Cousins observe the difference, HUH, Remember what CUZ Lyle said bout em
Hill Billys, they were among the less learned, Course <PC> em Cousins would
likely Try to claim to be Mountian Williams, but I still contend that the
High & Low CAST Had an influence.
What say Cuz Dirmid?
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INTRODUCTION
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area; it crosses Loch Lomond near Rowardennan, and passes by Aberfoyle,
Callander, Comrie, Dunkeld, Braemar, Tomintoul and Grantown to Fort George; it
takes in the eastern part of the Black Isle (Avoch to Cromarty), parts of
Easter Ross, and about half the county of Cai., running from Bruan near
Clyth Ness to Crosskirk on the Forss. This line represents the western limit
of Sc. speech at the present time. While it is a fair statement of the
circumstances of the case, it will be understood that such a boundary has in
actuality none of the sharpness it has on a map. Moreover, in any true view it
can no longer be treated as a border between Sc. and Gaelic, but should
rather be regarded as the border between Sc. and Gaelic or the Eng1 which
has replaced Gaelic.
§ 11. It is reasonable to believe that the boundary which for so long
separated Lowland Sc. s from Gaelic, and which, as said, is now in process of
obliteration, derived part of its former definiteness from the contrasting
characters of the two tongues. The two languages are not only distant from
each other in the relationship which comparative philology assigns to them,
but they differ remarkably from each other when regarded simply as vehicles
of expression. The contrast between them in word order, in idiom and in
phonology is very great. Hence the interaction between the two languages has
been relatively slight. The interchange of vocabulary, while considerable
in both directions, has been moderate if we consider the closeness of
contact. All Gaelic speakers along the Highland border are now bilingual; but
bilingualism is rare with native speakers of Scots.2
The Term “Scottish Language”
§ 12. The term “Scottish Language” includes (1) Older Scots, represented
in its two main literary phases by Barbour and the “Makars”; (2) the
modern literary dialect, emerging about the beginning of the 18th cent.; (3) the
modern Scottish regional dialects.
Middle Scots and its Literature.
§ 13. Between the end of the 14th and the beginm ng of the 17th cent. the
Scottish Language underwent many phonetic changes which were only partially
and imperfectly indicated in the literature of the time. In this
literature we find grammatical peculiarities and mannerisms of expression which are
wanting in The Brus and in the modern dialects. We find in it also a large
number of words either coined or borrowed from Latin and French which have
not survived in our modern speech. The avowed object of most of the writers
who introduced or adapted these foreign words was to enrich the
vocabulary. To the learned, familiar with Latin and French, their meaning was quite
plain, but to the average man the expression must have seemed strained or
the meaning obscure. The verse literature of this time reached a high degree
of excellence, but prose composition was still comparatively undeveloped
when, at the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the literary centre shifted from
Edinburgh to London. Throughout the 17th cent. the people, high and low, were
absorbed in religious and political controversy, and in place of the old
poetic literature, so v arious and copious in the major as well as the minor
traditional verse-forms, we have only a few lyrics and semi-lyrical pieces,
such as Sempill’s Habbie Simson, and others included in the early
18th-cent. collections. These were all of a popular cast, but the known authors
belonged to the higher rather than the lower classes, a thing to remember when
we come to consider the origin of the modern literary dialect. The simpler
style, however, had never been entirely lost in the age of artificial
Scots. Henryson’s Fables and Robin and Makyne, Dunbar’s Lament for the
Makaris, The Petition of the Gray Horse, The Turnament, etc., the anonymous
pieces entitled Peblis to the Play and Christis Kirk on the Green (assigned
popularly to royal authorship) are all evidence of its existence alongside of
the artificial language of Douglas in his Eneid and of Dunbar in The
Thrissill and the Rois., Ane Ballat of Our Lady and Goldyn Targe.
1Often interspersed with Scots and Gaelic words and idioms.
2We are indebted to the following correspondents for help in determining
this Scottish line: Mr William Alexander, Aberdeen, for collating the
results; Mr R. Barron, H.M.I.S., Dornoch, for information regarding the condition
of Gaelic in the schools in the north of Scotland; Mr W. G. Fraser,
H.M.I.S., Kilmacolm; Mr A. Millar, H.M.I.S., Crieff; Mr G. Watson, H.M.I.S.,
Strathpeffer, for information respecting their special districts, and to Mr D.
McIntosh, Ardersier; Mr T. Hunter, Grantown-on-Spey; Mr J. Scott,
Nethybridge; Mr E. Roberts, Kingussie; Mr W. A. Fraser, Tomintoul; Miss Farquharson,
Ballintuim; Mr A. McLeab, Ballibluig; Mr Downie, Campbeltown, who speak
for their own schools. Mr McInnes, Campbeltown; the Rev. W. S. Allan,
Callander; Mr Mackay, Shebster, and the Rev. D. Beaton, Wick, have also helped us
with details about the boundary line.