Its Pronunciation, Grammar, and Historical Relations
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S7 M1? CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library PE 2121.S7M98 Date Due A NOV 2 3 1950 1950* 55_ fcTJfftC t-t JitoL F DKUA '26M-^2 2 HOV 5 K7ffF NOV££*97gfr jj^j ^j^Mr-fl f&Mt? E.11&.N 2 6 WL -3~~2QQ3 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026538938 ; THE DIALECT OF THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES OF SCOTLAND: ITS PRONUNCIATION, GRAMMAR, AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS. WITH AN APPENDIX ON THE PBESENT LIMITS OE THE GAELIC AND LOWLAND SCOTCH, AND THE DIALECTICAL DIVISIONS OP THE LOWLAND TONGUE. AND A LINGTTISTICAL MAP OF SCOTLAND. JAMES A. H. MURRAY, F.E.I.S., MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF THE PHILOLOGICAL, AND EARLY ENGLISH TGXT SOCIETIES, EDITOR OF THE COHFLAYNT OF SCOTLAND, THE MINOR POEMS OF LYNDEBAY, ETC. LONDON: PUBLISHED FOE THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY, BY ASHER & CO., 13, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN AND 11, UNTEK DEN LINDEN, BERLIN. 1873. io6 bjttfxi? STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONB, PRINTERS, BERTFOED. CONTENTS. Historical Introduction (for arrangement see commencement) PREFACE. The local dialects are passing away,: along with, them disappears the light which they are able to shed upon so many points in the history of the national tongue that supersedes them, and the con- tributions which they, more than artificially trimmed Literary idioms, are able to make to the Science of Language, whether in regard to the course of phonetic changes, or the -spontaneous growth of natural grammar. They are passing away : even where not utterly trampled under foot by the encroaching lan- guage of literature and "education, they are corrupted and arrested by its all-pervading influence, and in the same degree rendered valueless as witnesses of the usages of the past and the natural tendencies of the present. These pages attempt to photograph the leading features of one •of the least-altered of these dialects, that of the Southern Counties of Scotland, and, with this as a basis, to illustrate the character- istics of that group of dialects descended from the old 14th •century "Inglis of the Northin lede," which under the names >of Northern English and Lowland Scotch, still prevail in more or less of their original integrity from the Yorkshire dales, to the Pentland Firth. Farthest removed from Celtic contact, and from the influence -of the literary English, the Northern tongue has in 4he south of .Scotland retained more of its old forms than else- where, and so far as concerns its vocabulary, and grammatical -structure, affords almost a living .specimen of the racy idiom in which Hampole and Barbour, at opposite extremes of the Northern-Speech-land, wrote five centuries ago. Its pronuncia- tion has of course changed since then, but with a consistent course and definite direction ; and its system of sounds is still of interest, showing in actual operation, the processes by which the VI PREFACE. old guttural -gh, -ch, has sunk into the -/ and -w of modern English, and that by which the long l and u in so many of the Teutonic tongues have from simple vowels, become the diph- thongs in English mine, house, German mein, haus, Dutch mijn, As the history of the Lowland Scotch division of the Northern tongue, and its relations to the adjacent dialects in England, have been the subject of much wild theory and but little research in the direction whence light was to be obtained, the Historical Introduction has been made especially full and complete. The spelling employed to represent Scottish sounds will pro- bably be objected to in many points by Scotchmen, who would prefer our shoon, to oor schuin. I have no quarrel with their taste ; when they give specimens of the speech heard around them, they may choose what symbols they please, provided they only explain what sounds their symbols mean. My own aim has been truth and distinctness. Spelling is only a means (a cumbrous one at best) to an end : the written forms so often misnamed words, are but conventional signs of the real words, the spolcen sounds for which they stand. To convey to the reader's ear and mouth, by the circuitous medium of the eye, a clear and correct idea of the real word, is the first use of spelling. At the same time, no student of a language can be insensible to the associations of the " historical spelling " which has grown up along with its spoken forms, nor will he willingly discard the drapery with which it was clothed in earlier times, and which in so many cases is our only guide to the living organism which once breathed within. Still in dealing with a living dialect of the 19th century, one cannot always do justice to its own form and spirit by con- fining it to the winding sheet which decently enough envelopes the dead language of the 16th. If the spelling used, with help of the key and account of the pronunciation, succeed in giving an idea of the living words to those who never heard them spoken, it will fulfil its purpose. Of course in quoting the ancient language, where the spelling is the only guide we have to the words, care has been taken faithfully to preserve their original written forms ; the quotations are, wherever possible, ; PREFACE. Til from the editions of the Early English Text or Philological Society, or of such conscientious editors as Dr. David Laing, and in most other cases from the original MSS. or editions. Only 'in cases of importance are references to the actual passages given where the point in question was the ordinary usage to be found on every page of a work, it seemed unnecessary to give reference to page and line. James A. H. Murray. Mill Sill, Middlesex, N. W., March, 1873. EEEATA. Page 2, Note 1, 1. 4, for some centuries read a century. 10, „ 40, ,, a few „ few. 39, „ 4, ,, allanely ,, allanerly. 54, ,, 30, after left-handed, add partan, a crab. r 74, „ 1, „ oys „ oy s. „ 37, dele tartan (this word being of French, origin and unknown to Celtic). 99, In the " Glides " for i, 3. read i, J. 113, ,, 4,forloelie „ Bocke. 126, ,, 12, „ hua»z ,, hubjz. 147, ,, 47, „ road „ rode. 195, ,, 20, „ owms „ rowms. 202, ,, 1, „ the past ai ,, the past ui. 205, Note 1, 1. 2, „ gie „ gis. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. PAGE §1. Changes in the application of the words Scot and Scottish .... 1 § 2. In what sense the Lowland tongue is called Scottish 4 § 3. Its early history, not the history of Scotland, but of the Angles of Northumbria 5 § 4. The country south of the Forth from the'Angle settlement to its union with Scotland 6 §5. The language south of the Firths originally Welsh 15 § 6. An Anglo-saxon dialect older in the south of Scotland than in most parts of England 16 § 7. It thence spread northward and westward over the original Scotland . 19 §8. Early remains — the JRuthwell Cross — already exhibits northern characteristics - 20 §9. Scanty materials from the Wth to the lZth century 22 § 10. The Scandinavian influence 24 § 11. Language of Scotlandfrom the Hth century divisible into three periods 28 § 12. The Early Feriod—identical with old Northern English—Specimens . 29 § 13. Known only as English to those who used it 40 § 14. When dnd how it began to be called Scotch 43 — characteristics § 15. The Middle Feriod its — the Celtic influence — the French element — the Classical element—Specimens 49 § 16. The Reformation and English influence 65 § 17. Decay of Scotch as a literary language 71 § 18. The Modern Period—popular poetry—conventional spelling—fails to represent the living speech — 74 § 19. The spoken language—exists in several dialects their classification . 11 \ 20. The dialect of the Southern counties—its area—its peculiarities and their origin 80 § 1. The words Soot and Scottish have passed through im- portant revolutions in signification since they first appeared in history. Originally applied to inhabitants of the country now- called Ireland, they included in the eighth century, and for some centuries previous, a portion of the inhabitants of North Britain, to whom all accounts concur in ascribing an Irish origin, and whose territory lay along the west coast of Alban, beyond the Firth of Clyde. At that period the terms Scot and Scottish ; HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. found their usual correlatives in Pict and Pictish, names applied to the race and language which prevailed on the east side of the Island, as far south as the Firth of Forth —perhaps somewhat farther. The qucestio vexata of the ethnological relations between the Scots and Picts does not here concern us, and we have only to notice that, when, in the middle of the 9th century, the Scottish ruler succeeded also to the Pictish throne, he retained his original 1 title of King of the Scots, the latter word gradually acquiring a corresponding extension of meaning, so as to embrace the inha- bitants of the whole country north of the Forth, or Scottis-wath (Mare Scoticum), which, as the territory subject to the king of the Scots, came in the 10th century to be spoken of by the Angle writers as Scot-land. Scot and Scottish were now opposed to Angle and English,2 terms embracing the Teutonic tribes who already occupied the greater part of the present England, as well as the southern part of what is now Scotland, as far as the Forth the terms Scottish and English having thus an ethnological or linguistic value.