This is a presentation of the phonological history of the Scots language.
Scots has its origins in Old English (OE) via early Northern Middle English; though loanwords from Old NorseA History of Scots to 1700, pp. lxii and Romance sources are common, especially from ecclesiastical and legal Latin, Anglo-Norman and Middle French borrowings.A History of Scots to 1700, pp. lxiii-lxv Trade and immigration led to some borrowings from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch.A History of Scots to 1700, pp. lxiii Some vocabulary has also been borrowed from Scotland's other language, Scottish Gaelic.A History of Scots to 1700, pp. lxi
Consonants
Consonant clusters Scots preserved OE and word-initially, though this feature is now highly recessive (e.g. knaw 'know', gnegum 'tricky nature').Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xxii Similarly, Scots retained (e.g. OE sċylfe → skelf 'shelf'). Elsewhere, it tended to reduce consonant clusters. Instance of between and a following or /r/ were lost or did not develop, except in certain words like member, November, and December:Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction Vol I p. xxiiA History of Scots to 1700, p. ci OE æmyrġe → Modern Scots emmers 'embers' (compare English OE þȳmel → Modern Scots thimmle 'thimble' (compare English ) OE timber → Modern Scots timmer 'timber' French l'ambre → Modern Scots lammer (amber) French chambre → Modern Scots chaumer (chamber) Anglo-Norman noumbre → Modern Scots nummer (number) OE tumbian → Modern Scots tummle (tumble) Alveolar plosives and were dropped from final (except in some inflected forms like act, expect, strict), , , , and medial : a Latin strictus → Modern Scots strick 'strict' Latin corruptus → Modern Scots corrup 'corrupt' OE æmtig → Modern Scots empy 'empty' OE frēond → Modern Scots freend 'friend' OE ald → Modern Scots auld 'old' Old English became for a number of speakers, though is widespread:Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xxiii OE hwæt → Modern Scots whit 'what' Metathesis occurred in some words. OE græs → Modern Scots girse 'grass'
Elision OE was often dropped in certain contexts: OE delfan → Modern Scots del 'delve' OE dēofol → Modern Scots deil 'devil' OE dufe → Modern Scots dou 'dove' OE ġiefan → Modern Scots gie 'give'
Word final OE (written or ) was deleted in a few words OE mūþ → Modern Scots mou 'mouth'
Though OE is mostly preserved (spelled ), some words such as tho 'though' and throu 'through' have dropped the : OE beorht → Modern Scots bricht and English bright OE hlōh → Modern Scots lauch and English laugh OE þōht → Modern Scots thocht and English thought
Palatalisation Old English palatalised to when adjacent to a front vowel: OE sinder → Modern Scots shinners 'cinder'
Scots did not undergo the palatisation of OE and to and after a front vowel that occurred in English: OE birċe → Scots birk 'birch' OE brēċ → Scots breeks 'britches' OE þæċ → Scots thack 'thatch' OE ġiċċan → Scots yeuk 'itch' OE hryċġ → Scots rig 'ridge'
Vocalisation OE became vocalised after resulting in the diphthong (vowel 13) in Modern Scots.A History of Scots to 1700, p. xc OE boga → bowe 'bow'
Similarly, in the Early Scots period, was vocalized after , (becoming and then changing to ),Scottish National Dictionary, Introduction p. xxiv (becoming and then changing to or , depending on dialect): OE pullian → Modern Scots pou 'pull''' OE bolster → Modern Scots bowster 'bolster' OE healdan → Modern Scots haud 'hold'
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 or Old French 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).
Long vowels Vowel # Spelling Realisation Early Scots Early Middle English Main Source(s) Examples 1 short long OE ī, ȳ mine ('mine') 2 OE ē, ēo deed ('deed'), sene ('seen') 3 OE ǣ, ēa deid ('dead'), lene ('lean') 4 OE ā bane ('bone') 5 OE o (open) cole ('coal') 6 OE ū doun ('down') 7 () OE ō guid ('good'), beuk ('book') Diphthongs Vowel # Spelling Realisation Early Scots Early Middle English Main Source(s) Examples 8 OE a, æ (open); OF ai, ei pain ('pain') 9 OF oi noise ('noise') 10 OF oi point ('point') 11 OE eġ ee ('eye') 12 OE ag, aw law ('law') 13 OE og, ow lown ('calm') 14a OE iw, ew spew ('spew') 14b OE ǣw, ēaw dew ('dew') Short vowels Vowel # Spelling Realisation Early Scots Early Middle English Main Source(s) Examples 15 OE i, y pin ('pin') 16 OE a, æ + alveolar men ('men') 17 OE a, æ (closed); OE o + labial man ('man') 18 OE o (closed) fon ('folly') 19 OE u gun
Vowel 1
Old English and Old Norse ī and ȳ, Old English i+ld and y+nd, as well as Old French i became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and subsequently conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule to when short and or 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 (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 in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and 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 in Early Scots, merging with vowel 2 () or vowel 4 () in Middle Scots depending on dialect or lexeme, except for a few Northern Scots dialects where it became ,A History of Scots to 1700, pp. xcviii 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 in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and 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 , now in Modern central, southern and Ulster varieties and 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 occurs in other words of Norse origin, for example graith (harness), hain (spare) and lair (mud) from greiða, hagna and leir.
Before + consonant, depending on dialect, now or 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 in Early Scots then eventually in Modern Scots, for example: coal, foal, hole and thole endure.
Vowel 6
Old English ū became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots, remaining so but Stem final it became 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 became vocalised to by the Middle Scots period, 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 in Early Scots becoming in Modern peripheral dialects. In Fife and parts of Perthshire Middle Scots merged with vowel 4 (). In Modern central varieties it has merged with vowel 15 () 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 merged with vowel 4 () 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 merged with vowel 2 (), in Mid Northern varieties after and it became , 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 or resulted in Modern Scots , , and/or 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 in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and subsequently , or in Modern Scots, though 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 became in Middle Scots merging with vowel 1 () in Modern Scots.
Vowel 9
Older Scots became in Modern Scots.
Vowel 10
Early Scots merged with vowel 1 () in Modern Scots.
Vowel 11
Early Scots in stem final positions, became then in Middle Scots merging with vowel 2 () in Modern Scots.
Vowel 12