Is Scots a different language from English?
It is often claimed that it is. Scots is not Gaelic, the Celtic language which is still spoken in Scotland (and which can be studied at Edinburgh in the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies), but rather the independent development of the language(s) that the Anglo-Saxons brought to Britain in the middle of the first millennium CE/AD. Scotland has a linguistic and literary tradition that sets it apart in many ways from other parts of the British Isles, and Scots has a recorded history of around 8 centuries and is, as a result, of great linguistic and cultural significance and interest. Written materials available to us range from official texts like Acts of Parliament, Burgh Records and Wills, to medieval poetry and personal diary entries, to the poetry of Burns, MacDiarmid and, more recently, Liz Lochhead or Tom Leonard. We also have access to a tremendous variety of present-day spoken Scots and Scottish English material. To see some modern written Scots, try the ‘Scuil Wab’ site,
