Scots | |
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Lowland Scots Broad Scots | |
(Braid) Scots Lallans Doric | |
Pronunciation | [skɔts] |
Native to | United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland |
Region |
|
Ethnicity | Scots |
Native speakers | 1,508,540 (2022)[1] |
Early forms | |
Dialects | |
Latin | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Scotland[2] |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | sco |
ISO 639-3 | sco |
Glottolog | scot1243 |
ELP | Scots |
Linguasphere | (varieties: 52-ABA-aaa to -aav) 52-ABA-aa (varieties: 52-ABA-aaa to -aav) |
![]() The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census in Scotland aged 3 and above who stated that they can speak Lowland Scots | |
![]() The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census in Northern Ireland aged 3 and above who stated that they can speak Ulster Scots |
Scots language |
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History |
Dialects |
Scots[note 1] is a language variety descended from Early Middle English in the West Germanic language family. Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles of Scotland, and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots), it is sometimes called: Lowland Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands, the Hebrides, and Galloway after the sixteenth century;[3] or Broad Scots, to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English. Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English, as the two diverged from the same medieval form of English.[4][5][6]
Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland by the Scottish government,[7] a regional or minority language of Europe,[8][9] and a vulnerable language by UNESCO.[10][11] In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots.[1]
Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about whether Scots is a dialect of English or a separate language.[12]
Whereas Modern Standard English is traced back to an East Midland dialect of Middle English, Modern Scots developed from a northern variety which goes back to Old Northumbrian
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