X-Nico

10 unusual facts about Scots language


Blackburn River

The name is a tautology, since "burn" is a Lowland Scots/Northern English word referring to a small river or large brook.

Dugald Buchanan

Dugald Buchanan (Dùghall Bochanan in Gaelic) (Ardoch Farm, Strathyre (near Balquhidder) in Perthshire, Scotland 1716–1768) was a Scottish poet writing in Scots and Scottish Gaelic.

Gavin Douglas

Douglas's most important literary achievement is the Eneados, a Scots translation of Virgil's Aeneid, completed in 1513, and the first full translation of a major poem from classical antiquity into any modern Germanic language.

Gude

Gude is a surname and a Scots form of the English word "good".

Hatton Castle

"Hatton" is a contraction of Hall-toun, which in Scots means the farm (or ferm toun) near the Hall (or Ha).

Meikle Loch

Meikle is a Scots word for large/big, so one could assume that Meikle Loch would be one of the bigger Lochs in Scotland.

Name of Sweden

It appeared in Scots during the 17th century in forms such as Swethin and Swadne.

Pound Scots

The pound Scots (Modern Scots: Pund Scots, Middle Scots: Pund Scottis) was the unit of currency in the Kingdom of Scotland before the kingdom unified with the Kingdom of England in 1707.

Scottish language

Scots language (Scots Leid), a Germanic language spoken in Lowland Scotland and Ulster

Tassie

In the Scots language, a cup or goblet, especially for spirits, variant of "tass"


1728 in literature

Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie - The Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, 1436–1565 (written about 1575, in the Scots language)

A Red, Red Rose

"A Red, Red Rose" is a 1794 song in Scots by Robert Burns based on traditional sources.

Bray Hill

Bray Hill (Lowland Scots: Brae a slope) formerly a country lane known as the Great Hill during the time of the ownership of the Duke of Atholl.

Catherine MacPhail

On her website, as a child she asks "Do you know what an eejit is? Someone who is one sandwich short of a picnic … whose lift doesn’t go … well, you know what I mean. Eejit is a wonderful Scottish/Irish word that seemed to sum me up perfectly when I was growing up." (Eejit is a Scottish/Irish word for someone idiotic or simple.)

Did You Ever See a Lassie?

The song is featured as one of the songs in WeeSing's Grandpa's Magical Toys, represented by the Laddie and Lassie characters (played by Caysie Torrey and David Lovelin), and is also one of the songs featured in the CD Wee Sing and Play as well, with the opening narration confirming that the words "lassie" and "laddie" attribute to Scotland (they mean "boy" and "girl" in Scots).

John Lesley

A Scots language translation of the published Latin made in 1596 by James Dalrymple of the Scottish Cloister at Regensburg.

Leal, North Dakota

The name comes from the Scots word for "faithful," which in the phrase laund o the leal means Heaven.

Piperheugh

The Jew's harp was called a 'trump' in Scots, also referred to as the tongue of the trump.

Scottish Gaelic personal naming system

Gaelic first names chiefly hail from 5 linguistic layers, Goidelic and 4 others, coinciding with the main languages of contact: Latin, Norse, Anglo-Norman and Scots.

Smile In Your Sleep

"Smile In Your Sleep", sometimes known as "Hush, Hush, Time To Be Sleeping" (Scots: "Hush, Hush, Time Tae Be Sleepin") is a Scottish folk song and lullaby written by Jim McLean and set to the tune of the Gaelic air, "Chi Mi Na Morbheanna" (literally "I will see the great mountains", or "The Mist Covered Mountain").

Snipe Loch

The name could appropriately refer to the bird, Snipe, Lymnocryptes minimus, however in Scots the word can refer to a featureless place, lacking significant characteristics, something long and thin, or a boggy place.

United Kingdom Census 2011

The 2011 census was the first to include a question asking about the ability to read, write and understand the Scots language alongside the question for ability in Scottish Gaelic and English languages.