132-699: George Baillie (16 March 1664 – 6 August 1738) was a Scottish politician who sat in the Parliament of Scotland from 1691 to 1707 and in the British House of Commons from 1708 to 1734. George Baillie was the son of the Scottish Covenanter Robert Baillie of Jerviswood , who was implicated in the 1683 Rye House Plot against King Charles II . When his father was imprisoned for treason in 1684, George fled Scotland for Holland with Sir Patrick Hume . In Holland he served in
264-631: A fourth estate . During the 17th century, after the Union of the Crowns , a fifth estate of officers of state (see Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland ) has also been identified. These latter identifications remain highly controversial among parliamentary historians. Regardless, the term used for the assembled members continued to be "the Three Estates". A Shire Commissioner
396-557: A "common speaker" proved abortive, and the Lord Chancellor remained the presiding officer. Until 1603 the Lord Chancellor presided in the presence of the monarch, and their role was largely procedural, with debate conducted through him. In the absence of the monarch after the Union of the Crowns in 1603, Parliament was presided over by the Lord Chancellor in the presence of the Lord High Commissioner . In 1638
528-923: A 1996 trial before the Census, by the General Register Office for Scotland (GRO), suggested that there were around 1.5 million speakers of Scots, with 30% of Scots responding "Yes" to the question "Can you speak the Scots language?", but only 17% responding "Aye" to the question "Can you speak Scots?". It was also found that older, working-class people were more likely to answer in the affirmative. The University of Aberdeen Scots Leid Quorum performed its own research in 1995, cautiously suggesting that there were 2.7 million speakers, though with clarification as to why these figures required context. The GRO questions, as freely acknowledged by those who set them, were not as detailed and systematic as those of
660-650: A Scots language listing. The Ferret, a UK -based fact-checking service, wrote an exploratory article in December 2022 to address misconceptions about the Scots language to improve public awareness of its endangered status. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles , Caithness , Arran and Campbeltown . In Ulster , the northern province in Ireland , its area
792-469: A collection of children's nursery rhymes and poems in Scots. The book contains a five-page glossary of contemporary Scots words and their pronunciations. Alexander Gray 's translations into Scots constitute the greater part of his work, and are the main basis for his reputation. In 1983, William Laughton Lorimer 's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published. Scots
924-433: A continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to Scottish Standard English . Many speakers are diglossic and may be able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine. Because standard English now generally has the role of a Dachsprache ('roofing language'), disputes often arise as to whether
1056-486: A judicial and political role which was well established by the end of the century. With the death of Alexander III , Scotland found itself without an adult monarch, and in this situation, Parliament seems to have become more prominent as a means to give added legitimacy to the Council of Guardians who ran the country. By the reign of John Balliol (1292–96), Parliament was well established, and Balliol attempted to use it as
1188-565: A means to withstand the encroachments of his overlord, Edward I of England . With his deposition in 1296, Parliament temporarily became less prominent, but it was again held frequently by King Robert Bruce after 1309. During his reign some of the most important documents made by the King and community of the realm were made in Parliament—for instance the 1309–1310 Declaration of the Clergy . By
1320-679: A modern select committee of the UK Parliament – while the right to confirm the act remained with the full assembly of three estates. The Lords of the Articles were abolished in 1690 as part of the revolutionary settlement. At various points in its history, the Scottish Parliament was able to exert considerable influence over the Crown. This should not be viewed as a slow rise from parliamentary weakness in 1235 to strength in
1452-696: A name for the Lowland vernacular. The Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic . Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century, as the region was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . By the tenth century, Middle Irish was the language of the Scottish court , and the common use of Old English remained largely confined to this area until
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#17327987624661584-413: A number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects exist, they often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum , with Scottish Standard English at the other. Scots is sometimes regarded as a variety of English, though it has its own distinct dialects; other scholars treat Scots as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian
1716-655: A number of significant changes and it found itself sharing the stage with new national bodies. The emergence of the Convention of Royal Burghs as the "parliament" of Scotland's trading towns and the development of the Kirk's General Assembly after the Reformation (1560) meant that rival representative assemblies could bring pressure to bear on parliament in specific areas. Following the Reformation, laymen acquired
1848-416: A parliamentary committee known as the "Lords of the Articles". This was a committee chosen by the three estates to draft legislation which was then presented to the full assembly to be confirmed. In the past, historians have been particularly critical of this body, claiming that it quickly came to be dominated by royal nominees, thus undermining the power of the full assembly. Recent research suggests that this
1980-513: A prolonged period of parliamentary strength. Reverses to this situation have been argued to have occurred in the late 16th and early 17th centuries under James VI and Charles I , but in the 17th century, even after the Restoration, parliament was able to remove the clergy's right to attend in 1689 and abolish the Lords of the Articles in 1690, thereby limiting royal power. Parliament's strength
2112-612: A representative sample of Scotland's adult population) claim to speak Scots to varying degrees. The 2011 UK census was the first to ask residents of Scotland about Scots. A campaign called Aye Can was set up to help individuals answer the question. The specific wording used was "Which of these can you do? Tick all that apply" with options for "Understand", "Speak", "Read" and "Write" in three columns: English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots. Of approximately 5.1 million respondents, about 1.2 million (24%) could speak, read and write Scots, 3.2 million (62%) had no skills in Scots and
2244-530: A single chamber, the Scottish parliament acquired significant powers over particular issues. Most obviously it was needed for consent for taxation (although taxation was only raised irregularly in Scotland in the medieval period), but it also had a strong influence over justice, foreign policy, war, and all manner of other legislation, whether political, ecclesiastical , social or economic. Parliamentary business
2376-513: A small corps of guards, and the Marischal was attended by four macers who kept order on the floor of the chamber and guarded the Honours. The monarch or the Lord High Commissioner sat upon the elevated throne at the southern end of Parliament Hall, below which, on chairs, sat the Lord Chancellor (the presiding officer) and the officers of state. On the benches to the right of the throne, at
2508-506: A suitable medium of education or culture". Students reverted to Scots outside the classroom, but the reversion was not complete. What occurred, and has been occurring ever since, is a process of language attrition , whereby successive generations have adopted more and more features from Standard English. This process has accelerated rapidly since widespread access to mass media in English and increased population mobility became available after
2640-612: A union of English and Scottish parliamentary leaders; opposed by English Royalists and Oliver Cromwell , it was suspended in 1645. In 1647, the Scots agreed to restore Charles to the English throne; their failure in the 1648–1649 Second English Civil War led to his trial and execution by the English Rump Parliament and officers of the New Model Army . Following the execution the Scots accepted Charles II as king in 1649 but their attempt to put him on
2772-462: A unitary state. Parliament was dissolved, 45 Scots being added to the 513 members of the House of Commons and 16 to the 190 members of the House of Lords . The layout of the parliamentary chamber varied over the history of the parliament, due to the venue in which parliament met, the number of estates present and the total number of members in attendance. The arrangements became more settled following
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#17327987624662904-420: A vulnerable language by UNESCO . In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots. Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect , scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots, particularly its relationship to English . Although
3036-542: Is a language variety descended from Early Middle English in the West Germanic language family . Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles of Scotland , and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots ), it is sometimes called: Lowland Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic , the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of
3168-591: Is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form . Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots ( Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or "Ullans", a recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis , the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English : Scottisc (modern English "Scottish"), which replaced
3300-604: Is closely linked to but distinct from Danish . Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or "broad Scots" in English) or use a dialect name such as the " Doric " or the " Buchan Claik ". The old-fashioned Scotch , an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster. The term Lallans , a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz] ,
3432-562: Is in Scots, for example. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Other well-known authors like Robert Louis Stevenson , William Alexander, George MacDonald , J. M. Barrie and other members of the Kailyard school like Ian Maclaren also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue. In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions. In
3564-767: Is lykest to our language..." ( For though several have written of (the subject) in English, which is the language most similar to ours... ). However, with the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England, most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion. In his first speech to the English Parliament in March 1603, King James VI and I declared, "Hath not God first united these two Kingdomes both in Language, Religion, and similitude of maners?" . Following James VI's move to London,
3696-564: Is perhaps first identifiable as a parliament in 1235, described as a "colloquium" and already with a political and judicial role. In 1296 we have the first mention of burgh representatives taking part in decision making. By the early 14th century, the attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, and Robert the Bruce began regularly calling burgh commissioners to his Parliament. Consisting of The Three Estates – of clerics , lay tenants-in-chief and burgh commissioners – sitting in
3828-591: Is sometimes used in contemporary fiction, such as the Edinburgh dialect of Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a motion picture of the same name ). But'n'Ben A-Go-Go by Matthew Fitt is a cyberpunk novel written entirely in what Wir Ain Leed ("Our Own Language") calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms . The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
3960-567: Is used to describe the Scots language after 1700. A seminal study of Scots was undertaken by JAH Murray and published as Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland . Murray's results were given further publicity by being included in Alexander John Ellis 's book On Early English Pronunciation, Part V alongside results from Orkney and Shetland, as well as the whole of England. Murray and Ellis differed slightly on
4092-540: Is usually defined through the works of Robert John Gregg to include the counties of Down , Antrim , Londonderry and Donegal (especially in East Donegal and Inishowen ). More recently, the Fintona -born linguist Warren Maguire has argued that some of the criteria that Gregg used as distinctive of Ulster-Scots are common in south-west Tyrone and were found in other sites across Northern Ireland investigated by
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4224-439: The 1661 Rescissory Act , which effectively annulled all Parliamentary legislation since 1633. It generally supported Charles and initially did the same when James succeeded in 1685; when it refused to pass his measures, James suspended it and resorted to rule by decree. The deposition of James in 1689 ended a century of political dispute by confirming the primacy of Parliament over the Crown. The Claim of Right which offered
4356-654: The British Linen Company which became a significant moment in the industrial history of Scotland. In October 1706, Baillie was appointed to the Scottish parliamentary committee which scrutinised the Equivalent, the compensation to be paid to Scottish beneficeries under the Union settlement, the largest group of which were the shareholders and creditors of the Company of Scotland. After the Union, he attended
4488-470: The Covenanters replaced the Lord Chancellor with a President of the Parliament chosen by the members. After the Restoration, the Lord Chancellor was made ex-officio president of the parliament, his functions including the formulation of questions and putting them to the vote. From the early 1450s until 1690, a great deal of the legislative business of the Scottish Parliament was usually carried out by
4620-556: The Earl of Haddington . Rachel's elder son Thomas inherited the earldom. Mellerstain passed to Rachel's younger son George, who completed the house by erecting a central block between the wings constructed by his grandfather. Mellerstain remains to this day the principal seat of the Earl of Haddington. Parliament of Scotland The Parliament of Scotland ( Scots : Pairlament o Scotland ; Scottish Gaelic : Pàrlamaid na h-Alba )
4752-746: The Earl of Morton bearing the purse containing the commission from Queen Anne appointing the Lord High Commissioner. The Commissioner was followed by the dukes and marquesses, with the Marquess of Lorne , as colonel of the Life Guard, riding at the rear of the procession. The Lord High Commissioner was received at the door of Parliament House by the Lord High Constable and the Earl Marischal, both of whom led
4884-481: The English Dialect Dictionary , edited by Joseph Wright . Wright had great difficulty in recruiting volunteers from Scotland, as many refused to cooperate with a venture that regarded Scots as a dialect of English, and he obtained enough help only through the assistance from a Professor Shearer in Scotland. Wright himself rejected the argument that Scots was a separate language, saying that this
5016-509: The Linguistic Survey of Scotland . Dialects of Scots include Insular Scots , Northern Scots , Central Scots , Southern Scots and Ulster Scots . It has been difficult to determine the number of speakers of Scots via census, because many respondents might interpret the question "Do you speak Scots?" in different ways. Campaigners for Scots pressed for this question to be included in the 2001 UK National Census . The results from
5148-646: The Lord Clerk Register , the Lord Lyon King of Arms , and the heralds , pursuivants , and trumpeters , gathered on the forecourt of the Palace to wait upon the Lord High Commissioner. The nobles were all dressed in scarlet robes. Any member of the Parliament who failed to attend the Riding without a good reason for their absence were fined or even lost their voting rights in Parliament. Security
5280-559: The Parliament of Great Britain as Member of Parliament for Berwickshire for 26 years. In 1711, he was appointed Commissioner for Trade and Plantations by Queen Anne and in 1714 King George I appointed him one of the Lords of Admiralty . In 1717 he was elevated to Lord of Treasury as a junior Lord Commissioner of the Treasury until 1725. He stepped down as an MP at the 1734 British general election , and died at Oxford in 1738. He
5412-476: The Parliament of Scotland and three Edinburgh merchants established the Scots Linen Manufactory, which was to compete with Dutch and French Linen and create a self-sufficient industry. Yet, in spite of the privileges of monopoly and of exemption from taxes, it had to give up four years later. That said, the early entrepreneurial attempts to penetrate the linen trade, facilitated the creation of
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5544-657: The Parliament of the United Kingdom . Long portrayed as a constitutionally defective body that acted merely as a rubber stamp for royal decisions, modern research has found that the Parliament of Scotland played an active role in Scottish affairs . In the 15th and early 16th centuries Parliament was a powerful counter-weight to the power of the Stewart kings. Parliament provided counsel and aid to successive monarchs, while also successfully opposing unpopular royal policies. The members were collectively referred to as
5676-683: The Protestant Church of Scotland adopted the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible; subsequently, the Acts of Union 1707 led to Scotland joining England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , having a single Parliament of Great Britain based in London. After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as
5808-791: The Romance languages via ecclesiastical and legal Latin , Norman French , and later Parisian French , due to the Auld Alliance . Additionally, there were Dutch and Middle Low German influences due to trade with and immigration from the Low Countries . Scots also includes loan words in the legal and administrative fields resulting from contact with Middle Irish , and reflected in early medieval legal documents. Contemporary Scottish Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as cèilidh , loch , whisky , glen and clan . Cumbric and Pictish ,
5940-653: The Royal Mile from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to the Parliament House . The final Riding of Parliament was held on 6 May 1703, following the election of 1702 . The final form of the Riding was determined by the Parliament in May 1703. The Riding began with the transportation of the Honours of Scotland from Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The members of the Parliament, their servants and horses,
6072-418: The Scottish Highlands , the Hebrides , and Galloway after the sixteenth century; or Broad Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English . Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English , as the two diverged from the same medieval form of English. Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland by the Scottish government, a regional or minority language of Europe, and
6204-403: The Second World War . It has recently taken on the nature of wholesale language shift , sometimes also termed language change , convergence or merger . By the end of the twentieth century, Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland . Residual features of Scots are often regarded as slang. A 2010 Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards
6336-435: The Three Estates ( Scots : Thrie Estaitis ), or "three communities of the realm" ( tres communitates ), until 1690 composed of: The first estate comprised the archbishops of St Andrews and Glasgow , the bishops of Aberdeen , Argyll , Brechin , Caithness , Dunblane , Dunkeld , Galloway , Isles , Moray , Orkney and Ross and, at different periods, various abbots , priors , archdeacons , and deans . After
6468-412: The Three Estates . It acquired significant powers over particular issues, including consent for taxation, but it also had a strong influence over justice, foreign policy, war, and other legislation, whether political, ecclesiastical , social or economic. Much of the legislative business of the Scottish parliament was carried out by a parliamentary committee known as the Lords of the Articles , chosen by
6600-465: The University of Aberdeen , and only included reared speakers (people raised speaking Scots), not those who had learned the language. Part of the difference resulted from the central question posed by surveys: "Do you speak Scots?". In the Aberdeen University study, the question was augmented with the further clause "... or a dialect of Scots such as Border etc.", which resulted in greater recognition from respondents. The GRO concluded that there simply
6732-401: The senators of the College of Justice who, though unable to vote, could provide legal advice. The Riding of Parliament was an elaborate ceremonial event which formally marked the beginning and ending of a term of the Parliament of Scotland. A Riding was not held at the start of each session, but only at the downsitting (beginning) and rising (end) of Parliament. Dating from the 15th-century,
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#17327987624666864-554: The three estates of clergy , nobility , and the burghs . By the 1690s it comprised the nobility, the shires , the burghs, and various officers of state . Parliament gave consent for the raising of taxation and played an important role in the administration of justice, foreign policy, war, and the passing of a broad range of legislation . Parliamentary business was also carried out by "sister" institutions, such as General Councils or Conventions of Estates , which could both carry out much business dealt with by parliament, but lacked
6996-430: The 1420s and was openly hostile to James III (1460–1488) in the 1470s and early 1480s. In 1431, Parliament granted a tax to James I for a campaign in the Highlands on the condition that it be kept in a locked chest under the keepership of figures deeply out of favour with the King. In 1436, there was even an attempt made to arrest the King "in the name of the three estates". Between October 1479 and March 1482, Parliament
7128-437: The 17th century, but rather a situation where in particular decades or sessions between the thirteenth and 17th century, parliament became particularly able to influence the Crown, while at other points that ability was more limited. As early as the reign of David II , parliament was able to prevent him pursuing his policy of a union of the crowns with England, while the 15th-century Stewart monarchs were consistently influenced by
7260-423: The Commissioner to the throne, followed by the Gentleman Usher of the White Rod , while, amid the blowing of trumpets, the Honours of Scotland were laid on the table in the centre of Parliament Hall. Other than Edinburgh, Parliament was also held at the following locations: 55°56′57″N 3°11′26″W / 55.94917°N 3.19056°W / 55.94917; -3.19056 Scots language Scots
7392-401: The Crown, many of the constitutional changes being copied by the English Parliament. However, the Scots were increasingly concerned at their loss of political and economic power since 1603. In an effort to mitigate this, during the 1642–1645 First English Civil War , the Covenanters agreed the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant . One outcome was the creation of the Committee of Both Kingdoms ,
7524-435: The Crowns in 1603, the Standard English of England came to have an increasing influence on the spelling of Scots through the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England. After the Acts of Union in 1707 the emerging Scottish form of Standard English replaced Scots for most formal writing in Scotland. The eighteenth-century Scots revival saw the introduction of a new literary language descended from
7656-437: The English throne was defeated in the 1649–1651 Anglo-Scots War . As a result, Scotland was incorporated into the Protectorate (see Cromwell's Act of Grace and Tender of Union ) and a brief Anglo-Scottish parliamentary union (1653–1659). An independent Parliament was restored in 1661, sometimes known as the "Drunken Parliament". The term was coined by John Welsh and he was put in trial for it. The restored body passed
7788-417: The Honours signifying crown acceptance of the power of Parliament. The Lord High Constable and the Earl Marischal were seated on either side of this table. At the middle table sat the Lord Advocate , the Secretary of State , and the Lord Clerk Register (the senior clerk of parliament), along with the six clerks of Session and Parliament. At the third table, nearest to the burgh and shire commissioners, sat
7920-401: The Indies on 26 February 1696. He was elected to the court of directors of the Company on 3rd April 1696. He was a leading member of the Squadrone Volante , a group of members who were influential in the debates which led to the union with England in 1707. Additionally, Baillie played a significant role in orchestrating vast improvements in the Scottish Linen trade. In 1693, four members of
8052-399: The Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent sister language forming a pluricentric diasystem with English. German linguist Heinz Kloss considered Modern Scots a Halbsprache ('half language') in terms of an abstand and ausbau languages framework, although today in Scotland most people's speech is somewhere on
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#17327987624668184-424: The Lord High Constable, wearing his robes, was seated next to his guards on a chair at the Lady Steps of St Giles' Cathedral , from which he would rise and salute the members of the Parliament as they arrived in Parliament Square. The Earl Marischal, also wearing his robes and seated at the head of his guards at the door of Parliament House, received the members as they entered Parliament House. Half an hour before
8316-470: The Lord Lyon King of Arms. Following them were the Honours of Scotland, accompanied by the macers of the Parliament and the Privy Council , with the Sword of State borne by the Earl of Mar , the Sceptre borne by the Earl of Crawford , and the Crown borne by the Earl of Forfar , on behalf of the Duke of Douglas , the hereditary bearer of the Crown. Then came the Lord High Commissioner , attended by his servants, pages , and footmen , and preceded by
8448-409: The Philosopher's Stane , a Scots translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was published by Matthew Fitt . The vowel system of Modern Scots: Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish vowel length rule . The orthography of Early Scots had become more or less standardised by the middle to late sixteenth century. After the Union of
8580-421: The Riding began, the Lord High Chancellor (the presiding officer of the Parliament), along with the other officers of state who were noblemen, would ride up from the Palace to Parliament House, with the Lord High Chancellor having his purse and mace carried before him, and the Lord President of the Privy Council and the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal riding either side of him. When the Lord High Commissioner
8712-504: The Royal Mile two by two, with each member attended by a certain number of servants (one for every burgh commissioner, two for shire commissioners, three for every lord and viscount, four for every earl, six with every marquess, and eight for each duke). Each noble also had a trainbearer , and the noble’s servants wore over their liveries velvet coats with the noble’s coat of arms and motto embroidered on them. The earls were followed by four trumpeters, four pursuivants, six heralds and
8844-480: The Scots language was also featured. It was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. The Scottish Government set its first Scots Language Policy in 2015, in which it pledged to support its preservation and encourage respect, recognition and use of Scots. The Scottish Parliament website also offers some information on
8976-419: The Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals in a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", also finding "the most frequent speakers are least likely to agree that it is not a language (58%) and those never speaking Scots most likely to do so (72%)". Before the Treaty of Union 1707 , when Scotland and England joined to form
9108-512: The Scottish Executive recognises and respects Scots (in all its forms) as a distinct language, and does not consider the use of Scots to be an indication of poor competence in English. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, its independent – if somewhat fluid – orthographic conventions , and in its former use as the language of the original Parliament of Scotland . Because Scotland retained distinct political, legal, and religious systems after
9240-505: The Standard English cognate . This Written Scots drew not only on the vernacular, but also on the King James Bible , and was heavily influenced by the norms and conventions of Augustan English poetry . Consequently, this written Scots looked very similar to contemporary Standard English, suggesting a somewhat modified version of that, rather than a distinct speech form with a phonological system which had been developing independently for many centuries. This modern literary dialect, "Scots of
9372-497: The Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. During the 2010s, increased interest was expressed in the language. The status of the language was raised in Scottish schools, with Scots being included in the new national school curriculum . Previously in Scotland's schools there had been little education taking place through the medium of Scots, although it may have been covered superficially in English lessons, which could entail reading some Scots literature and observing
9504-704: The activities of those such as Thomas Sheridan , who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution . Charging a guinea at a time (about £200 in today's money ), they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh . Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. These eighteenth-century activities would lead to
9636-399: The annual election of two commissioners from each shire (except Kinross and Clackmannan, which had one each). The property qualification for voters was for freeholders who held land from the crown of the value of 40s of auld extent. This excluded the growing class of feuars , who would not gain these rights until 1661. The clerical estate was marginalised in Parliament by the Reformation, with
9768-518: The benches to the left of the throne sat the dukes, marquesses, senior earls, viscounts, and senior lords of parliament. On the benches facing the throne sat the burgh commissioners to the right and the shire commissioners to the left. In the middle of the chamber were three tables: on the table nearest the throne were placed the Honours of Scotland (the Crown , sceptre and sword of state), the presence of
9900-521: The book" or Standard Scots, once again gave Scots an orthography of its own, lacking neither "authority nor author". This literary language used throughout Lowland Scotland and Ulster, embodied by writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Murray , David Herbison , James Orr, James Hogg and William Laidlaw among others, is well described in the 1921 Manual of Modern Scots . Other authors developed dialect writing, preferring to represent their own speech in
10032-633: The border between English and Scots dialects. Scots was studied alongside English and Scots Gaelic in the Linguistic Survey of Scotland at the University of Edinburgh , which began in 1949 and began to publish results in the 1970s. Also beginning in the 1970s, the Atlas Linguarum Europae studied the Scots language used at 15 sites in Scotland, each with its own dialect. From the mid-sixteenth century, written Scots
10164-612: The ceremony was held wherever Parliament met and involved a largely equestrian procession of the members of the Parliament, the officers of state, the Honours of Scotland, and the monarch (or the Lord High Commissioner) from the royal palace or castle to the Parliament’s place of assembly. From the beginning of the 16th-century the Riding of Parliament was usually held in Edinburgh , with the procession travelling along
10296-566: The complementary decline of French made Scots the prestige dialect of most of eastern Scotland. By the sixteenth century, Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. From 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster , some 200,000 Scots-speaking Lowlanders settled as colonists in Ulster in Ireland. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one. The name Modern Scots
10428-403: The creation of Scottish Standard English . Scots remained the vernacular of many rural communities and the growing number of urban working-class Scots. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the use of Scots as a literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as Robert Burns . Such writers established a new cross-dialect literary norm. Scots terms were included in
10560-541: The crown to Mary and her husband William , placed important limitations on royal power, including the abolition of the Lords of the Articles. It has been argued that unlike its English counterpart, the Scottish parliament never became a true centre of national identity. The 1707 Acts of Union created a combined Parliament of Great Britain , which sat in Westminster and largely continued English traditions without interruption. Robert Burns famously claimed Union
10692-434: The earlier i-mutated version Scyttisc . Before the end of the fifteenth century, English speech in Scotland was known as "English" (written Ynglis or Inglis at the time), whereas "Scottish" ( Scottis ) referred to Gaelic . By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the English language used in Scotland had arguably become a distinct language, albeit one lacking a name which clearly distinguished it from all
10824-749: The early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid whose benchmark poem " A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle " (1926) did much to demonstrate the power of Scots as a modern idiom. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young , John Buchan , Sydney Goodsir Smith , Robert Garioch , Edith Anne Robertson and Robert McLellan . The revival extended to verse and other literature. In 1955, three Ayrshire men – Sandy MacMillan, an English teacher at Ayr Academy ; Thomas Limond, noted town chamberlain of Ayr ; and A. L. "Ross" Taylor, rector of Cumnock Academy – collaborated to write Bairnsangs ("Child Songs"),
10956-458: The end closest to the throne, sat the archbishops and bishops until the abolition of the episcopacy in 1689. From then onwards all of the benches to the right of the throne were occupied by the more junior earls and lords of parliament, with the end section of these benches that was farthest from the throne occupied by the non-voting eldest sons and heirs of the nobles, where they could observe business with an eye to their future responsibilities. On
11088-516: The fifteenth century, much literature based on the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such as Robert Henryson , William Dunbar , Gavin Douglas and David Lyndsay . The Complaynt of Scotland was an early printed work in Scots. The Eneados is a Middle Scots translation of Virgil 's Aeneid , completed by Gavin Douglas in 1513. After
11220-417: The floor of the chamber. The Lord High Constable was responsible for the outer security of Parliament House, including the doors and the keys to the chamber, and their authority extended to the outer bar before the actual floor of the chamber. The Earl Marischal maintained order within the chamber, and their authority extended from the outer bar to the inner bar, at the foot of the throne. The Constable had
11352-590: The horse guards of William of Orange , and returned to Britain with William in the Revolution of 1688 . Baillie was elected as Shire Commissioner of the Parliament of Scotland , representing Berwick from 1693 to 1698 and 1700 to 1701, and then Lanark from 1703 to 1707. He was one of the first subscribers to the Darien Scheme , pledging £1,000 sterling to the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and
11484-498: The institution returned to prominence, and arguably enjoyed its greatest period of power over the Crown after the return of James I from English captivity in 1424. By the end of the Middle Ages the Parliament had evolved from the King's Council of Bishops and Earls into a "colloquium" with a political and judicial role. The attendance of knights and freeholders had become important, and burgh commissioners joined them to form
11616-446: The king's interests, until they were excluded in 1641. James VI continued to manage parliament through the Lords of the Articles, who deliberated legislation before it reached the full parliament. He controlled the committee by filling it with royal officers as non-elected members, but was forced to limit this to eight from 1617. In the second half of the sixteenth century, Parliament began to legislate on more and more matters and there
11748-464: The lairds of each shire the right to send two commissioners to every parliament. These shire commissioners attended from 1592 onwards, although they shared one vote until 1638 when they secured a vote each. The number of burghs with the right to send commissioners to parliament increased quite markedly in the late 16th and early 17th centuries until, in the 1640s, they often constituted the largest single estate in Parliament. The first printed edition of
11880-622: The language in Scots. In September 2024, experts of the Council of Europe called on the UK Government to "boost support for regional and minority languages", including the Scots Language. The serious use of the Scots language for news, encyclopaediae, documentaries, etc., remains rare. It is reportedly reserved for niches where it is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night or traditions' representations. Since 2016,
12012-574: The language used in different situations. Such an approach would be inappropriate for a Census." Thus, although it was acknowledged that the "inclusion of such a Census question would undoubtedly raise the profile of Scots", no question about Scots was, in the end, included in the 2001 Census. The Scottish Government's Pupils in Scotland Census 2008 found that 306 pupils spoke Scots as their main home language. A Scottish Government study in 2010 found that 85% of around 1000 respondents (being
12144-462: The laymen who had acquired the monasteries sitting as "abbots" and "priors". Catholic clergy were excluded after 1567, but a small number of Protestant bishops continued as the clerical estate. James VI attempted to revive the role of the bishops from about 1600. A further group appeared in the Parliament from the minority of James VI in the 1560s, with members of the Privy Council representing
12276-464: The legislation of the Parliament, The New Actis and Constitutionis , was published in Edinburgh in 1542 by the printer Thomas Davidson under commission from James V . Victory the same year in the early stages of the 1639–1652 War of the Three Kingdoms brought the Covenanters to power, with bishops being expelled from both kirk and Parliament. Control of the executive was taken from
12408-571: The local dialect. Much of the material used was often Standard English disguised as Scots, which caused upset among proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is, "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)", whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation". A course in Scots language and culture delivered through
12540-493: The medieval Brittonic languages of Northern England and Scotland, are the suspected source of a small number of Scots words, such as lum (derived from Cumbric) meaning "chimney". From the thirteenth century, the Early Scots language spread further into Scotland via the burghs , which were proto-urban institutions first established by King David I . In fourteenth-century Scotland, the growth in prestige of Early Scots and
12672-614: The medium of Standard English and produced by the Open University (OU) in Scotland, the Open University's School of Languages and Applied Linguistics as well as Education Scotland became available online for the first time in December 2019. In the 2011 Scottish census , a question on Scots language ability was featured In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , a question in relation to
12804-563: The monasteries and those sitting as "abbots" and "priors" were now, effectively, part of the estate of nobles. The bishops continued to sit in Parliament regardless of whether they conformed to Protestantism or not. This resulted in pressure from the Kirk to reform ecclesiastical representation in Parliament. Catholic clergy were excluded after 1567 but Protestant bishops continued as the clerical estate until their abolition in 1638 when Parliament became an entirely lay assembly. An act of 1587 granted
12936-407: The nature of religion in the country, disregarding royal authority in 1560. The 1560 parliament included 100 lairds , who were predominantly Protestant, and who claimed a right to sit in the Parliament under the provision of a failed shire election act of 1428. Their position in the parliament remained uncertain and their presence fluctuated until the 1428 act was revived in 1587 and provision made for
13068-420: The newspaper The National has regularly published articles in the language. The 2010s also saw an increasing number of English books translated in Scots and becoming widely available, particularly those in popular children's fiction series such as The Gruffalo , Harry Potter , Diary of a Wimpy Kid , and several by Roald Dahl and David Walliams . In 2021, the music streaming service Spotify created
13200-401: The old court Scots, but with an orthography that had abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings and adopted many standard English spellings. Despite the updated spelling, however, the rhymes make it clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended. These writings also introduced what came to be known as the apologetic apostrophe , generally occurring where a consonant exists in
13332-402: The opening of Parliament House in 1639. The chamber was arranged in a square, non-confrontational layout where all the members looked in upon the throne. As parliament was also the highest court in the kingdom, a court bar – the inner bar – was located before the throne for accused to present themselves. There was also an outer bar beyond which only members or invited individuals could pass onto
13464-458: The other English variants and dialects spoken in Britain. From 1495, the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse , meaning "Irish", was used as a name for Gaelic. For example, towards the end of the fifteenth century, William Dunbar was using Erse to refer to Gaelic and, in the early sixteenth century, Gavin Douglas was using Scottis as
13596-497: The past (e.g. Corby or the former mining areas of Kent ). In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , it was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. Among the earliest Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (fourteenth century), Wyntoun 's Cronykil and Blind Harry 's The Wallace (fifteenth century). From
13728-507: The powers and ultimate authority of a full parliament. The Parliament of Scotland was dissolved in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England . With the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 May 1707, the parliaments of Scotland and England were succeeded by the new Parliament of Great Britain . Under the Acts of Union 1800 , the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland merged to become
13860-492: The reformation in 1559, ecclesiastical representation continued in parliament, with the archbishop of St Andrews and the bishops of Dunblane and Dunkeld providing a Catholic clerical presence until April 1567, alongside the Protestant bishops of Galloway, Orkney and Moray. Thereafter, only Protestant archbishops and bishops were allowed to sit in parliament, alongside those representing abbeys and priories. The clerical estate
13992-430: The reign of David II, the " three estates " (a phrase that replaced "community of the realm" at this time) in Parliament were certainly able to oppose the King when necessary. Most notably, Parliament repeatedly prevented David from accepting an English succession to the throne. During the reigns of Robert II and Robert III , Parliament appears to have been held less often, and royal power in that period also declined, but
14124-413: The remainder had some degree of skill, such as understanding Scots (0.27 million, 5.2%) or being able to speak it but not read or write it (0.18 million, 3.5%). There were also small numbers of Scots speakers recorded in England and Wales on the 2011 Census, with the largest numbers being either in bordering areas (e.g. Carlisle ) or in areas that had recruited large numbers of Scottish workers in
14256-521: The seventeenth century, anglicisation increased. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the North East were written down. Writers of the period were Robert Sempill , Robert Sempill the younger , Francis Sempill , Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie . In the eighteenth century, writers such as Allan Ramsay , Robert Burns , James Orr , Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott continued to use Scots – Burns's " Auld Lang Syne "
14388-536: The thirteenth century. The succeeding variety of Northern Early Middle English spoken in southeastern Scotland is also known as Early Scots . It began to further diverge from the Middle English of Northumbria due to twelfth- and thirteenth-century immigration of Scandinavian-influenced Middle English–speakers from the North and Midlands of England . Later influences on the development of Scots came from
14520-521: The three estates to draft legislation which was then presented to the full assembly to be confirmed. After 1424, Parliament was often willing to defy the King – it was far from being simply a "rubber stamp" of royal decisions. During the 15th century, Parliament was called far more often than, for instance, the English Parliament – on average over once a year – a fact that both reflected and augmented its influence. It repeatedly opposed James I's (1424–1437) requests for taxation to pay an English ransom in
14652-820: The twentieth-century biographer of James Boswell (1740–1795), described James's view of the use of Scots by his father Alexander Boswell (1706–1782) in the eighteenth century while serving as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland : He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar. However, others did scorn Scots, such as Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals David Hume and Adam Smith , who went to great lengths to get rid of every Scotticism from their writings. Following such examples, many well-off Scots took to learning English through
14784-673: The varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right. The UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Notwithstanding the UK government's and the Scottish Executive's obligations under part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
14916-489: Was a "quite modern mistake". During the first half of the twentieth century, knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary norms waned, and as of 2006 , there is no institutionalised standard literary form. By the 1940s, the Scottish Education Department 's language policy was that Scots had no value: "it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as
15048-420: Was a marked increase in the amount of legislation it produced. During the reign of James VI, the Lords of the Articles came more under the influence of the crown. By 1612, they sometimes seem to have been appointed by the Crown rather than Parliament, and as a result the independence of parliament was perceived by contemporaries to have been eroded. During the 16th century, the composition of Parliament underwent
15180-417: Was a trend seen in other European nations as monarchical power grew stronger – for instance England under Henry VII , as well as France and Spain. Like many continental assemblies, the Scottish Parliament was being called less frequently by the early sixteenth century and might have been dispensed with by the crown had it not been for the series of minorities and regencies that dominated from 1513. The crown
15312-708: Was abolished between 1639 and 1662, and then again from 1689 when bishops themselves were removed from the Church of Scotland , as a result of the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William II . When no members of the First Estate remained, the Second Estate was then split, to retain the division into three. From the 16th century, the second estate was reorganised by the selection of Shire Commissioners : this has been argued to have created
15444-455: Was also able to call a Convention of Estates , which was quicker to assemble and could issue laws like parliament, making them invaluable in a crisis, but they could only deal with a specific issue and were more resistant to the giving of taxation rights to the crown. Parliament played a major part in the Reformation crisis of the mid-sixteenth century. It had been used by James V to uphold Catholic orthodoxy and asserted its right to determine
15576-643: Was also carried out by "sister" institutions, before c. 1500 by General Council and thereafter by the Convention of Estates . These could carry out much business also dealt with by Parliament – taxation, legislation and policy-making – but lacked the ultimate authority of a full parliament. The Scottish parliament met in a number of different locations throughout its history. In addition to Edinburgh , meetings were held in Perth , Stirling , St Andrews , Dundee , Linlithgow , Dunfermline , Glasgow , Aberdeen , Inverness and Berwick-upon-Tweed . The Lord Chancellor
15708-803: Was assured by the guards of the Lord High Constable and the Earl Marischal , who were lined up from the door of Parliament House to the Royal Mile. Citizens of Edinburgh, with arms , lined both sides of the Royal Mile from Parliament Square to the Netherbow Port , and the foot guards lined both sides from the Netherbow Port to the Palace. Having carried out a thorough inspection of the Parliament House,
15840-583: Was brought about by Scots " bought and sold for English gold " and bribery certainly played a prominent role. However, it was also driven by the same trends the Scots attempted to manage in the 1640s, worsened by the events of the 1690s; this was a time of economic hardship and famine in many parts of Europe, known in Scotland as the Seven ill years . Combined with the failure of the Darién scheme in 1698, it allowed Anne to achieve her great-grandfather's ambition of
15972-556: Was buried on his estate of Mellerstain in Berwickshire, where he had commenced the building of the mansion by commissioning William Adam to build the east and west wings. In 1691 Baillie married Sir Patrick Hume's daughter, the songwriter and poet Lady Grizell Hume , and they had three children; Grizel (1692), who married British army officer Sir Alexander Murray of Stanhope, Robert (1694), who died in infancy and Rachel (1696), who married Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning , son of
16104-640: Was conclusively out of the control of James III . It refused to forfeit his brother, the Duke of Albany , despite a royal siege of the Duke's castle, tried to prevent the King leading his army against the English (a powerful indication of the estates' lack of faith in their monarch), and appointed men to the Lords of the Articles and important offices who were shortly to remove the King from power. James IV (1488–1513) realised that Parliament could often create more problems than it solved, and avoided meetings after 1509. This
16236-458: Was far from always being the case. Indeed, in March 1482, the committee was taken over by men shortly to be involved in a coup d'état against the King and his government. On other occasions the committee was so large that it could hardly have been easier to control than the full assembly. More generally, the committee was a pragmatic means to delegate the complicated drafting of acts to those members of parliament skilled in law and letters – not unlike
16368-659: Was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England. When William Flower , an English herald , spoke with Mary of Guise and her councillors in 1560, they first used the "Scottyshe toung" . As he found this hard to understand, they switched into her native French. King James VI , who in 1603 became James I of England , observed in his work Some Reulis and Cautelis to Be Observit and Eschewit in Scottis Poesie that "For albeit sindrie hes written of it in English, quhilk
16500-415: Was not enough linguistic self-awareness amongst the Scottish populace, with people still thinking of themselves as speaking badly pronounced, grammatically inferior English rather than Scots, for an accurate census to be taken. The GRO research concluded that "[a] more precise estimate of genuine Scots language ability would require a more in-depth interview survey and may involve asking various questions about
16632-730: Was ready, the Riding would begin, with the Lord Clerk Register holding the roll of Parliament and the Lord Lyon King of Arms calling the names of each member in the order in which they were to ride. The procession was headed by soldiers of the Troop of Life Guard , followed by two trumpeters and two pursuivants. Parliament then proceeded in an agreed order by estate , with the most senior riding last – burgh commissioners, shire commissioners, lords of parliament , viscounts , earls , marquesses , and dukes . The members rode up
16764-814: Was such that the Crown turned to corruption and political management to undermine its autonomy in the latter period. Nonetheless, the period from 1690 to 1707 was one in which political "parties" and alliances were formed within parliament in a maturing atmosphere of rigorous debate. The disputes over the English Act of Settlement 1701 , the Scottish Act of Security , and the English Alien Act 1705 showed that both sides were prepared to take considered yet considerable risks in their relationships. Between 1235 and 1286, little can be told with certainty about Parliament's function, but it appears to have had
16896-424: Was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council of bishops and earls , with the first identifiable parliament being held in 1235 during the reign of Alexander II , when it already possessed a political and judicial role. A unicameral institution, for most of its existence the Parliament consisted of
17028-853: Was the presiding officer of the Parliament of Scotland, as was the case in the English House of Lords . As the Lord Chancellor was also the principal Officer of State , the Keeper of the Great Seal , the presiding officer of the Privy Council , and a judge of the College of Justice , the office never developed into a parliamentary office similar in nature to that of the Speaker of the House of Commons in England. An act of 1428 which created
17160-479: Was the closest equivalent of the office of Member of Parliament in the Parliament of England of the time, namely a commoner or member of the lower nobility. Because the parliament of Scotland was unicameral, all members sat in the same chamber , in contrast to the separate English House of Lords and House of Commons . The Scottish parliament evolved during the Middle Ages from the King's Council. It
17292-432: Was the notion of "Scottishness" itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume , defined themselves as Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed union. Nevertheless, Scots was still spoken across a wide range of domains until the end of the eighteenth century. Frederick Pottle ,
17424-497: Was translated into Scots by Rab Wilson and published in 2004. Alexander Hutchison has translated the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s, Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of Tartuffe by Molière . J. K. Annand translated poetry and fiction from German and Medieval Latin into Scots. The strip cartoons Oor Wullie and The Broons in the Sunday Post use some Scots. In 2018, Harry Potter and
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