Scottish English

Scottish English
Native toUnited Kingdom
RegionScotland
EthnicityScottish
Early forms
Latin (English alphabet)
English Braille, Unified English Braille)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
IETFen-scotland
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Scottish English (Scottish Gaelic: Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE).[1][2][3] Scottish Standard English may be defined as "the characteristic speech of the professional class [in Scotland] and the accepted norm in schools".[4] IETF language tag for "Scottish Standard English" is en-scotland.[5]

In addition to distinct pronunciation, grammar and expressions, Scottish English has distinctive vocabulary, particularly pertaining to Scottish institutions such as the Church of Scotland, local government and the education and legal systems.[6]

Scottish Standard English is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum, with focused[clarification needed] broad Scots at the other.[7] Scottish English may be influenced to varying degrees by Scots.[8][9] Many Scots speakers separate Scots and Scottish English as different registers depending on social circumstances.[10] Some speakers code switch clearly from one to the other while others style shift in a less predictable and more fluctuating manner.[10] Generally, there is a shift to Scottish English in formal situations or with individuals of a higher social status.[11][obsolete source]

  1. ^ "SCOTS - Corpus Details". scottishcorpus.ac.uk. Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech.
  2. ^ "... Scottish Standard English, the standard form of the English language spoken in Scotland", Ordnance Survey
  3. ^ "Teaching Secondary English in Scotland - Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech". Scottishcorpus.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  4. ^ McClure (1994), pp. 79–80
  5. ^ "language subtag registry". Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  6. ^ Summan, Kapil (10 June 2020). "Vote on your favourite Scots law expression". Scottish Legal News. Archived from the original on 8 February 2024.
  7. ^ Stuart-Smith J. "Scottish English: Phonology" in Varieties of English: The British Isles, Kortman & Upton (Eds), Mouton de Gruyter, New York 2008. p. 47
  8. ^ Stuart-Smith J. Scottish English: Phonology in Varieties of English: The British Isles, Kortman & Upton (Eds), Mouton de Gruyter, New York 2008. p. 48
  9. ^ Macafee C. "Scots" in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 11, Elsevier, Oxford, 2005. p. 33
  10. ^ a b Aitken A.J. "Scottish Speech" in Languages of Scotland, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Occasional Paper 4, Edinburgh:Chambers 1979. p. 85
  11. ^ Aitken A.J. "Scottish Speech" in Languages of Scotland, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Occasional Paper 4, Edinburgh:Chambers 1979. p. 86