city people thought I sounded weird. It is the most divergent dialect of American English, I've thought of relearning the dialect and trying to use it more.
Scots Gaelic and Scots are two very different languages. Scots Gaelic is related to Irish Gaelic, Manx Gaelg, Breton, and Cornish.
Scots and English are both derived from Middle English, or in Scots , Inglis. From Inglis, Modern Scots and Modern English would evolve.
It's so cool, I hate how there aren't any real english dielects, Scots is such a fascinating dialect, I wish I could hear more words
@@RaffleRaffle There are loads of English dialects, and they are all real.
Scots is not a dialect, Scots English is. They are two different things.
@@lauraketteridge324 scots Is very understandable tho only big difference I see is spelling and some unique words, but there are slangs/word only certain people use in certain parts of America too, tho it's more different than just slang/words, and it's getting close to truly being it's own language, like how Spanish and Portuguese were latin dielects but eventually they diverged sm from Latin that they couldn't understand each other anymore at all. Now days if I ur a Spanish speaker, like me, u could maybe get a couple words while really thinking about it, but not even close to how easy it is to understand scots, it's still diverging, but rn it's still english dielect
@@RaffleRaffle No, it's a separate language, not a dialect because Modern Scots did not come from Modern English. Both came are the offspring of Inglis, and older form of both languages.
Yes, there are huge similarities, but to be honest, when I talk in Scots it's only fellow Scots, or Ulster Scots who understand me. People who speak English can't understand.
Scots English on the other hand is dialect of English with Scots words thrown in.
Amazingly informative video! Appreciated the historical focus. I love learning how languages evolved over centuries.
Conversation in Aberdeen between two Scots and an Australian tourist who has asked for directions.:
"D'ye spik Anglish, Lassie? A dinna ken a wurd ya tockin aboot!"
"Can youse speek Inglish? I carn't unnerstan da werd yer sighin?"
"Ach, Hector! Wee forrin Lassie haes frae thee Antipodes!"
Her voice is angelic. I could listen to it all day. Scots is so pretty.
Hmmmm..... That's posh Southern Scots. We in the North East don't talk like that. You wouldn't be able to understand us at all. We speak Doric and it's very different from posh Scots!
Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a toun surpasses / For honest men an' angelic-voiced lassies 😆
Pretty viscious and domineering! As a de facto compliment
It's interesting to see similarities between Scots and Northumbrian and Geordie dialects.
In my opinion, as a Scots Doric speaker, Scots is a language and Doric is a dialect of Scots.
The presentation is great "bit A wid say a've jist ae bane tae pick wi ye". or I only have one bone to pick with you.
When Burns wrote "gettin fou", I would say that fou means full not the French crazy. I remember my Parents, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents using fou to mean full. "Am fou o a cauld" meanin I'm full of a cold. Another instance would be "Nae mair fur me. Am fou up" in English, No more (food) for me. I'm full up. In Doric fou can also be used to mean how as in the greeting "Fou's yir doos" which is a greeting asking 'how are you' but is literally translated as 'How's your Doves' (pigeons). Thank you for taking the time to make these videos, I enjoy them immensely.
In my experience as an English person living in Scotland, it is definitely a different language. I've loved in places with lots of accents, but what struck me when I moved to Glasgow was that the word order was different, and the verbs used were often used differently too. But because most people don't consider it a different language in themselves, and they often don't write it, it hard for them to pick out what is Scots and what is English. I think the example sentences you've picked out only show a small amount of Scots, becausr the word order is originally in English. If you record Scottish people talking to each other, and then ask them after to write down what they said, they'd most likely anglicise it a little afterwards. Because of the long held belief that it is meant to be said that way, even though they often don't say that when speaking to family or friends.
Well observed. As a Scot I notice that we have a weird habit when speaking to each other. If I'm talking to another Glaswegian and he doesn't hear what I said I'll automatically repeat it in standard English.
@@adz693 I speak English in a Scots accent in a Glaswegian dialect, but I know and understand Scots when I hear it.
Contrary to English perception, Scotland is a different country with a distinct culture (not just some cold and windy, midge-ridden version of England with tartan everywhere!). But there's only one person I ever met who spoke true Scots - she was a very old lady in the hinterlands of Dundee 40 years ago. Despite my knowledge of dialect Scots and vocab, she was simply incomprehensible, nor could she understand me. So, yes, I would say that Scots (not Gaelic nor heavily accented Scottish English) is a different language. Somehow this old lady had escaped the purges of teachers compelled to teach 'proper English' - probably because, having been born c. 1880s into a working family, she'd not spent more than a brief 5 years at a school.
@@adz693 I guess Spanish and French aren't different languages then: a Spanish person reading a French Tintin book, would be able to do what you did with the Scots version - so by your logic Spanish and French are the same language. Intelligibility is no guide to whether something is a separate language.
@@adz693 I speak Spanish and I can read most Portuguese, Galician and maybe even Italian books. I read Petit Prince cover to cover after a month of classes and since then can read whatever.. If they speak slow I can mostly understand it when spoken then fill the gaps. Then reading is piss easy.
When I travel to Brazil I dont bother with English, I just sprinkle my Spanish with some Portuguese vocab.
But we're still separate languages dude. From this vid, comments and Scot Twitter I can see it has more right to be a language than most.
As mentioned in the video, there are lots of dialects of Scots. The Scots used in this video is borders Scots, so it is easier to comprehend and most similar to English. Whereas the more northern dialects are completely incomprehensible to English people; for which I would definitely class as their own language. I have person experience of this, moving up from Manchester to work for a company in the borders, and being one of the only English employees. Most co-workers would tone down their Scots so I could understand, but I couldn't understand most people from the North. Aberdeen Scots and some of the Islands Scots can't even be understood by Southern mainland Scots speakers!
what is Aberdeen Scots and its origin? surely they would be purely celtic with some norse influence way up there?
@@hopclang9409 a widnæ say so like, aberdonian byleids of eh Scots leids are just ‘at, byleids o’ Scots, they dæ huv some influences fæ some bits eh gaelic but i widnæ say the vocabulary is ‘at different fæ my byleid, central-western lallands (oan eh border wi the heilands) wi a bit of the mid-central lallands cause eh ma time ‘ere however eh pronunciation cin catch ye oot if you dinnæ ken much æ they shift much like.
@@aarongaming100 I don't speak Scots, but I'll try my best to translate:
I wouldn't say so, [Idk], they do have some influences with some bits of gaelic but I wouldn't say the vocabulary is that different from my [idk], central-western lowlands (on the border with the highlands) with a bit of the mid-central lowlands because in my time here however the pronunciation can catch you out if you don't know much as they shift a lot.
Please tell me what byleids means
@@aarongaming100 A huv always called it Lallans too. Scottish parlimentary papers are written in Lallans - see if ye can understand them.
@@ppislander byleids = dialect
that diglossic term and the way you explained pretty much nailed it.
we fly through interchangeably without thinking
I LOVE YOUR CHANNEL! You explain it better than any I have seen!
The scots word efter for after is also efter in danish and frisian . The word yin as in the big yin meaning the big one , one is Ien pronounced yen in frisian . I grew up thinking we were talking slang but makes me proud we have hung on to these words for 1500 years .
I also noticed that the word for children was "bairns" which is not unlike Swedish, which the word is "barn".
thats only said in the east. in the west of scotland its "weans" pronounced wains, it comes from "wee ones"@@katherinemurphy2762
Scots speaker here who also speaks several non UK languages fluently (Spanish, Swedish, Catalan): to answer your question at the end, Scots in its historic 'purer' form is definitely a language. How many times have I met someone who speaks fluent Scots? Possibly never. Everyone speaks Scottish English with a varying degree of Scots thrown in depending on geographical location, company etc, but in this day and age you would be hard pressed to find anyone who converses in just Scots and nothing else.
The curious thing though is that, even if we don't necessarily speak pure Scots as such, we are perfectly capable of understanding it. I studied medieval Scots poetry at University, and the Scottish people in the class required little to no help in understanding the complex vocabulary. The international students were constantly using dictionaries.
So in summary, the knowledge is there, but the use, isolated, without dipping into another language (Scottish English ) isn't.
Blame centuries of being told it's shameful to speak Scots (and in the modern day, Netflix etc will finish the job)
Gràcies per havent compartit aquest tros d'informació. I també m'agrada moltíssim que pots parlar el català també. 🤩😍
I think the way they speak is awesome; it only sounds shameful because you never learned one or the other properly. when you speak to us with a mix you just sound like a Scotsman who never bothered to learn more than the bare minimum of English and to a Scotsman it sounds like you don't understand either language. i dont know why in Scotland they would bother with teaching you Scottish-English but not one or the other, so your basically stuck sounding like a hillbilly to either side of the fence.
Genuine question for you. How can someone not born in Scotland (or the UK) learn Scots as a language?
@@whoswho1233 Scots language explained: *Scots as a language is closely related to Old English* more so than Modern English with the Scots still using the same ancient vowels well after the great English vowel shift. The Scots language has one unique difference compared to Old English which they brought over from Gaelic which is VSO(verb-subject-object) within linguistic typology whereas English itself is SVO. *Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, but it has its own distinct dialects.* Alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian is closely linked to, but distinct from, Danish.
English Scots Old English
one ane an
two twa twa
four fower feower
go gang gan
always, ever aye a / (Norse ei)
you ye ge (ye)
know ken cennan
how hou (like hoo) hu (like hoo)
armpit oxster ohsta, oxta
stone stane stan
if gif gif
out out (like oot) ut (like oot)
town toun (like toon) tun (like toon)
against agin agen
child bairn baern (also cild, infant/unborn foetus)
borough burgh burg/burh
it hit hit
our our (like oor) ure (like ooruh)
cow/cows coo (sing) kye (plur) cu (sing) cy (plural)
eyes een (plural of ee) eagan (plural of eage)
shoes shuin (like shin) scon (plural of scoh, sc pronounced like sh)
So that sounding of a Scotsman is actually a Scot speaking in a more ancient vernacular tongue of Old English, which modern English people find difficult if not impossible to understand. Keep in mind Old English was a West Germanic language this is why some of our continental cousins can understand some Scots. I find it interesting the stigma associated with the Scottish speaking Scots especially by the English, when the Scots are merely keeping an oral tradition alive that the English have forsaken, their own. I'm a proud Scotsman who remembers his ancient history as it's still somewhat spoken today, Old English was and still is a major part of being Scottish especially in this modern day.
@@billmilligan7272 Read works in Scots :)
Matthew Fitt has original works and translations available: www.mfitt.co.uk/index.html
or go to the classics:
www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/tamoshanter.htm
This was a very well done video mate, cheers!
It's fascinating learning about this as someone from the North East of England, as we still share a lot of words with Scots, I guess due to the shared northumbrian history?
I'm from Iceland and speak Icelandic (a language very close to the Norse language). In Icelandic the word for Mouse is "Mús" and brown Cow is "brún kú". These words are pronounced exactly the same in Icelandic and Scots :) 4:42
Also how Children and Garden are written sounds very similar. 8:25
Gertinn83 Yes there’s a lot of Norse influence on Scots.
+Rabmcm32
Well, more precisely, the Norsemen (in about 930 A.D.) came to England (or "Englaland" during its Old English time), there was war and the Angles and Norsemen eventually made a treaty, started trading with each other, got married, and started mixing their languages through various means and for various reasons, thereby forming a late Old English.
Both Modern English and Scots have a lot (if not the same amount) of Old Norse influence on them, it's just that Modern English has many sound changes compared to Middle English and Modern Scots.
I recently visited Iceland and was told that Reek in Icelandic and Scots were the same: i.e. smoke. E.g. Reykjavik (pronounced reek avik ) and Auld Reekie a reference to smokie Edinburgh. Is this correct?
Cassandra One It will be, in Norwegian (modern Norse) which I speak somewhat smoke is “røyk “ pronounced “rouk” .reek is definitely used for smoke or smell in Scots. “That reeks of tobacco!” Etc.
Rabmcm32 Thanks for that. The pronunciation can, of course, vary but it appears they are the same.😁
Please do something about Quebec French vs. Parisian French. As a (mostly) fluent Parisian French speaker, I always find it hard to understand casual Quebec French. I would love to find out why...
And the Quebecois think we have the weird accent.
He should include Cajun French too! That's supposedly very different from Parisian French but I have no idea how closely it's related to Quebec French. It'd be an interesting video!
THIS! subtle differences in european french can be easily crossed over, but quebec is a different beast
Dented Pictures Cajun is a descendent of Acadian French, sourced ultimately from the settlers of Acadia, which is adjacent to Québec and comprises the modern-day provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island (though PEI is often neglected in the accounting of Acadia). The term 'Acadian' is where the term 'Cajun' ultimately derives from. The French settlers there were essentially identical to the settlers of Québec, and so their language was very similar.
Unlike Québec, though, Acadia was not merely taken over by the British, but subjected to a genocide known as 'Le Grand Dérangement', or 'The Great Upheaval' during the French and Indian Wars. Whether this genocide was on par with the English and French genocides of the native inhabitants of North America is a matter of debate, but it nevertheless encompassed the forceful removal, imprisonment, murder, and deportation of thousands of people to the rest of the British Empire, particularly along the New England coast.
Many of these people moved to France, but a significant number went to Louisiana, which at the time was still under French control. There they blended in with earlier French settlers and formed the Cajun culture. I'd be very interested in how their dialect of French diverged from that of Québec, and more broadly that of France itself.
Cause the "flow" is different in Quebec, it usually takes a few weeks for EuroFrench to get used to it. In Qc we also use short forms that Frenchs don't, like "faque" which is short for "cela fait que" or "tsé" = "tu sais". French that just got here think that we swear a lot (which is not completely false) because "faque" sounds like "F*ck"
Now that I’ve seen more of your videos, I believe that Scots is to English as Danish is to Swedish in terms of how related they are. If Danish and Swedish are different enough to be semi-intelligible yet different languages, then I think it’s fair to say that Scots and English are different languages for the same reason.
I just got back. And i have to say, Scots are the nicest friendliest people on this planet .
I was expecting to get treated like a tourist like in so many other countries but the people made me feel like i belonged there.
Shout out to Lucy that brought me to A'chrulaiste and saved me a 4 hour hike.
Shout out to the two guys with the sandwich stand just before Glencoe, you really gave some live saving advice . (And i liked your bacon sandwich.
"Brun ku and Mus" are Norwegian words, that's exactly how we say and write those words. I love Scots!
I think the Flemish ' koe' is also pronounced ' koo'.
They are not Norwegian words. They were just unaffected by the Great Vowel Shift, like the video clearly says. Those words are all from Old English.
Of course, they're all Germanic languages and diverged from Proto-Germanic. Some have diverged a lot more than others, particularly English, but they've all diverged (Icelandic being the one beautiful near exception) just in different ways due to different influences.
Think of 'Scots' as a more archaic form of English and a form of English slightly truer to its Germanic roots than modern standard English.
Amazing how much more similar Scots is to other Germanic languages than English. Some words, like mus and ku, as well as nacht and recht, are identical between Scots and other Germanic languages.
@Roughman Proto-Germanic didn't come from Norway. The Anglo-Saxons come from the area of the Old Saxons in northwestern Germany.
I think it's safe to say that at this point, Paul is the GOAT of RUclips linguists. Mad respect bro.
not to put Paul down, but check out nativlang if you haven't already
Winner. Everything you do, Paul, is "strictly top shelf" !
Fantastic video, thanks.
As an Ayrshire native though, we wouldn't say "bairns". More likely "weans" which is a contraction of "wee yins" ie "little ones". Bairns is more common in the east and north of Scotland. But both would be understood across all of Scotland.
In the Burns' poem. A "lang Scots mile" refers to the fact that at the time Scots miles were longer than English miles. In Ayr they still have a Scots mile marked out on the prom to show the difference, but for everyday use miles have been standardised to the English measurement now.
And to answer the final question, I think the attitude of Scots speakers about whether or not its a language is heavily influenced by having an anglo-centric media. It's difficult for speakers of mutually intelligible languages to understand that they are both equal in standing when one of the speakers of one of those languages assumes there's to be the "standard" and everything else to be a variation, accent, or colloquialism.
In my view it's a language. They may be mutually understandable up to a point, but that's heavily weighted towards Scots being able to understand all forms of spoken English, whilst many English would struggle to understand a conversation in 100% Scots as opposed to Scots English.
I also think that Scots themselves probably overstate themselves being able to speak Scots, and many of them saying they speak Scots are actually referring to Scots English and this leads to the large numbers saying they consider it a dialect rather than a language.
Would have been interesting to note that in Northern Ireland there are speakers of "Ulster Scots". A dialect of Scots itself, and closely related to the lalland Scots spoken in western parts of Galloway around Stranraer. It's not uncommon for someone to hear that Galloway accent and assume the speaker is Irish.
8:35 in Western Frisian, the word "Bern" means child.
"Beasties" IMO is an affectionate term for animals.
You haven't seen the things crawling around my ex wife's hoo-hah. There's nothing affectionate about them beasties.
@@CailenCambeul You could've shut up and spared us the image, but no.
@@faaznoushad1718 hahshaha
Cailen Cambeul What the hell
In dutch beestjes means little animals.
The tjes means that it is small. Just like in German when you put lein behind a word
Excellent. Thank you & merry Christmas :DDD
I love how you explain things. Before watching this I used to think Scots is just another dialect of English but not after watching this. And I wished I had seen this clip before watching Outlander!
I don't know much about Scots or Scotland, but it has to be one of the most fun-to-read and charming-to-the-ear versions of English in existence.
Have you ever been to Scotland though? Absolutely mesmerising. Get yourself up to the Isle of Lewis & Harris. Visit Stornoway (gaelic: Steornobàgh)! But make sure you drive the entire way from Glasgow up through Glencoe, Fort William, Kinlochleven, up to Kyle of Lochalsh and Skye then on the ferry to Lewis. What a journey. Especially through Glencoe. You honestly cant believe you're still in the UK. Scotland is hands down, one of the most beautiful scenic countries in the world.
Do not forget Muile... well said.
Yes it is...……...another country and a shock to English mores as to how these islands look...…...wild and wonderful!
Norway is so beautiful too. We all see that these people take very good ❤ care of their countries to keep them so beautiful.
Scotland is very beautiful, sometimes a morose, austere beauty. It's my spiritual home. But it's more than the physical landscape, it's the human interactions in place and time that give Scotland its sometime haunted quality, especially in the Highlands. I live in NZ and it's a stunningly beautiful place too, but there nature's best beauty is the where there is total wildness and you take it entirely on its own terms, but it's not quite the same and NZ has a very covetous way of "looking after" much of their landscape. Every country has its own beauty and history which, if the citizens look after it, they deserve to take pride in. Too many societies now fail to look after their places and we're too greedy for the resources nature can sustainably provide. .
I love your stuff Langfocus, thanks for replying! Keep-on making Canada proud! (My cousins are part Hungarian and they look a bit like you [it’s a compliment; they’re both crazy-star athletes (Judo)] so I thought there might be some Hungary in there) Long live languages!
So awesome! Please make more videos about English accents. Love your channel
a always thought a was just speaking in a heavier scottish accent when a speak like that lol, never realised some people consider it a different language
fifi mclauchlan aye ken
Nothing worse than when you perfectly articulate yourself only to be told...
"Wit?"
You're now bilingual
Anooo
Some people? It is a different language.
i have more interest in this youtube channel than anything else in school
me too
Good-bye public schools; like the libraries full of fake news and attitudes.
Schools are getting corrupted by too many SJWs pushing their agendas on to other people's kids. Just use the internet.
Scots in your examples seems to bear a lot of resemblances to the Yorkshire dialect, which makes sense in a historic context of them both being dialects of the Kingdom of Northumbria. Brilliant video!
Could you give examples?
OMG, this is so enlightening. I wish I knew this channel during my undergraduate days when I was studying Varieties of English.
I feel Scots is a historical form of standard English, that a region has inadvertently preserved. However, because of the evolution of English language over the years, Scots now appears distinct; so much that there is a debate about whether it is a stand-alone language or a dialect of English.
Like regions of England, there are historical forms different to the standard. Scotland isn't much different to England, in all honesty
This video reminds me on how the Russian and Ukrainian languages are related. They both have almost identical grammar and syntax with major differences in vocabulary and pronouncation
And the Belarusian Language too. But Russians are barely understand ukranians and belarusian people. Nevertheless I am belarusian and can speak with ukranians in my language and we'll totally understand each other. Even poles can understand the Belarusian Language. I like this fact so much.
katsyaruna ksl yes indeed
@@unknown_author русские плохо понимают? пхахха что ты несёшь
Thank you SO MUCH for this!!!
Thank you for this!
Glaswegian here!
Usually "Scots" tends to be used in a more informal environment since it is seen a bit of slang. So I when I am chatting with friends and family it's " aye, naw , fud,... etc" while in a formal environment such as work or at university standard English only.
I would consider Scots a language since it has dialects within itself. For example Glaswegians, Cunts from Edinburgh and Aberdonians have very different words for each other. In Glasgow we call kids Waens.
Is American a language or dialect?
Mark Quinton it's a disease. 😁
American English is formally called a register, by linguists. It is definitely not a separate language, though there is no agreed consensus on what makes a language. Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are functionally the same language, but with different nation status. Croatian and Serbian, though using a different alphabet, are about as different as East and West Coast American English - at best! This suggests that for a common tongue to be regarded as a separate language, the people of a certain nation or community have to regard it as such, claiming it officially as their state language. If there is a referendum and Americans vote to consider their tongue a separate language from that spoken in England and the Commonwealths then you might be able to say it is. Even then, I would be uncomfortable with that, though.
There are dialect variations within Dialects in German. With northern and southern dialect bunches deferring. Many of which were once incomprehensible to one another, yet still regarded as the same language. Having multiple dialects does not make Scots a separate language.
I personally feel it is a dialect grouping of English, as I like to think we have dialects that are hard to understand by mainstream speakers within our own culture, as other language spheres do. But that is not a fact. You can claim it as your own language, and it might technically count as such if you can rally enough of your brethren to that aim :)
The US doesn't have national referendums like other countries. State governments can but the only federal government positions that are democratically elected are house member and members of the senate. All other positions and rules of the federal government are not directly elected by the people. There is proper English which we use for university and official documents however common spoken english in the US has a lot of imported words from other non english languages and even various english dialects.
Which brings me to my next point, while american english has several dialects, no one considers it a separate language. JD argued that scotts is a language because it has dialects.
American English speaker here... I remember hearing a somewhat agitated conversation in Scots a couple steps behind me in Edinburgh. At first it sounded like a foreign language, but after a few seconds of hearing the pieces, it all fell together and I could follow the gist of it pretty clearly.
Amazing how you can piece together things in a language you don't know from ones you do. A native English speaker, I was visiting Sweden and stopped in front of a castle. There was a board with two entrance prices, with the words 'barn' and 'vuxna' next to them. I guessed the first was 'children' from the Scots word 'bairn', then after thinking hard about 'vuxna', I remembered that in German an adult is called a 'grownup', or 'erwachsene'. The latter word when spoken sounds very similar to 'vuxna'.
Then in the Netherlands, the dial on my washing machine was in Dutch. I immediately recognised 'wit' as 'white'. There were a number of unfamiliar words on the dial and I really struggled with the Dutch word 'bont'. No idea what that was. Then suddenly, it looked like the German word 'bunt', or 'coloured'. Sometimes just changing a vowel gets you there!
I love Scots! I wish it was spoken in the US. It has so much character.
For me, Scots and English are almost identical, purely because when hearing Scots I instantly understand it and it’s not like a whole other language. Plus how easy it is to speak both at the same time, a lot is pronunciation and and a lot slang. I live in North East England now which shares a lot of slang with Scots, although not everything.
However, what makes me think it may be a language is the difficulty some people seem to have understanding us speaking ‘broad Scots’, as in having a heavy Scottish accent and speaking Scots. Most British people get the gist, but not always, and anyone from outside of Britain really struggle. It’s a hard one to call.
Now that I’ve moved i miss Scots a lot, hearing it makes my heart swell.
I'm Welsh and I can't understand Scots for the life of me. It's definitely a separate language in my mind. 😅 O eich Celtaidd cefndryd: Mae Scots yn unig fel llawer o iaith fel Cymraeg yn. Amddiffyn ei. 🥰💖🏴🏴
I'm from North East England and lived in Scotland (Glasgow, then Edinburgh) for 5 years. I rarely had a problem understanding anyone, it's obvious that Northern English and Scots are basically the same, just the accents are different.
@@RussellsParadox7 they are definitely very similar but I wouldn’t say they’re exactly the same. For example ‘canny’/‘cannae’ are pronounced the same way (except for the accent but in essence they’re pronounced the same) yet they mean completely different things. In the north east it can mean ‘nice’ or ‘quite’ whereas in Scotland it means ‘can’t’. In the north east we’d say ‘can’t’ as ‘cannit’.
Scots also takes a lot of words from Dutch for some reason like ‘ken’ meaning ‘know’ and in Dutch it’s ‘kennen’ which means ‘to know’. We don’t have that in the north east.
Obviously we share things like ‘aye’ and ‘bairn’, but Scots also has ‘wean’ that we don’t use down here.
Tam o Shanter:
"fou" is not from the French for "crazy"; it's the Scots equivalent of "full" and is related to the German "voll". In this context, it means downing more drink than you can really hold.
As a multilingual Scot (speaking English, French, German and Spanish as well as Scots, and with a passive understanding of several other Germanic and Romance languages), I can say that Scots definitely is a language of its own. It has its own grammar and its own dialects, and is not a dialect of English. It is recognised as a minority language under the European Charter for Minority languages.
As a Frenchman and a semiologist, I can also agree that I'm doubtful this word comes from french in this particular use. We do use the expression "faire les fous", basically being wild after getting drunk (or sober in some instances), but then Burns wouldn't have use "getting", most probably "making".
I have always taken "fou" to mean "drunk". I spent my childhood in Campbeltown, Kintyre and an expression meaning "drunk" there is '"fu' as a wilk" ("full as a whelk" - the whelk completely fills its shell)! I realise the spelling in the poem is the same as the French for "mad" but think you have over-intellectualised the interpretation of this word!
In Swedish it is 'full' as it is in other Scandinavian dialects/languages.
Sometimes it's just a coincidence, especially in one syllable words. One word that caught my attention however is "beasties". In French Canadian, we use "bibites"', which a variation on "bébêtes", meaning small beast. The term is used in exactly the same way, as in referring to insects, small animals, even children.
As someone who also speaks several languages I can confirm Scots is not a language it is not even really a dialect.
It doesn’t seem that different from English. But then the same could be said about the romance languages - they can seem quite similar to each other especially in routine daily activities/conversations.
The lassie speaking in this video is not speaking the way she would outside and if she is she will be from some of the more we'll off areas. You would hear a difference speaking to me that's if you understood anything. Alexa never gets switched on in my house and if it does I usually catch the wean shouting at it cause it doesn't understand 😂. Voice recognition doesn't work here.
Thank you so much, sir! I found most of the informations I was searching for thanks to this video🎉🎉
After getting used to hearing Scots call cows cu my whole life, it tripped me up when I started to learn Scottish Gaelic. In Scottish Gaelic, cù means dog. Their word for cow is bò. I have lost some points on quizzes because cu meaning cow is so firmly ingrained in my mind. :)
2:12 Well, that explains the name of the capital: Edinburgh. Thank you for pointing our the correct pronunciation! I bet the Scottish thank you for that too.
unlike over here in Edinburgh /edin burg/ Indiana. Everything foreign is pronounced wrong all over the state, like Notre Dame being /noder deim/
I'm sick of people calling it "Edinberg"....."bu-rugh", is it really so difficult to say?..........if it was supposed to be pronounced "Edin-berg",,we would have fucking spelled it "Edinberg"! or "Edinburg"..the "h" is there for a reason people
Americans who don't know pronounce it "Edin-burg", those who think they know pronounce it "Edin-borrow"
really it's "Edin-bruh" (or Embra like they like to say in Glasgow) not that hard...
Is it not pronounced "Edin-buh-ruh" with a nice tapped r in Edinburgh?
TheWiseSalmon almost, don't pronounce the h's though
Wow!!! Good one, keep em coming!
My favourite thing about the language is that it's so amazingly easy to get wrong because it has a rhythm to it. Plus, every second word SHOULD be an expletive. It's one of the reasons why when Americans and Canadians use the term "Shite", it hits Scottish ears wrong. The PROPER way of using the word:
- "Awae an dinnae talk shite"
- "Yer cars a heap ey shite, mate!"
- "Haud oan, ah cannae come tae the door, mah nickers ur it mah ankles an ah'm in the middle ay hivin a shite."
Just notifying that in Scots the word "C-nt" is quite an important staple of the language. That's both a term of endearment, a familial term and an insult. WONDERFUL language.
I love Scots. It's appropriate that poetry plays such a role in it's canon because it has some a wonderful, lyrical quality to it.
I've got Burns complete works. Tam 0'Shanter is one of my favourites. I wonder how many people know that Shanter is a place and exists to this day
Opinion------English and Scots are probably best thought of as sister languages.
fraternal twins
@dom toredo Even more so.
I think their the same language.
Or, and most appropriately - a hermaphrodite !...
but... wouldn't Scottish English be her sister language? And Scots a near cousin?
Great video, as a Scotsman you're spot on. I use scots on a sliding scale that I didn't even realise I using.
Bro you explained a poem better than my english teacher
In England- I KNOW
In Scotland-AH KEN (similar to Dutch)
gmaccruyff55 In the Northeast it is 'knaw' too
No sir not flemish which was inflenced by the delayed transcience of the vikings that could not swim. Ken(der) is a typically Gothic term and common to the Scandinavian languages.
In Edinburgh you hear "ken" but not in Glasgow - just 40 miles apart, the forms of Scots are different.
kaczynski S Aye, "ken's" an East Coast word. Another East Coast term is "dinnae" or "dinna" meaning "don't," whereas we on the West Coast would use "gonnie no' " (going to, not). The variations across Scotland are many but probably indistiguishable (and sometimes unintelligible) to a non-native Scot. :)
Must be related to the swedish word "känna" which means "feel" (or "know" but only in the context of knowing someone)
I propose a new maxim: “A language is a dialect that someone makes a RUclips video about” 😄
I find this a helpfully detailed video, Ill probably watch another . Thank you
The only amend I would make to this is "Getting fou" from tam o shanter is actually getting full, like getting full of alcohol. As a Scots speaker, I use this all the time.
Well, since you asked ... how long can a RUclips post be?
I'm a speaker of Scots - two dialects, in fact - as well as being one of the few Scots speakers who have taught themselves to write it as a language.
I stress 'as a language' because whether something is perceived as a language or not depends largely on how it is treated. In Scotland, Scots is treated as dialect, therefore it is not perceived as a language. If it were treated as a language - with an orthography, recognised grammatical structure, etc - then it would be perceived as a language. There is a body of opinion which says it is a language but treats it as dialect (not 'a dialect' because there are a number of Scots dialects) but this is largely a means of getting kudos ('it's a language') for the process of treating it as dialect, thus ensuring that it never actually achieves the status of a language. In other words, official recognition as a language is a paper exercise to guard against it actually being used as a language. One of the characteristics of the Scottish mentality - which I call 'cannyscottery' - is that the independence movement in Scotland has hardly any interest in Scots as a language, in contrast to Catalonia, for example. There is also a large body of opinion in Scotland which values Scots not only for its dialect status, but also for its value to creative writers as an index of disreputablilty; and writers with these views are widely regarded as the doyens of Scots by educators. I cannot explain why this viewpoint has been accepted by so many Scots speakers and activists.
I have a website on these themes here:
sites.google.com/site/scotsthreip/
The introduction to the video is very good - as are the pronunciations - but the examples just illustrate the problem. For one thing, there are errors. Where did the idea that 'fou' comes from French 'fou' come from? It is the Scots cognate of English 'full' and is used to mean drunk just as 'full' is in the Scandinavian languages. Also - is there a glottal stop in 'gairden'? I hear 'dn' - i.e, d followed by n without an intervening vowel.
The examples, as I say, illustrate the problem - firstly the diglossic situation, and secondly the fact that there is no agreed way of writing Scots. This means that all of the examples given are on the diglossic continuum. For example, if the Ayrshire examples were really written as dialect - that is, to represent pronunciations to an English-speaking readership - the word 'shop' would normally be written 'shoap', as the reader in fact pronounces it. Conversely, if they were written as general Scots, 'night' would be spelt 'nicht', representing the velar fricative [x] which occurs in that word in traditional Scots dialects. 'Wurk' is a dialect spelling of an English form - the traditional Scots is 'wark' for the noun and 'work' or 'wirk' for the verb, though scarcely any Scots dialect preserves this distinction nowadays. 'Much' is another English form - the traditional Scots is 'muckle.' In fact, the examples are dialect, not only in that they are transcriptions of dialects - up to a point - but in that they are very much Anglicised dialect.
I should say before I go on that most of the things I have said above would be repudiated by the standard issue Scots pundits, who decry any attempt to define Scots as linguistic fascism - a criterion they do not extend to standard English, which is the native language of most of them anyway.
The Burns example shows similar problems. Burns not only wrote a mixture of Scots and English - in his time, there was no doubt that it was dialect - he also sometimes used English spellings intending them to be pronounced as Scots - for example 'heart' intending it to be pronounced 'hert'. This can be seen from his rhymes. Because modern Scots are unaware of this - because they have no education in Scots - hardly anyone pronounces his poems with this in mind. Curiously, your reader does the opposite - pronouncing 'warm' with its Scots pronunciation (with an 'a' sound) whereas the rhyme with 'storm' suggests that Burns intended the English pronunciation (with an 'o' sound) to be used. On the other hand, she pronounces 'water' and 'our' as if English, whereas Burns equally likely intended them to be pronounced with their Scots pronunciations 'watter' and 'oor.'
In other words, this video is not really a comparison of Scots and English, or even an examination of Scots. Rather, it is an example of the uncertainties and ambiguities created by the diglossic situation, in a country where the language is patronised at best, despised at worst, and valued for its disreputability by its best-known proponents. Because of this, what I have written above will be regarded as offensive by many Scots, both those who approve of Scots and those who don't.
Apparently, they can be longer than I though. :P
Most interesting and informative, Hinderlengjes.
saying that defining the language is linguistic fascism is just silly isn't it? As if it'd stop people speaking and spelling it however they pleased. I've never heard of university professors fielding armies to crush people that don't speak English correctly, and like the man says, English is a dialect that HAS an army
"I've never heard of university professors fielding armies to crush people that don't speak English correctly"
I should add, not in recent history, and the subjugation of the highland culture doesn't count because I'm just being silly, and all the light-hearted wind would be blown out of the sails of my jolly ship of mirth if I brung up actual ethnic cleansing in my daft analogies
Hinderlengjes I think you're rather wonderful. 😊
Maist bodies 'ere in Scotland dinnae think Scots tae be a different leid. We've been tellt for years by teachers it's slang an nae richt.
"Most people here in Scotland did not think Scots to be a different language. We have been told for years by teachers it's a slang and not right". Its just a dialect
@@Mulberry2000 *don't
@@WilliamAndrea bah do not is my interpretation
Not that I’m aware of.
All I can say is if it wasn't a different language I, as a native english speaker would have an easier time understanding it. After all, every language was once a dialect. It's fascinating to watch a new language slowly form.
Scots slang is utterly charming. I find it relatively easy to decode much of what they are saying in the video, and it has an madly fun whimsicality about it, which def makes it attractive. Maybe this affinity is partly in my blood, having a Scots surname myself. American English-speaking native here.
THIS IS NOT SLANG. This is a language in it's own right, the examples in this video are a mixture of scots and English anyway.
I am from Edinburgh in Scotland and I’ve never heard such a great explanation or explanatory examples of how we speak in Scotland. An example of how we fluctuate between Scottish and English depending on the situation. I Have a slightly more middle class way of speaking like sometimes saying “ya” instead of yes as i grew up in a affluent area in Edinburgh. My accent switches between middle class and working class depending on the situation. Thank you for this fascinating lecture.
As a Scotsman i have always said that i speak in Scottish as if it where a language of its own. Contradictory i sometimes say that i speak in English. I believe that most Scots think this way and most certainly from Edinburgh.
I first learned of (and fell in love with) Scots through Irvine Welsh's novels. Such a wonderful language (or dialect)!
Try listening to The Corries. You'll find them on RUclips. ruclips.net/user/results?search_query=The+Corries
u should listen to alastair mcdonald
"Well, Scots began without an army. Than it got one. Than is lost it. *And maybe it will have one again in the future*."
-Paul of the "Langofocus", Juni 2017.
Remember this quot, my children! I believe Paul is predicting the future a bit here.
Great presentation Paul.👍 I would say Scots seems to be a hodge-podge of other mixed languages , as well as present day English. Quite fascinating.
Also spoken in Northern Ireland due to very many folk of Scots ancestry, like myself.