A word-final /kt/ reduced to /k/[8] except in some inflected forms (e.g. Modern Scots act, expect, strict).
/pt/ reduced to /p/ in final position (e.g. Modern Scots attempt, corrupt).[8] Note that the English words like empty that come from OE words that did not have a /pt/ cluster also don’t have clusters in Scots (in this case, OE æmetiġ became Scots empy).
/nd/ often reduced to /n/ (e.g. OE frēond, 'friend', became Modern Scots freend).[8][7]
Final /ld/ often reduced to /l/ (e.g. Modern Scots auld 'old').[8]
OE /kn/ and /ɡn/ clusters appeared word-initially, though this feature is now highly recessive (e.g. knaw, 'know'; gnegum, 'tricky nature').[8][7]
While OE /sk/ became /ʃ/ in Modern English, Scots has retained the original pronunciation (e.g. OE sċylfe, 'shelf', became skelf).[8] Old English /s/ became /ʃ/ when adjacent to a front vowel (e.g. shinners from OE sinder, 'cinder').
In contexts where OE /k/ and /ɡ/palatalized to /tʃ/ and /dʒ/, respectively, in Modern English (that is, after a front vowel), Scots has retained the original velar pronunciation:[8]
OE birċe → Scots birk and English birch
OE brēċ → Scots breeks and English britches
OE þæċ → Scots thack and English thatch
OE ġiċċan → Scots yeuk and English itch
OE hryċġ → Scots rig and English ridge
Word final OE /θ/ (written ⟨ð⟩ or ⟨þ⟩) was deleted in a few words (e.g. OE mūþ, 'mouth', became mou in Scots).[9][7]
OE /x/ was lost in English, but remained in Scots, spelled ⟨ch⟩:[9]
OE beorht → Modern Scots bricht and English bright
OE hlōh → Modern Scots lauch and English laugh
OE þōht → Modern Scots thocht and English thought
However, some words such as tho (though) and throu ('through') have dropped the /x/.
Old English /hw/ became /xw/ for a number of speakers, though /hw/ is widespread (e.g. OE hwæt, 'what', became whit).[9]
Metathesis occurred in some words (e.g. OE græs, 'grass', became girse).[7]
OE /ɡ/ became vocalised after /o/ resulting in the diphthong /ʌu/ in Modern Scots (e.g. boga, 'bow', became bowe).[8][10]
Similarly, in the Early Scots period, /l/ was vocalized after:
/u/ (e.g. pullian, 'pull', became Modern Scots pou).[10]
/o/ (e.g. bolster, 'bolster', became Modern Scots bowster),[10] becoming /ou/ and then changing to /ʌu/ in Modern Scots.[11]
/a/ (e.g. healdan, 'hold', became Modern Scots haud);[10] becoming /ɑː/ and then changing to /ɑ/ or /ɔ/, depending on dialect.
Vowels
The following table shows the modern realisation of the various Scots vowels along with their pronunciation in Early Scots, the Early Middle English vowels they can largely be derived from, and the main Old English sources of these vowels. See also Middle English phonology for a more in-depth overview of the Old English sources of the Early Middle English vowels below. External sources are: For the principal Old English, Norse and Romance sources of the Early Scots vowels see Aitken, A.J, (Ed. Macafee C.) (2002) pp.89–95; for an overview of the historical developments see Vowel systems of Scots: a rough historical outline in A History of Scots to 1700, p. lvii.
Old English and Old Norse ī and ȳ, Old English i+ld and y+nd, as well as Old French i became /iː/ in Early Scots then /ei/ in Middle Scots and subsequently conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule to /əi/ when short and /aɪ/ or /ɑɪ/ when long in Modern Scots, for example: wyce (wise), wyte (blame), bide (remain), kye (cows), hive and fire from wīs, wīte, bīdan, cȳ, hȳf and fȳr. Similarly with Norse grice (pig), sile (strain), tyke (curr), lythe (shelter) and tyne (lose), and Romance advice, fine, cry, sybae (onion) but where Romance words entered Scots after this sound shift the original /i/ (Vowel 2) remained in Scots, for example bapteese (baptise), ceety (city), ceevil (civil), eetem (item), leeberal (liberal), leecence (license), meenister (minister), obleege (oblige), peety (pity), poleetical (political), poseetion, releegion (religion) and speerit (spirit).
Similarly with Old French ai and ei, for example Modern Scots chyce (choice), eynment (ointment), eyster (oyster), evyte (avoid), jyne (join), ile (oil), pynt (point), syle (soil), spyle (spoil) and vyce (voice)
Vowel 2
Old English ē became /eː/ in Early Scots then /iː/ in Middle Scots and /i/ in Modern Scots, for example: bee, breest breast, cheese, creep, deed, freend (friend), hear, heich (high), knee, seek (sick), sheep, sleep, teeth and wheen a few from bēo, brēost, ċēse, crēap, dēd, frēond, hēran, hēah, cnēo, sēoc, sċēp, slēp, tēþ and hwēne. Also grieve (overseer) from grœfa.
Vowel 3
Old English ea and ēa became /ɛː/ in Early Scots, merging with vowel 2 (/i/) or vowel 4 (/e/) in Middle Scots depending on dialect or lexeme, except for a few Northern Scots dialects where it became /ɛi/,[12] for example Modern Scots: beard, breid (bread), deid (dead), deif (deaf), heid (head), meat (food), steid (stead) and tread from beard, brēad, dēad, dēaf, hēafod, mete, stede and tredan. Similarly with Romance words like beast, cheat, conceit, creitur (creature), deceit, ease, please, ream (cream), reison and seison.
Vowel 4
Old English ā became /a/ in Early Scots then /eː/ in Middle Scots and /e/ in Modern Scots, for example: aik (oak), ait (oat), braid (broad), gae (go), hale (whole), hame (home), lade (load), mair (more), raip (rope), saip (soap), sair (sore) and nae (no) from āc, āte, brād, gā, hāl, hām, lād, māra, rāp, sāp and nā.
Before /n/, now /e/ in Modern central, southern and Ulster varieties and /i/ in northern varieties, for example: ane (one), ance (once), bane (bone), gane (gone), nane (none) and stane (stone) from ān, ānes, bān, gān, nān and stān. Similarly with Norse, for example frae (from), kail (cole) and spae (foretell) from frá, kál and spá. The vowel /e/ occurs in other words of Norse origin, for example graith (harness), hain (spare) and lair (mud) from greiða, hagna and leir.
Before /r/ + consonant, depending on dialect, now /e/ or /ɛ/ in Modern Scots, for example: airm (arm), airae (arrow), bairn (child), dairn (darn), hairm (harm), hairst (harvest), wairm (warm) and shairp (sharp) from earm, arwe, derne, hearm, hærfest, wearm and sċearp. Similarly with aiple (apple), aix (axe), efter (after), peth (path), and wraith (wrath) from æpel, æx, æfter, pæþ and wræþþu. Similarly with Romance caird (card), cairy (carry), gairden (garden), regaird (regard), mairy (marry), mairtyr (martyr) and pairt (part).
Vowel 5
In open position o became /o̞ː/ in Early Scots then eventually /o/ in Modern Scots, for example: coal, foal, hole and thole endure.
Vowel 6
Old English ū became /uː/ in Early Scots then /u/ in Middle Scots, remaining so but Stem final it became /ʌu/ in Southern Scots, for example Modern Scots: brou (brow), broun (brown), cou (cow), dou (dove), doun (down), house (house), hou (how), mou (mouth), mouse (mouse), nou (now), sour (sour) and thoum (thumb) from brū, brūn, cū, dūfe, dūn, hūs, hū, mūþ, mūs, nū, sūr and þūma. Similarly with Norse boun (ready), couer (cower), droup (droop) and stroup (spout), and Romance allou (allow), bouat (lantern), count (count), dout (doubt), pouder (powder) and round (round).
Vowel 6a
Older Scots /u̞l/ became vocalised to /u/ by the Middle Scots period,[10] for example Modern Scots: fou (full), pou (pull) and oo (wool) from full, pullian and wull. Similarly Romance coum (culm) and poupit (pulpit).
Vowel 7
Old English ō, ēo became /øː/ in Early Scots becoming /ø/ in Modern peripheral dialects. In Fife and parts of Perthshire Middle Scots /øː/ merged with vowel 4 (/e/). In Modern central varieties it has merged with vowel 15 (/ɪ/) in short environments conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, for example: bluid (blood), duin (done), muin (moon) and spuin (spoon) from dōn, blōd, mōna, and spōn. Similarly with Romance words like bruit (brute), fruit, schuil (school), tuin (tune), uiss (use n.).
In central varieties Middle Scots /øː/ merged with vowel 4 (/eː/) in long environments conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, for example Modern Scots: buird (board), fuird (ford), fluir (floor) and muir (moor) from bōrd, fōrd, flōr and mōr along with dae (do), shae (shoe) and tae (to) from dō, scō and tō. Similarly with Norse words like Fuirsday (Thursday), luif (palm) and ruise (praise), and Romance words like puir (poor), shuir (sure), uise (use v.).
In northern varieties Middle Scots /øː/ merged with vowel 2 (/i/), in Mid Northern varieties after /ɡ/ and /k/ it became /wi/, for example Modern Scots: guid (good), cuil (cool), from gōd, cōl and Dutch cuit (ankle), and Romance schuil (school). Note: But not Modern Scots fit (foot), wid (wood), wad (would), oo (wool), coud (could) and shoud/su(l)d (should).
A following /k/ or /x/ resulted in Modern Scots /ju/, /u/, /jʌ/ and/or /ʌ/ depending on dialect, for example: beuch (bough), beuk (book), ceuk (cook), eneuch (enough), heuch (cliff), heuk (hook), leuch (laughed), leuk (look), pleuch (plough), sheuch (ditch), teuch (tough) and teuk (took) from bōh, bōc, cōc, ġenóh, hōh, hōc, hlōh, tōc, plōh, sōh, tōh and tōc.
Vowel 8
Old English a or æ in open position became /ai/ in Early Scots then /ɛ/ in Middle Scots and subsequently /e̞ː/, /e/ or /eə/ in Modern Scots, though /ɛː/ may also occur, especially in Ulster, for example: faither (father), gaither (gather), haimer (hammer), day, brain, fair, nail and tail from fæþer, gaderian, hamer, dæġ, bræġen, fæġer, næġel and tæġel. Similarly with Norse cake, gate (street), sale and scaith (damage).
Vowel 8a
Older Scots stem final /ai/ became /ɛi/ in Middle Scots merging with vowel 1 (/əi/) in Modern Scots.
Vowel 9
Older Scots /o̞i/ became /oe/ in Modern Scots.
Vowel 10
Early Scots /ui/ merged with vowel 1 (/əi/) in Modern Scots.
Vowel 11
Early Scots /ei/ in stem final positions, became /eː/ then /iː/ in Middle Scots merging with vowel 2 (/i/) in Modern Scots.
Vowel 12
Old English ag-, aw- and āw became /au/ in Early Scots then /ɑː/ in Middle Scots and subsequently, depending on dialect, /ɑ/ or /ɔ/ in Modern Scots, for example: draw, gnaw, and law from dragan, gnagan, haga and lagu, and Norse maw (seagull) and claw from maga and clawa. blaw (blow), craw (crow), maw (mowe), sawe (sow), saul (soul) and snaw (snow) from blāwan, crāwe, māwan, sāwan, sāwol and snāwan. Similarly with Old English āg and Norse lágr which became awn (to own) and law (low).
Before /x/ and /n/ + consonant, Middle Scots /a/ also became /ɑ/ or /ɔ/ in Modern Scots, for example: caunle (candle), draucht (draught), haund (hand), lauch (laugh), saund (sand) and slauchter (slaughter) from candel, draht, hand, hlæhhan, sand and slæ. Similarly with Norse baund (band), Dutch fraucht (freight), and Romance chancy, glanders, graund, and stank (a drain).
Vowel 12a
Older Scots /al/ became vocalised to /ɑː/ by the Middle Scots period[10] and subsequently, depending on dialect, /ɑ/ or /ɔ/ in Modern Scots, for example: aw (all), caw (call), fauch (fallow), faw (fall), gaw (gall), haud (hold), haw (hall), maut (malt), sauch (sallow), saut (salt), smaw (small), staw (stall) and waw (wall) from eal, ceallian, fealh, fallan, gealla, healdan, hall, mealt, salh, sealt, smæl, steall and wall. Similarly with Norse hause (neck) and Romance aum (alum), baw (ball) and scaud (scald).
Vowel 13
Old English ów became /o̞u/ in Older Scots then /ʌu/ in Modern Scots, for example: flowe (flow), glowe (glow), growe (grow) and stowe (stow) from flōwan, glōwan, grōwan and stówiġan.
Vowel 13a
Early Scots /ol/ became vocalised to /o̞u/ by the Middle Scots period[10] and subsequently diphthongised to /ʌu/ in Modern Scots.[11] In some dialects this is vocalising to /o/ especially before /k/, for example Modern Scots: bowster (bolster), bowt (bolt), cowt (colt), gowd (gold), howe (hollow), knowe (knoll), powe (poll) and towe (toll) from bolster, bolt, colt, gold, holh, cnol, polle and toll. Similarly with Romance rowe (roll) and sowder (solder), also Dutch gowf (golf).
Vowel 14
Older Scots /iːu/ (a) and Older Scots /ɛːu/ (b(i)) became /iu/ in Middle Scots then /iu/ or /(j)u/ in Modern Scots.
Vowel 14b(ii)
Older Scots /ɛo̞u/ became /iuu/ in Middle Scots then /(j)ʌu/ in Modern Scots.
Vowel 15
Old English i and y became /ɪ/ in Early Scots, remaining so, but approach /ʌ/ in some Modern dialects especially after /w/ and /hw/, for example Modern Scots: hill, filthy, will, win, wind, whip, whisper and whisky.
Vowel 16
Before alveolars Old English æ became /ɛ/ in Early Scots, remaining so, for example Modern Scots: bress (brass), clesp (clasp), ess (ash), fest (fast), gled (glad), gless (glass), gress (grass) and hesp (hasp) from bræs, claspe, æsċe, fæst, glæd, glæs, gæs and hæpse.
Vowel 17
Old English a or æ in close position became /a/ in Older Scots, remaining so, although /ɑ/ or /ɒ/ occasionally occur, for example Modern Scots: back, bath, blad (leaf/blade), cat, clap, hack, mak (make), ram, rax (stretch), tak (take), wall (well for water), wash, watter (water) and waps (wasp) from bæc, bæþ, blæd, catt, clappian, haccian, macian, ram, raxan, tacan, wælla, wæsċan, wæter, and wæps. Similarly with Norse bag, flag (flagstone) and snag and Dutch pad (path).
Also before /n/ and /ŋ/, for example Modern Scots: can, lang (long), man, pan, sang (song), sank, strang (strong), than (then) and wran (wren) from cann, lang, mæn, panne, sang, sanc, strang, þanne and wrænna. Similarly with Norse bann (curse), stang (sting), thrang (busy) and wrang (wrong).
Similarly with Old English o before /m/, /p/, /b/ and /f/, for example Modern Scots: craft (croft), crap (crop), drap (drop), laft (loft), pat (pot), saft (soft) and tap (top) from croft, cropp, dropa, loft, pott, softe and top.
Similarly with a w before e, for example Modern Scots: wab (web), wast (west), wadge (wedge), twal (twelve) and dwall (dwell) from web, west, weċġ, twelf and dwellan.
Vowel 18
Old English o in close position became /o̞/ in Older Scots then /o/ in Modern Scots but in some dialects became /ɔ/, for example: box, lock and rock.
Vowel 19
Old English u became /u̞/ in Early Scots then /ʌ/ in Modern Scots, for example but and cut, but in some words it merged with vowel 15 (/ɪ/), for example Modern Scots: din (dun), hinnie (honey), simmer (summer), son and nit (nut) from dunn, huniġ, sumor, sunne and hnut. Similarly in some Romance words, for example Modern Scots: kimmer (commère), kiver (cover), ingan (onion), stibble (stubble) and tribble (trouble).
Word endings
Various Old English word endings became any of /ɪ/, /i/, /a/, /ɑ/, /e/, or /ə/ depending on dialect, for example Modern Scots: borrae (borrow), follae (follow), marrae (marrow), meidae (meadow), pillae (pillow), sheddae (shadow), swallae (swallow), weedae (widow) and yallae (yellow) from borgian, folgian, mearh, maedwe, pyle, sċeadu, swelgan/swealwe, widwe and ġeolo. Similarly with Norse windae (window).
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, English, is the world's most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers. All Germanic languages are derived from Proto-Germanic, spoken in Iron Age Scandinavia.
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this vowel shift, the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels was changed. Some consonant sounds changed as well, particularly those that became silent; the term Great Vowel Shift is sometimes used to include these consonant changes.
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements from about the 7th to the 15th centuries.
The Germanic umlaut is a type of linguistic umlaut in which a back vowel changes to the associated front vowel (fronting) or a front vowel becomes closer to (raising) when the following syllable contains, , or.
Middle English was a form of the English language spoken after the Norman conquest (1066) until the late 15th century. English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the Oxford English Dictionary specifies the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages.
Œ is a Latin alphabet grapheme, a ligature of o and e. In medieval and early modern Latin, it was used to represent the Greek diphthong οι and in a few non-Greek words, usages that continue in English and French. In French, it is also used in some non-learned words, representing then mid-front rounded vowel-sounds, rather than sounding the same as é or è, those being its traditional French values in the words borrowed from or via Latin.
The orthography of the Old Norse language was diverse, being written in both Runic and Latin alphabets, with many spelling conventions, variant letterforms, and unique letters and signs. In modern times, scholars established a standardized spelling for the language. When Old Norse names are used in texts in other languages, modifications to this spelling are often made. In particular, the names of Old Norse mythological figures often have several different spellings.
The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments such as the cot–caught merger.
In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong.
Old English phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative since Old English is preserved only as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of the language, and the orthography apparently indicates phonological alternations quite faithfully, so it is not difficult to draw certain conclusions about the nature of Old English phonology.
Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.
Early Scots was the emerging literary language of the Northern Middle English speaking parts of Scotland in the period before 1450. The northern forms of Middle English descended from Northumbrian Old English. During this period, speakers referred to the language as "English".
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 virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English. Subsequently, the orthography of Middle Scots differed from that of the emerging Early Modern English standard. Middle Scots was fairly uniform throughout its many texts, albeit with some variation due to the use of Romance forms in translations from Latin or French, turns of phrases and grammar in recensions of southern texts influenced by southern forms, misunderstandings and mistakes made by foreign printers.
The Scottish Vowel Length Rule describes how vowel length in Scots, Scottish English, and, to some extent, Mid-Ulster English and Geordie is conditioned by the phonetic environment of the target vowel. Primarily, the rule is that certain vowels are phonetically long in the following environments:
The 'apologetic' or parochial apostrophe is the distinctive use of apostrophes in Modern Scots orthography. Apologetic apostrophes generally occurred where a consonant exists in the Standard English cognate, as in a' (all), gi'e (give) and wi' (with).
English diphthongs have undergone many changes since the Old and Middle English periods. The sound changes discussed here involved at least one phoneme which historically was a diphthong.
Modern Scots comprises the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, from 1700.
Middle English phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved only as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large text corpus of Middle English. The dialects of Middle English vary greatly over both time and place, and in contrast with Old English and Modern English, spelling was usually phonetic rather than conventional. Words were generally spelled according to how they sounded to the person writing a text, rather than according to a formalised system that might not accurately represent the way the writer's dialect was pronounced, as Modern English is today.
The phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalization of velar consonants in many positions.
Aitken, A.J, (Ed. Macafee C.) (2002) The Older Scots Vowels: A History of the Stressed Vowels of Older Scots from the Beginnings to the Eighteenth Century, The Scottish Text Society, Edinburgh.
William Grant and David D. Murison (eds) The Scottish National Dictionary (SND) (1929–1976), The Scottish national Dictionary Association, vols. I–X, Edinburgh.
Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.
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