So, what prompted this blog? Well during conversations with individuals regarding the languages of Scotland, the questions were whether they were all still spoken and which one was used by our ancestors in Annandale.
The 3 official languages of Scotland
In today’s Scotland, three official languages are accepted as being in use according to the 2022 census, with English remaining the dominant one. However and again, according to government figures, Scots is spoken by about 50% of the country with Gaelic being spoken by just over 2.5%. Interestingly and again, accepting the cultural and migration changes that exist, approximately 80% of the population saw their ethnic group as primarily Scottish.
So is Scottish Gaelic not the same as the Scots language? Well no, they are two different form of speech with their origins going back to the time of the P and Q-Celtic languages and the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Southern Scotland.
P and Q Celts
Firstly ‘Celtic’ describes a group of languages not a group of people. The P-Celtic language is classified as Brythonic and Q-Celtic language is classified as Goidelic (of the Gaels), both defined by the difference in their consonants and pronunciation. They are split in the graph below into the Insular language ie of the island and their continental links. Predeneg covers the languages of the Cornish and Bretons, and Pictish. For the Q-Celt continental links, the Celtiberian and Galician are from the Iberian Peninsula, comprising west of the Pyrenees, the modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar.
As said, we know that the language of the P-Celts was Brythonic which was the language used throughout the islands of Britain, as well as within Gaul ie present day France, Belgium, Luxemburg and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands and Northern Italy. As such only 6 Celtic languages have survived: Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish and Manx, with ‘Gaelic’ referring to Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) and Irish Gaelic being called ‘Irish’ (Gaeilge).
It is believed by many linguistic scholars that Irish Gaelic (Q-Celtic) arrived in Ireland from Northern Spain, where there is evidence the language existed there before appearing in Hibernia (Ireland). This in turn saw the introduction of Gaelic appearing in Scotland from the Irish Gaels/Scotti in the 4-5th century. However, the map by the 2nd century Roman mathematician, cartographer and astronomer Ptolemy shows Hibernia/Ireland with P-Celtic place names, which suggests that Brythonic may have been spoken there before the arrival of the Gaels who were possibly the stronger force, took over the island and their language prevailed to become the common tongue.
Scottish Gaelic
The Scotti, who eventually gave their name to Scotland, settled in what was to become the kingdom of Dál Riata (Dalriada) on the west coast of Scotland covering what is now Argyll. It was here and with its widespread use north of the Forth-Clyde line, that this language evolved into Scottish Gaelic with the root from middle Irish, remaining the same. However, linguistically, Scottish Gaelic and Irish, although off the common root are distinctly different although having common words, the pronunciation is different. According to Peader Ó Doirnin of ‘Fluent Irish”, they can ‘sort of understand each other. But and according to ‘Bitesize Irish’ as the two languages have evolved and grown apart although sounding very much alike for the most part, on the norm they are mutually unintelligible.
Gaelic (Scottish) itself was predominantly and initially contained in the kingdom of Dál Riata until it expanded above the Clyde – Forth divide into what was to become the Kingdom of Alba. Progressively over time this replaced the language of the Picts, which left remnants of their language in Scots Gaelic. Galloway in the south West of Scotland spoke mainly Gaelic but much lesser so in neighbouring shires to include Dumfriesshire, home of our ancestors.
Gaelic was removed as the language of the court by King Malcolm Canmore (1058-1093)in the 11th century, influenced greatly by his Anglo-Saxon wife, Margaret of Wessex, who spoke no Gaelic. It was Margaret, whose shrine sits in St Margarets cave in Dunfermline, the capital of Scotland at the time, who brought many religious figures to include Monks, Bishops and Priests with her and through her sons heavily influenced the common language of the people, causing the progressive decline and geographical regression of spoken Gaelic in Scotland.
The reign of David I and his invitation to Norman knights into Scotland further enhanced this situation, with the Normans bringing with them societal change through their Anglo-Norman language, feudal systems and progressive use of surnames into Scotland. As such and most certainly in the south of Scotland below the Forth-Clyde divide and into the north east, any remnants of Gaelic if it existed at all in areas, were pushed into the rural areas of the western highlands and islands.
Therefore to simplfy things, Scots is a Germanic Language traditionaly spoken in the lowlands of Scotland to include the borders, north East Scotlandand some parts of Ulster. Gaelic (Scottish) is a Q-Celtic language traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Brythonic, the language of the Selgovae
Brythonic is P-Celtic, but as an Insular Celtic Language (ie from the British Isles) and our Selgovae ancestors, but where did it go.
Well, it can still be found to a degree in modern Welsh, which contains the remnants of the universal language of the island of Britain remaining a distinct language in its own right, with no links to Goidelic. There are it seems historical examples where Gaelic Q-Celtic speakers required translators to speak to P-Celtic speakers in Ireland and in Scotland.
So where did Brythonic go?
The theory is that it was absorbed by the dominant Anglo-Saxon languages which enveloped the area and was to become over time into what is now call Scots, to include the border dialect of the same (Lallans). The Skot Watir (Firth of Forth) was perceived historically as the linguistic boundary between Gaelic and the Anglo-Saxon speaker, while in the early 1000’s the territories south of Lothian and the Scottish Borders were called Engla-land (England) for the first time, confirming both a political and linguistic division between speakers of englisc in England and speakers of englisc (Scots) in Scotland.
By the time of Robert the Bruce, Scots was spoken universally as a distinct language, however it was King Robert II that was closely associated with the Scots language and its promotion. In 1364, Ralph Higden, writing in Latin stated “The Scots, as well as the Welsh, even though they are intermixed with other nations, retain their languages almost in their former purity. It might be the case that the Scots have taken on something in conversation from their intercourse with the Picts, with whom they lived for some time.’ Higden also describes the language of Northumbrians as being scarcely understood by southern English “quod puto propter viciniam barbarorum contigesse ” ‘so that I suppose it to have been bordered on the vicinity of the barbarians“
The earliest known diplomatic act in the Scots language is the truce made between Scotland and England in 1386 at Billymire in the Borders, where an agreement was reached between the Earls of Douglas and March for Scotland and Lord Neville for England. Interestingly though even in 1703, Reverend James Kirkwood in describing the difficulties of using an Irish Bible among Scottish Gaelic speakers makes the same observation for Scots speakers that “in our English Bibles there are several hundred words and phrases not vulgarly used nor understood by a great many in Scotland.” However, even before the Jacobite rebellion and due to the Union of the Crowns which saw a transition towards English to be spoken, in 1738 the school master at Ayr is removed from office because he was “not known in the new method” which meant the new method of English being taught rather than Scots grammar. This situation was worsened in the wake of the ’45 Rebellion. In fact, in 1780, Henry Mackenzie a Scottish Lawyer of his day, stated that although the old Scots was banished from books and replaced by English, the common and native Scots tongue prevails, which of course is reflected in the works of Rabbie Burns and others, who wrote for the common man.
So what is Scots
It is interesting to note, that as folks go about their daily lives speaking, what some would consider a local slang, using words such as ie Baffie (slipper), Oxter (armpit), Ben (through) etc, they are actually speaking within the Scots dialect of the area, as is their pronunciation of their words. As such Scots sits in the linguistic spectrum in its own right and is accepted as such as a closely related language to English, the latter of which evolved primarily from more southerly English dialects, however they are not the same language.
Whereas Gaelic was the dominant language in the western Highlands and Islands, the lowlands, borders and north east, spoke the Scots language, a sister language to English (in a similar fashion to Danish/Swedish and Spanish/Portuguese). Today the UK Government and the Council of Europe accept it as a language in its own right, with nearly 50% of the population of Scotland claiming its use in the 2022 census.
According to the Scots Language Centre, a Scottish Government funded agency, Scots has been spoken in Scotland for many centuries and is spoken today throughout the east and south of the country – the historic Lowlands – and also in Orkney and Shetland which form the Northern Isles. Scots is a branch of the Germanic family of languages which includes Dutch, English and Frisian.
Scots therefore originated with the tongue of the Angles who arrived in Scotland about AD 600, or 1,400 years ago. During the Middle Ages this language developed and grew apart from its sister tongue in England, until a distinct Scots language had evolved. At one time Scots was the dominant language of Scotland, spoken by Scottish kings and queens, and was used to write both literary works and official records.
Scots comprises four main dialects which are subdivided into a total of ten sub dialects. Literature in the various dialects began to appear from the 17th and 18th centuries. John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808) was the first to systematically catalogue the language. In addition, Scots speakers also settled parts of Ulster in Ireland during the 16th and 17th centuries establishing a dialect known today as Ulster Scots. The Scots language was the dominant language in Scotland until the 18th century when there was an attempt to supress it with English being taught in its stead. This was augmented in 1855 with state registration of births, deaths and marriages where officials were encourages to anglicise and ‘standardise’ Scots forms of names. In the 1872 Education Act (Scotland) passed following the Argyll Commission findings of 1866, all children are now required to attend school between the ages of 5 and 13 with school attendance committees established to enforce this. The Act confirms earlier moves towards English-medium education in Scotland and is widely taken to sanction punishment of children for speaking both in Scots and Gaelic.
But again, the Scots language, within its dialects continued to prevail where people read one language ie English but heard and spoke another ie Scots. In 1901 in the publication at Dumfries of Galloway Gossip, or the Southern Albanach 80 years ago by R D Bruce Trotter which is written in Scots, the author gives ‘Some Directions For Pronouncing Scots’ and continues “It is difficult to explain the pronunciation of Scots to an Englishman. First, because the vowels most used in Scots do not exist in English, and no English person can utter them; second, because no English vowel has any definite sound, and so cannot be used as a key letter; third, because the strain on a word is always on the consonant following the vowel, while in English it is always on the vowel itself – as in saying ‘A lame horse’, an Englishman says ‘A lÄy-mÅss’, while a Scotsman says ‘A læmm-horss’; and fourth, an Englishman drawls out one or two vowels in a sentence and slurs over the rest speaking in a nasal tone; while a Scotsman speaks his sentences evenly and distinctly, and not nasally.”
The turning point in Scottish education was the announcement in 1991 by the Scottish Education Department, that the inclusion of the Scots language and material of the same must be used within the school curriculum. In fact, within the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, a clause states that there must be respect and tolerance for all languages spoken there including the Scots of Ulster. However, although accepted as a language, in the year 2000 the unionist parties in Scotland, voted to exclude the Scots language from the census, but it was overturned by a huge majority and remains included.
Moving forward to the present day, according to the Scottish Legal News of November 2023 discussing the Scottish Language Bill, legislative protection for the Scots language will be introduced. Schools will be supported to introduce Scots into their curriculums, recognising its place as an invaluable part of Scotland’s culture. The Scottish government will be required to promote and support Scots language education and to report on progress.
Examples of the Scots language
Some examples of Scots, from the various dialects of the language which are taken from the Scotsman Newspaper in January 2023:
- “The Laddie Wha Lived” – Mr Dursley wis the heidbummer o a firm cawed Grunnings, that made drills.
“The boy who lived” from Harry Potter and speaking of his adopted father Mr Dursley, it says that ‘(he) was the director of a firm called Grunnings that made drills’. The word ‘heidbummer’ refers to a person of authority.
- And from the Bible: Ill-will can mak a stooshie, but love can settle a stramash
The above relates to Proverbs 10:12 in the bible which speaks of how a man full of hatred will always create trouble while another full of love can always find resolution. Therefore, this sentence translates as: ‘Ill-will can make a row (squabble), but love can settle a fight (uproar).
The Scots dialect spoken in the borders is commonly called Border Scots.
- Glaikit – he stood there wi a glaikit look oan his fizzog
Taken from a coaster design which features on the website Scotland’s Bothy, a ‘gift shop’ that ships Scottish goods worldwide. The full sentence is as follows: ‘Stupid – he stood there with a stupid look on his face (or expression)
- She’s a braw wee lassie that – a right wee stoater!
This quote is taken from a product by Barbara Davidson Designs, fantastic gifts which are designed in Scotland. In this case ‘braw’ is to say excellent, ‘lassie’ is to refer to a girl or woman, and a ‘stoater’ can be used to describe a beautiful girl or woman.
- Stairhead Rammy: Labour Faw Apairt Efter Blairites Get Their Jotters
This is a headline that came from The Independent in 2016, discussing the internal strife of the Labour Party at that time. It translates as “Neighbours at war: Labour fall apart after Blairites are sacked.” Photo: Kirsty O’Connor
- Auld Reikie: wale o ilka town
Taken from Auld Reikie (1772) by Robert Fergusson, a man who captured the changing nature of Edinburgh through his writing. Edinburgh itself is known as “Auld Reikie” (old smoky) and the full sentence goes ‘Edinburgh: best of every town’.
- Skiver – ah cannae be arsed w’ this – ah’m away fur a skive
Been studying all day? See yourself working harder than your coworkers and decide that enough is enough? Well, it’s time for a skive! Skiving is like ‘slacking off’ from a job. In this case the sentence translates to: ‘Slacker – I cannot be bothered with this – I’m going away to slack off’
Taken from the popular Scottish comic ‘Oor Wullie’, this phrase means ‘oh, it’s a sore fight’ which is an expression considered to be the equivalent of ‘oh, it’s a hard life’
- Ach, it’s a sair fecht
Taken from the popular Scottish comic ‘Oor Wullie’, this phrase means ‘oh, it’s a sore fight’ which is an expression considered to be the equivalent of ‘oh, it’s a hard life’.
- Dinna fash yersel and hae a brew
If you’ve got a friend getting stressed out about something then ‘dinna fash yersel’ is a good thing to say as it reminds them ‘to not worry about it’ or ‘concern themselves’. Of course, the cherry on top is ‘hae a brew’ which is to say “have a brew”.
- Cam Ower an Gie’s a Bosie
If you’re a young person visiting your Doric-speaking grandmother in Aberdeen then you might stumble upon this phrase. Simply put it can be taken as “come here and give me a hug.”
And finally a complaint in the Scots Magazine in 1821, still published today stated
“The haill kintra is gat begunkit wi an Ynglifiet jargon”
translated as ‘the whole country is deceived/tricked through anglicised speech.”
The ‘Border Scots’ dialect.
According to the Scottish Language Centre and dealing specifically with Border Scots
Scots and its ancestor Anglo-Saxon, have been spoken in the border region since the 7th century AD, that is 1,400 years or so ago. The earliest Anglo-Saxon text in Scotland is to be found carved on the Ruthwell Cross in the village of Ruthwell which sits between Annan and Dumfries and dates from the 8th century AD.
This dialect covers the greater part of the Scottish Borders, taking in Annandale, Eskdale, Ettrick, and Roxburgh. Included within it are Annan, Hawick (Haaick), Jedburgh (Jethart), Kelso (Kelsae), Lockerbie and Selkirk.
The Borders dialect also shares with the North East of Scotland the distinction of a long tradition of poetry and song giving rise to the great Border Ballads in Scots.
As Such the Scots language to include its dialects, remains an integral part of Scottish history with its use still very much apparent into this modern era.
To answer the question in the title, the Scots language is very much alive, it is the language of our ancestors, the Border Reivers and is appreciated in the writings and ballads of our homelands and is very distinct from Scottish Gaelic.
Reviewing our ancestry and our origins based on current research and opinion what can we say without fear of contradiction regarding our family and the language of our ancestors.
- DNA research suggests we arrived on the Scottish mainland on the north-east coast from Sweden in and around 500 BC.
- Migration took us to Annandale where integration into the local population occurred.
- The use of the name Carruthers to define a person appeared in the 11th century where the landowners used its name from the lands of Carruthers in Annandale, Dumfriesshire that they owned.
- First recorded evidence was William of Carruthers in the reign of Alexander II of Scotland.
- The lands of Carruthers took their name from the ancient Selgovae fort on the top of Birrens Hill (Caer-fort, Rydderch-pronounced Ruthers in the ancient Brythonic dialect of Cumbric).
- The fort was in existence during the Roman occupation of the area; around 200AD.
- The Rydderch of the fort was not Rydderch Hael, as the fort existed hundreds of years before his birth.
- As such ‘our’ Rydderch from the ‘fort’ was a local chief/warlord of the Selgovae.
- Our Ancestors never spoke Gaelic as their primary language but Brythonic and progressively based on the influx of the Anglo-Saxons, Border Scots (Lallans).
- Finally, Caratacus from the South west of England has no place in the Carruthers history or our origins.
