Iseabail's list of Scots language reference resources

General
Scottish Language Dictionaries (SLD) have excellent information on Scots, present and past, in their dictionaries see http://
www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk and see especially the introductions to the Concise Scots Dictionary and the Scottish National
Dictionary. SLD also has a special site for schools, the Scuilwab http://www.scuilwab.org.uk with information for children
and teachers.
Corbett, John, McClure J. Derrick, Stuart-Smith, Jane eds. (2003) The Edinburgh Companion to Scots, Edinburgh University
Press. Essays on various aspects of Scots, particularly useful for students.
Eagle, Andy (2005) Wir Ain Leid. An Innin tae Modren Scots/ An Introduction to Modern Scots http://www.scots-online.org
An introduction for the non-specialist.
Grlach, Manfred (2002) A Textual History of Scots, Heidelberg: C. Winter. A history of Scots with a wide selection of Older
and Modern Scots texts, including local dialects.
Grlach, Manfred ed. (1985) Focus on: Scotland, Amsterdam: Benjamins. Essays on various aspects of Scots, and texts in
different dialects.
Jones, Charles ed. (1997) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press. A collection of essays
on different aspects of Scots, dealing with its history from the earliest records to the present.
Kay, Billy (1986, 2006) The Mither Tongue, Edinburgh: Mainstream. A survey of Scots for the non-specialist, with
recommendations for its future support.
McArthur, Tom ed. (1992) The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press. Various articles
dealing with Scots (by A J Aitken). Abridged edition 1996.
McClure, J Derrick (1988, 1997) Why Scots Matters 2nd edn, Edinburgh: Saltire Society. The position of Scots in the modern
world and what should be done about it.
Robinson, Christine and Crawford, Carol Ann (2001) Scotspeak: A Guide to the pronunciation of modern urban Scots. Perth:
Scots Language Centre.
Scotsgate http://www.scotsgate.com Website covering various aspects of Scots language.
Scots Wikipedia http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/.sco Brief history and description of Scots language in Scots. The site also has
other wikipedia articles translated into Scots. English version has different history and outline.

Journals
Chapman http://www.chapman-pub.co.uk Literary magazine, edited by Joy Hendry. Articles in and on Scots and Gaelic, as
well as English.
Lallans http://www.lallans.co.uk Magazine of the Scots Language Society, written entirely in Scots.
Scottish Language http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/ Annual magazine on language topics published by the
Association for Scottish Literary Studies.
Ullans magazine of the Ulster-Scots Language Society (218 York Street, (2nd Floor), Belfast BT15 1GY, Northern Ireland
Tel. 00 44 28 9075 8985).
Other reference works
Mather, James Y. and H. H. Speitel (1975,1977,1986) The Linguistic Atlas of Scotland 3 vols, London: Croom Helm. The first
two volumes deal with lexical material and the third with phonetic.
Murison, David (1981) Scots Saws: from the folk-wisdom of Scotland, Edinburgh: Mercat Press.
Macleod, Iseabail (1986, 2006) The Pocket Guide to Scottish Words, Glasgow: Richard Drew. Selection is an implicit

statement about currency and cultural significance.

Opie, Iona and Peter (1959, 1977) The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, Oxford University Press, republished
Frogmore, St Albans: Granada Publishing
Spelling
Allan, Alasdair (1995) 'Scots spellin - ettlin efter the quantum lowp', English World-Wide 16:1, 61-103.
Lallans 56 and 57 (2000) has several articles on spelling, with discussion on the 'Report o the Scots Spellin Comatee'.
McClure, J. Derrick (1985, 1995) 'The debate on Scots orthography' in J. Derrick McClure Scots and its Literature,
Amsterdam: Benjamins, 37-43.
Purves, David (1997, revised 2002) A Scots Grammar. Scots Grammar and Usage, Edinburgh: The Saltire Society. See pp.
57-61.
Scots Style Sheet (1955) Lines Review 9, 30-31 (with introduction by Albert Mackie, 29-30). Reprinted (most recently) in
David Purves, A Scots Grammar. Scots Grammar and Usage Edinburgh: Saltire Society (2002). Some basic points, notably
'aa' for 'all, a' and in 'baa', caa' etc; compiled in an Edinburgh pub by poets of the Scottish Renaissance in 1947.
Grammar
Purves, David (1997, revised 2002) A Scots Grammar. Scots Grammar and Usage, Edinburgh: The Saltire Society.
Rennie, Susan (1999) Grammar Broonie: A Guide tae Scots Grammar, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association.
For schools.
Robertson, T. A. and John Graham (1952) Grammar and Usage of the Shetland Dialect, Lerwick: Shetland Times Ltd.
Robinson, Philip (1997) Ulster-Scots. A Grammar of the Traditional Written and Spoken Language, Belfast: Ullans Press.

Iseabail's list of resources for learning and teaching Scots

Elphinstone Kist An electronic resource of poetry and prose in North-East Scots, aimed at schools, but with much of interest to
a wider public. Edited by Les Wheeler and Sheena Blackhall. A collection of North-East poems and stories, aimed at schools,
but with much of interest to a wider public. http://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/kist
Kynoch, Douglas (1994) Teach Yourself Doric. A Course for Beginners, Aberdeen: Scottish Cultural Press. North-Eastern
Scots.
Kynoch, Douglas (1997) Doric for Swots. A Course for Advanced Students, Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press. NorthEastern Scots.
Robinson, Christine and Crawford, Carol Ann (2001) Scotspeak: A Guide to the pronunciation of modern urban Scots. Perth:
Scots Language Centre.
Scuilwab A website from Scottish Language Dictionaries, specially created for schools, with information for children and
teachers. http://www.scuilwab.org.uk
Wilson, Colin (2002) Luath Scots-Language Learner, Edinburgh: Luath Press. Book and double CD. An introduction for the
non-specialist..
The Kist/a' Chiste Anthology (1995) Dundee: Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum. A collection of poems and

stories in Scots and Gaelic for schools.

Annand, J K (1998) Bairn Rhymes, Edinburgh: Mercat Press. A collection of poems in Scots for young children.
Soutar, William (1999) A bairn's sang and other Scots verse for children edited by Tom Hubbard (1999), Edinburgh: Mercat
Press. Poems for children by the Perth poet, who died in 1943

Iseabail's list of resources about Scots language in folksong

Buchan, David (1972, 1997) The Ballad and the Folk, East Linton: Tuckwell Press. The standard work on the ballad tradition
of the North-East.
Henderson, Hamish (1992) Alias MacAlias. Writings on Songs, Folk and Literature, Edinburgh: Polygon.
Munro, Ailie (1996) The democratic muse: folk music revival in Scotland, Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press.
Ritchie, J.T. R. (1964, 2000) The Singing Street: Scottish Children's Games, Rhymes and Sayings, and (1965, 1999) Golden
City: Scottish Children's Street Games and Songs, Edinburgh: Mercat Press. Edinburgh children's entertainment from early to
mid 20th century.
School of Scottish Studies http://www.pearl.arts.ed.ac.uk/ Audio recordings from the collections of the School of Scottish
Studies, transcriptions from their journal Tocher, music published by Greentrax.
Traditional Music & Song Association of Scotland TMSA Promotes, presents and preserves Scotland's traditional music and
song

Iseabail's list of resources about Scots in place and

personal names
Place-names
Dorward, D. (1995) Scotlands Place-names, Edinburgh: Mercat Press.
Drummond, Peter (2007) Scottish Hill Names (new edn of Scottish Hill and Mountain Names 1991), Scottish Mountaineering
Trust.
Nicolaisen, W. F. H. (1976, 2nd edn 2001) Scottish Place-Names: Their Study and Significance, Edinburgh: John Donald.
Ordnance Survey: lists of Gaelic, Welsh, Norse and Scots terms on its maps: http:/www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk
Scottish Place-Name Society (Comann Ainmean-Aite na h-Alba), voluntary organsation which coordinates the work of
different groups and individuals, from academics to interested laymen. Twice-yearly newsletter.
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/institutes/sassi/spns
Personal names
Black, George (1946) The Surnames of Scotland. Their Origin, Meaning and History, New York: New York Public Library.
Reprinted by Birlinn 1996. Not always accurate in identifying continental origins.
Dorward, David (2003) Scottish Surnames, Glasgow: Collins.
Hanks, Patrick and Hodges, Flavia (1988) A Dictionary of Surnames, Oxford University Press.

Hanks, Patrick and Hodges, Flavia (1990) A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford University Press
Whyte, Donald (1996) Scottish Forenames: their origin and history. Edinburgh: Birlinn.
http://www.spatial-literacy.org/ Go to 'family names > surname profiler' for maps based on UCL research on the distribution of
surnames in Great Britain

Iseabail's list of books about Scots in translation

BOSLIT: Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation National Library of Scotland: http://boslit.nls.uk
Corbett, John (1999) Written in the Language of the Scottish Nation: A History of Literary Translation into Scots, Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Corbett, John and Findlay, Bill eds (2005) Serving Twa Maisters: Five Classic Plays in Scots Translation, Glasgow:
Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Translations by Robert Kemp (from Molire), Douglas Young (from Aristophanes),
Victor Carin (from Goldoni), Hector MacMillan (from Molire) and Peter Arnott (from Brecht).
Corbett, John and Findlay, Bill eds. (2005) Serving Twa Maisters: Five Classic Plays in Scots Translation, Glasgow:
Association for Scottish Literary Studies.
Findlay, Bill ed. (2004) Frae Ither Tongues. Essays on Modern Translations into Scots,
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Lochhead, Liz (1985) Tartuffe a translation into Scots from the original by Molire, Edinburgh: Polygon.(West-Central Scots)
McClure, J. Derrick (1994) 'Literary translation between Scots and Gaelic' in Alexander Fenton and Donald MacDonald eds.
Studies in Scots and Gaelic, Edinburgh: Canongate Academic, 106-122.
Morgan, Edwin (1992) Edmond Rostands Cyrano de Bergerac: a new verse translation, Manchester: Carcanet. (Glasgow
Scots)
(2000) Jean Racines Phaedra: a tragedy : a new verse translation of Phdre, Manchester: Carcanet. (Glasgow
Scots)
Morgan, Edwin (1996) Collected Translations, Manchester: Carcanet. Includes Scots translations from Mayakovsky, Pushkin,
Leopardi, Heine and others. (Glasgow Scots)
Tulloch, Graham (1989) A History of the Scots Bible with Selected Texts, Aberdeen University Press.
Scots and Gaelic
Macafee, Caroline and Colm Baoill (1997) 'Why Scots is not a Celtic English' in Hildegard Tristram ed. The Celtic
Englishes, Heidelberg: C. Winter, 245-286.
McClure, J. Derrick (1986,1995) 'What Scots owes to Gaelic' in J. Derrick McClure Scots and its Literature, Amsterdam:
Benjamins, 68-85. Originally published in Scottish Language 5, 85-98.
Baoill, Colm (1991) 'Borrowing between Scots and Gaelic: some lessons to be learned from the SND', Scottish Language
10, 9-17.
Baoill, Colm (1997) 'The Scots-Gaelic interface' in Charles Jones ed. The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language,
Edinburgh University Press, 551-568.
Thomson, R. L. (1983) 'Loanwords, English and Scots' in Derick Thomson ed. The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, Oxford:
Blackwell, 152-153.

Iseabail's list of resources about Scots language in

literature
Association for Scottish Literary Studies. Deals with literature and language in English, Scots and Gaelic. http://

www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS
Buchan, David (1981) Scottish Tradition: a Collection of Scottish Folk Literature, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Corbett, John (1997) Language and Scottish Literature, Edinburgh University Press, Explains how linguistic theories can be
used to examine Scottish literature.
Donaldson, William (1986) Popular Literature in Victorian Scotland. Language, Fiction and the Press, Aberdeen University
Press.
The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature (2006) 3 vols, eds Ian Brown, Thomas Owen Clancy, Susan Manning, Murray
Pittock. Vol 1 From Columba to the Union (until 1707); Vol 2 Enlightenment, Britain and Empire (1707-1918); Vol 3
Modern Transformations: New Identities (from 1918), Edinburgh University Press.
Gifford, Douglas, Dunnigan, Sarah and MacGillivray, Alan eds (2002) Scottish Literature, Edinburgh University Press.
The History of Scottish Literature 4 vols, general ed Cairns Craig, Edinburgh; Mercat Press. Vol 1 (1988) Origins to 1660 ed
R D S Jack; Vol 2 (1987) 1660-1800 ed Andrew Hook; Vol 3 (1988) Nineteenth Century ed Douglas Gifford; Vol 4 (1987)
Twentieth Century ed Cairns Craig.
Letley, Emma (1988) From Galt to Douglas Brown. Nineteenth Century Fiction and Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish
Academic Press.
McClure, J. Derrick (1995) Scots and its Literature, Amsterdam: Benjamins. A collection of previously published work, some
revised.
McClure, J. Derrick (2000) Language, Poetry and Nationhood. Scots as a Poetic Language, East Linton: Tuckwell Press.
MacGillivray, Alan (1997) Teaching Scottish Literature, Edinburgh University Press.
Milton, Colin (1992) 'Language, class and education in twentieth-century Scottish writing', English World-Wide 13:2,
219-251.
Stevenson, Randall (1993) 'Re-enter Houghmagandie: language as performance in Liz Lochhead's Tartuffe' in Robert
Crawford and Anne Varty eds. Liz Lochhead's Voices, Edinburgh University Press, 109-123.

Iseabail's list of resources about Scots language policy and

attitudes
Aitken, A. J. (1981, 1990) 'The good old Scots tongue: does Scots have an identity?' in Einar Haugen et al. eds. Minority
Languages Today, Edinburgh University Press, 72-90.
Aitken, A. J. (1982) 'Bad Scots: some superstitions about Scots speech', Scottish Language 1, 30-44. Summary in J. Derrick
McClure ed., 'Urban Scots', Teaching English 15:1 (1981), 35-40.
Aitken, A. J. (1985) 'Is Scots a language?', English Today 3, 41-45.
Dossena, Marina (2005) Scotticisms in Grammr and Vocabulary, Edinburgh: John Donald. Includes attitudes to Scots from the
18th century to the present.
Grlach, Manfred (1997) 'Language and nation: the concept of linguistic identity in the history of English', English World-Wide
18:1, 1-34.
Horsbroch, Dauvit (1999) 'Scots as a European language 1500-1700', Scottish Language 18, 1-16.
Horsbroch, Dauvit (2000) 'Cauld kail fae Embro', Lallans 56, 121-127. The treatment of Scots by the Scottish Office and
latterly the Scottish Executive.

Kirk, John and Baoill, Dnall eds.(2000) Language and Politics. Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland,
Belfast: Queen's University.
Kirk, John and Baoill, Dnall eds. (2001) Language Links. The Languages of Scotland and Ireland, Belfast: Queen's
University
Kirk, John and Baoill, Dnall eds.(2001) Linguistic Politics. Language Policies for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland,
and Scotland, Belfast: Queens University.
Lowlands-L Website on 'lowland' Germanic languages: Dutch, Zeelandic (Zeeuws, West Flemish), Frisian, Limburgish, Low
Saxon (Low German), English, Scots. Information and email discussion. http://www.lowlands-l.net/
Macafee, Caroline (1996) 'The Case for Scots in the 2001 Census' unpublished paper submitted to the General Register Office
(Scotland) and the Scottish Office on behalf of the main Scots language bodies http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~enl038/case.htm
Macafee, Caroline (2000) 'The demography of Scots: the lessons of the Census campaign', Scottish Language 19, 1-44.
McClure, J Derrick (1997) Why Scots Matters 2nd edn, Edinburgh: Saltire Society, 74 pp. The position of Scots in the modern
world and what should be done about it.
McClure, J. Derrick et al (1981, 1985) 'Our ain leid? The predicament of a Scots writer', English World-Wide 1:2, 3-28.
McLeod, Wilson (1998) 'Scotland's languages in Scotland's Parliament', Scottish Affairs 24 (summer 1998), 68-82.
[Mt, Iain] (1996) Scots Language. A Report on the Scots Language Research carried out by the General Register Office for
Scotland in 1996, Edinburgh: General Register Office (Scotland).
Scots: A Statement of Principles (2003) published by the Scots Party Group on the Scots Language in the Scottish Parliament.
Scott, Paul H. (1998) 'The future of the Scots language', Scottish Affairs 24 (summer 1998), 83-89. Review article - recent
publications and developments, including the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.

Iseabail's list of Scots language dictionaries

SCOTS LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS
The most authoritative dictionaries are those from Scottish Language Dictionaries published by Edinburgh University Press,
unless otherwise indicated
http://www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk
Concise Scots Dictionary (1985), a comprehensive one-volume dictionary covering the Scots language from its earliest records
to the present, based largely on the two major historical works:
Scottish National Dictionary (1931-76), 10 vols, from 1700 to the 1970s (published by Scottish Language Dictionaries), and:
Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (1931-2002), 12 vols, from the earliest records up to 1700 (published by Oxford
University Press).
The Scottish National Dictionary and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue are now available free on the Internet, as the
Dictionary of the Scots Language, at http://www.dsl.ac.uk A New Supplement bringing the language into the 21st century
was added to the website in 2005.
Pocket Scots Dictionary (1988). Scots-English.

Scots Thesaurus (1990). Traditional areas of Scots vocabulary arranged thematically, with English-Scots index.
Concise English-Scots Dictionary (1993).
Essential Scots Dictionary (Scots-English, English-Scots) (1996). A small two-way dictionary, aimed mainly at schools, but
also a useful general reference work.

OTHER SCOTS LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES

Collins Scots Dictionary (2003), Glasgow: Collins.
Concise Scots Dialect Dictionary (2006), New Lanark: Waverley Books. Originally published in 1911 by Chambers as the
Scots Dialect Dictionary,and later as Chambers Scots Dictionary. Simply a list of Scots words, old and new, and their
meanings. Now out of copyright and reissued with new title.
Graham, William (1977) The Scots Word Book (English-Scots/Scots-English), Edinburgh: Ramsay Head Press.
Jamieson, John (1808, 1825 and later editions) An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. The standard Scots
dictionary of the 19th century.
Stevenson, James A (1989) Scoor-Oot: A Dictionary of Scots Words and Phrases in Current Use, London: Continuum.

SCOTS DIALECT DICTIONARIES

Buchan, Peter and David Toulmin (1989) Buchan Claik. The Saut and the Glaur o't. A Compendium of Words and Phrases
from the North-East of Scotland, Edinburgh: Gordon Wright.
Edmonston, Thomas (1866) An Etymological Glossary of the Shetland and Orkney Dialect, with some derivations of names of
places in Shetland, London: The Philological Society.
Fenton, James (1995, 2000) The Hamely Tongue. A Personal Record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim, Belfast: Ullans Press.
An annotated glossary showing present-day currency.
Graham, John (1979, 1999) The Shetland Dictionary, Lerwick: Shetland Times.
Gregor, Walter (1866) The Dialect of Banffshire with a Glossary of Words not in Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, London: The
Philological Society.
Jakobsen, Jakob (1921,1928) Etymologisk Ordbog over det Norrne Sprog p Shetland. Translated as An Etymological
Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland, 2 volumes, London: David Nutt, reprinted New York: AMS Press, n.d.
Kynoch, Douglas (1996) A Doric Dictionary. Two-way Lexicon of North-East Scots. Doric-English, English-Doric,
Edinburgh: Scottish Cultural Press.
Lamb, Gregor (1988) Orkney Wordbook. A Dictionary of the Dialect of Orkney, Birsay: Byrgisey.
Macafee, Caroline (1983) Varieties of English Around the World: Glasgow, Amsterdam: Benjamins. A study of Glasgow
Scots, past and present, in current speech and literature.
Macafee, Caroline ed. (1996) A Concise Ulster Dictionary, Oxford University Press.
Mackie, Albert (1984) The Illustrated Glasgow Glossary, Belfast: Blackstaff.
MacTaggart, John (1824, 1981) The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, London: printed for the author; reprinted by Clunie,
Strath Tay, Perthshire
Marwick, Hugh (1929, 1992) The Orkney Norn, Dunfermline: W. I. A. Murray. Originally published by Oxford University

Press.
Montgomery, Michael, From Ulster to America. The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English, Belfast: Ulster Historical
Foundation, 2006.
Munro, Michael (2001) The Complete Patter, Edinburgh: Birlinn.
Pepper, John [Fred Gamble] (1981) John Pepper's Ulster-English Dictionary, Belfast: Appletree Press.
Riach, W. A. D. (1988) A Galloway Glossary, Glsgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Occasional Papers 7.
Smyth, Anne, Michael Montgomery and Philip Robinson eds, The Academic Study of Ulster-Scots: Essays for and by Robert
J. Gregg National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, 2006.
Watson, George (1923) The Roxburghshire Word-Book, Cambridge University Press.
Wright, Joseph (1898-1905) English Dialect Dictionary, London: Henry Frowde. Words and phrases from all over Britain,
including a generous amount of Scots from different parts of Scotland