Modern Scots

An exciting account of the origins of the modern world Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong. How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond. And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again.

Your user-friendly study and revision guide to Scots criminal law, written specially for students by a law lecturer with over 20 years of teaching experience.

Originally published in 1921, this book was intended for non-Scottish students of Scottish literature as a guide for recitation and declamation of Scottish pieces. The text is divided into three parts: the first gives the phonetic symbols for the sounds of modern Scots, the second contrasts Scots grammar with standard English usage and gives illustrations from Scottish literature, and the third contains extracts from modern Scots writers with phonetic transcriptions on the facing page. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the pronunciation of Scottish literature or in Scottish phonetics more generally.

This book provides an overview of Scottish culture from the time of union with England and Wales up to and through the moment of devolution to the present.

The Scots language is the hidden treasure of Scottish culture. For many of us it is still how we speak to each other, how we express our feelings, our humour, even our Scottishness. It not only connects us to our communities at an emotional level but also links us to our past. Scots was created by millions of voices coming together to share words, phrases and jokes; to understand, act on (and often laugh at) the world around them. Aye, but what exactly is 'Scots' anyway? Usually spoken in a mix with Scottish English, at least nowadays, is it really a language at all? Was it ever? And what about its future? Dr Clive Young embarks on a quest to learn about the secret life of the language he spoke as a bairn. Along the way, he encounters centuries of intense argument on the very nature of Scots, from the first dictionaries, through MacDiarmid, The Broons, Trainspotting and on to present-day Twitter rammies. (And of course, endless stushies about how to spell it.) Some still dismiss Scots as 'just' a dialect, slang or bad English. Behind this everyday disdain Dr Young uncovers a troubling history of official neglect and marginalisation of our unique minority language, offset only by a defiant and inspiring linguistic loyalty. A refreshing counterbalance to the usual gloomy prognosis of Scots' supposedly 'inevitable' demise, Dr Young sketches out a practical roadmap to revitalise Scotland's beleaguered tongue and simple ways we can all keep it 'hale an hearty' for future generations. Acause if you dinna dae it, wha wull?

This book provides a thorough yet approachable history of the Scots language, a close relative of Standard English with around 1.5 million speakers in Scotland and several thousand in Ireland, according to the 2011 census. Despite the long history of Scots as a language of high literature, it has been somewhat neglected and has often been treated as a dialect of Standard English. In this book, Robert McColl Millar explores both sociolinguistic and structural developments in the history of Scots, bringing together these two threads of analysis to offer a better understanding of linguistic change. The first half of the book tracks the development of Scots from its beginnings to the modern period, while chapters in the second half offer detailed descriptions of Scots historical phonology and morphosyntax, and of the historical development of Scots lexis. A History of the Scots Language will be a valuable resource for undergraduate and graduate students of the modern and historical Scots language, but will also be of interest to those studying the history of English and other Germanic languages.