The scots (called in scots the Scots leid , the Scotch tape tung , etc) is a Germanic Langue spoken in Scotland and in north about the Ireland (in Ulster). It is very close to the English.

He is recognized like regional Langue in Scotland (with the Scottish Gaélique ), according to the European Charte of the regional or minority languages. He constitutes in particular the regional idiom specific to the Low-Grounds of Scotland, from which one of the dialects is called Doric.

The scots of Ulster in is another dialect, recognized like regional language in Northern Ireland and to a lesser extent the Irish Republic. In this form, it is traditionally employed in the counties of Antrim, of Down, Derry and Donegal. The scots of Ulster recently made new great strides, mainly for political reasons, within the community Unioniste. Its statute is defined in the Accord of the Good Friday.

The scots comes from the old man Northumbrien, i.e. septentrional dialects Anglo-Saxon S spoken in north about the Humber river, in Great Britain, before the invasion Norman (1066). It was also influenced by the Vieux norrois, brought in the island by the Viking S Danish to IXe century.

The dialects northumbriens were spread in Scotland during the Early middle ages, with the detriment to speak it (perhaps Brittonique) about the Pictes. Their prestige was then due to the capital of the kingdom, Edinburgh, where one adopted rather early the northumbrien. The scots also was subject to the influence of Gaelic, the original language of Scots: several exchanges of vocabulary are attested between the two languages.

Later, the surface where he was spoken is reduced considerably because of its formal abandonment, following the displacement of the royal house of Scotland with London (in 1603). It nevertheless was perpetuated by the regional poetry; the most known writer of language scots is the poet Rabbie Burns.

Words of the song Auld Lang Syne (" for a very long time "), the international anthem of the New Year's Day, are in scots.

One should not confuse the scots with the Scottish : this last is a language of the group Gaélique of the family Celtique. He is traditionally spoken in the High-Grounds about Scotland. He should not be confused either with the English Scot, who is a variety of the English language influenced by the scots, not of the scots itself (although the two names were often employed improperly one for the other).

Because of differences existing between the dialects of the scots and because of a lack of support on behalf of the authorities of the United Kingdom, there does not exist yet of Orthographe standard for the scots and this, in emanating spite of several efforts speakers of this language. Nevertheless, the creation of the Parliament of Scotland, in 1999, could change the things.

The scots did not know the important modification of the pronunciation of the vowels (Grand vocalic change) which knew English. As example, the English word “town” decides with a diphthong, but the word are equivalent in scots, “toun”, decides /tun/.

From a lexical point of view, the scots was not subject to the same French influence that English, and contains words of Germanic origin which do not exist any more in modern English like, for example, “greet” (to cry) and “ken” (to know).