Some things you should know about the Scots language

1 Scots is an Indo-European language related to other Germanic languages. Ulster Scots is an associated language.

2 On the map above, you can see Scots on the right hand side on the same branch as English but separate from it.

3 Scots shares some vocabulary with Dutch, Flemish and German. That dates back to the time when Scotland was an independent country and traded widely with nations across the North Sea. Scots also shows traces of French/Norman vocabulary, dating from its time as an independent political nation when there were links between the Scottish and French crowns.

4 There are many dialects of Scots: https://www.scotslanguage.com/pages/view/id/10

5 Robert Burns wrote in Ayrshire Scots and in English. Many Burns enthusiasts favour his Scots poetry and songs over his English compositions.

6 Glaswegian Scots contains idioms and vocabulary from Irish English and translated from Irish itself.

7 Doric, often referred to as 'the Doric,' is a dialect of Scots that was invented in the 18th century by Scots academics.

8 There is a Scots Language Centre in Perth.

9 A huge amount of research into Scots has been carried out in the last generation.

10 There is still a tendency in some areas of Scotland to regard Scots as a degraded form of English. This dates from the days of the Education Scotland Act of 1872 which did not ban Scots or Gaelic, but declared the language of  education was to be English.

11 Michael Dempster gave a TED talk in Inverness on the Scots language - in Scots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRnQ8lYcvFU