Unit 20: Standardisation of Scots

Introduction

In this unit you will learn about what a standard language actually is, and why there is no single Standard English. In Scotland, the spoken form of English is known as Scottish Standard English (SSE). This unit will go into detail on the shift in language use in Scotland, how SSE emerged and gained precedence, how spoken Scots – widely used to this day – has no popularly agreed standard, and where that places Scots speakers and writers currently in the Scottish languages landscape.

As written communication in Scotland has been primarily carried out in Standard English for a number of centuries, Scots has become increasingly conceptualised in terms of its dialects. Since the 1920s, a range of pan dialectical grammars and standardisation suggestions have been written, which encapsulate Scots with a variety of priorities, but none have been adopted – officially or unofficially.

At the end of the 20^th century, digital communication emerged with written Scots being ubiquitous in emails and online conversations, to the extent that written and spoken Scots are part of most Scots speakers’ daily media diet. This is being heralded as a new resurgence of the language, being aired in public in a way heretofore unseen. There has not been developed a standard for this kind of written output, we see that it employs a mixture of traditional spellings and phonetic spellings using English spelling conventions, as well as a mixture of standard English grammar and intuited Scots grammar.

This unit will not only summarise and discuss the history of various attempts to standardise Scots but will also give examples of Scots words and sounds for you to explore as your understanding develops.

Important details to take notes on throughout this section:

• Pan-dialectical spelling is possible
• Standardisation is more than spelling
• Written Scots is only part of the use of the language.