Abstract

The Scots language belongs to the Teutonic Germanic language family essentially spoken in the Lowland Scots area covering central and southern Scotland as well as the north-eastern part of the country. It is divided into four different groups of varieties, i.e. the Broad Scots dialectal group spoken in southern Scotland, the Doric dialect spoken in the north-eastern part of Scotland, the Insular Scots group spoken in the Shetland and Orkney Islands and the most spoken and written Scots dialectal group called Central Scots extending from the central western to the central eastern part of the country. The study carried out in the East Lothian county from 13 August to 21 August 2018 had the purpose to analyse the syntax and grammar of the local Lothian Scots and to determine if it still survives in the pervasive wave of Standard England English. A semi-structured type questionnaire was distributed to 17 people during this period revealing a radically different grammatical attitude from the other enquiries conducted in the Scottish Borders five years earlier.

Highlights

  • The Scots language belongs to the Teutonic Germanic language family essentially spoken in the Lowland Scots area covering central and southern Scotland as well as the north-eastern part of the country

  • The survival of the Scots language in its mixed and traditional forms is conspicuously in a very fragile state. It is considered by the majority of the Scottish population in the East Lothian county as a dormant or dead idiom

  • Scots in this Scottish territory is located on the extreme right side of Douglas’ dialectal continuum, in which, phonologically speaking, just a hint of Scots is used among most inhabitants in what is termed the Scottish Standard English dialect spoken in numerous sectors of the East Lothian county

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Summary

Dialectal Enquiry

This was a semi-structured questionnaire containing both closed, semi-closed, and open questions distributed randomly in four towns of the East-Lothian county: Dunbar, North Berwick, Haddington and Musselburgh. This remains the most adapted meaning for this respondent when generating Yes-No Questions in Central Scots Both modals are only present three times, couldnae (twice) and cannae (once), in negative sentences. The grammatical nature changes in the eleventh sentence in which used tae is a verbal form due to the presence of the primary auxiliary do in the past located before used tae This time the Central Scots negator nae was proposed by the respondent and attached to the Primary Auxiliary. She has a basic knowledge of Central Scots and combines a few Scots words with Standard English quite often She maintained the second modal in sentences (1), (2), and (4) accompanied by two types of Scots sentential negators nae and ny and she never uses the Multiple Modality system. Despite the significant increase of dialect mixing of Scots with Standard England English, an interesting list of morphological words and expressions continue to survive in the mainstream anglicised East Lothian county

Defining Scots
Scots Dialect Labels
Frequency of Use
Social Contexts
Conclusion

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