Scots

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A language of United Kingdom

ISO 639-3
sco
Population

90,000 in United Kingdom (1999 B. Kay). 60,000 in Lallans, 30,000 in Doric. Population total all countries: 100,000.

Location

Scotland lowlands, Aberdeen to Ayrshire; Northern Ireland. Doric dialect: northeast Scotland; Lallans dialect: southern Scotland lowlands; Ulster in Northern Ireland. Also in Ireland.

Language Maps
Language Status

4 (Educational).

Classification
Indo-European, Germanic, West, English
Dialects

Doric, Lallans, Ulster. Difficult intelligibility among dialects. Northern Scots on the Scottish Islands is considered by some a different language (Shetlandic or Orcadian). Lallans is main literary dialect. Scots is most similar to English [eng] and Frisian.

Typology

SVO; prepositions; genitives, articles, adjectives, numerals before noun heads; relatives without noun heads; question word initial; 2 prefixes, 1 suffix; word order distinguishes subjects, objects, indirect objects, given and new information, topic and comment; affixes indicate genitive case of noun phrase; passives; comparatives; CVC; nontonal

Language Use

1,500,000 speak it as L2. Home, community. All ages. Also use English [eng].

Language Development
Literacy rate in L2: 97% English. Ulster Scots has a development group. Poetry. Magazines. Dictionary. NT: 1901–1984.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Scots
Writing
Latin script.
Other Comments

Christian.

Also spoken in:

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