Scottish English
[1][2][3] Scottish Standard English may be defined as "the characteristic speech of the professional class [in Scotland] and the accepted norm in schools".
[6] Scottish Standard English is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum, with focused[clarification needed] broad Scots at the other.
[14] Texts such as the Geneva Bible, printed in English, were widely distributed in Scotland in order to spread Protestant doctrine.
The poets of the court therefore moved south and "began adapting the language and style of their verse to the tastes of the English market".
The speech of the middle classes in Scotland tends to conform to the grammatical norms of the written standard, particularly in situations that are regarded as formal.
Highland English is slightly different from the variety spoken in the Lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically, and lexically influenced by a Gaelic substratum.
[citation needed] General items are wee, the Scots word for small (also common in Canadian English, New Zealand English and Hiberno-English probably under Scottish influence); wean or bairn for child (the latter from Common Germanic,[26] cf modern Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Faroese barn, West Frisian bern and also used in Northern English dialects); bonnie for pretty, attractive, (or good looking, handsome, as in the case of Bonnie Prince Charlie); braw for fine; muckle for big; spail or skelf for splinter (cf.
spall); snib for bolt; pinkie for little finger; janitor for school caretaker (these last two are also standard in American English); outwith, meaning 'outside of'; cowp for tip or spill; fankle for a tangled mess; kirk for 'church' (from the same root in Old English but with parallels in other Germanic languages, e.g. Old Norse kirkja, Dutch kerk).
Examples of culturally specific items are Hogmanay, caber, haggis, bothy, scone (also used elsewhere in the British Isles), oatcake (now widespread in the UK), tablet, rone (roof gutter), teuchter, ned, numpty (witless person; now more common in the rest of the UK) and landward (rural); It's your shot for "It's your turn"; and the once notorious but now obsolete tawse.
The ending can be added to many words instinctively, e.g. bairn (see above) can become bairnie, a small shop can become a wee shoppie.
[citation needed] There is a range of (often anglicised) legal and administrative vocabulary inherited from Scots,[27] e.g. depute /ˈdɛpjut/ for deputy, proven /ˈproːvən/ for proved (standard in American English), interdict for '"injunction",[28][29] and sheriff-substitute for "acting sheriff".
[citation needed] In some areas perfect aspect of a verb is indicated using "be" as auxiliary with the preposition "after" and the present participle: for example "He is after going" instead of "He has gone" (this construction is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic).
