Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj



User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
KarenH Robert Burns tunes/Scot dialect pronounce (14) RE: Robert Burns tunes/Scot dialect pronounce 31 Dec 18


The best summary of Scots variations I know is in David Crystal's 'The English Language'. Too much detail to post here. He distinguishes between Scots, Lallans and Lowland Scots. Some lexical features are shared with dialects from the North of England. A great deal of the distinctiveness of the 'Scots lexicon' derives from the influences of other languages especially Gaelic, Norwegian and French. But its origins like those of English are with invaders from Europe who also brought

(The original 'Scots' were, of course, Irish.)


Crystal has a map of Scots dialect areas, and the western bit within which Burns grew up (Ayrshire) seems to be on the border of the west central and sw central areas. So not the bit of modern Scotland that was in the old Angle kingdom of Northumbria.

Interestingly, Crystal describes 'Lallans' as a synthetic mainstream Scots created in the 20th century, something that emerged first of all in poetry rather than speech.


Post to this Thread -

Back to the Main Forum Page

By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.

By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.

By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.

By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.

Try it all, you will see.