Scotland's languages

Early alphabets in Scotland
© The Multimedia Team / SCRAN

Languages are part of the histories of the people who speak them.

Pupils should be aware that the history of the Scottish people is not the history of one race or of one language. In many ways, Scotland has always been a multilingual and multicultural country.

As they investigate Scotland's People in the Past, pupils will discover that the country is a rich patchwork of peoples and languages. All have made their mark. 

Here are a few ...

• Brithonic, a (Celtic) language spoken in south west Scotland (the ancient Kingdom of Strathclyde whose capital was Dumbarton) is related to modern-day Welsh. It was spoken until about the eighth century.
• Pictish, an ancient, indigenous (probably Celtic) language of Scotland, about which very little is known. It died out after the ninth century and survives only in some placenames, such as the prefix 'Pit', e.g. Pittenweem.
• Gaelic, brought to Scotland by a tribe from Ireland called the Scoti. At first they settled in the west, but by the ninth century Gaelic was the dominant language and culture in Scotland. Most Scottish placenames are Gaelic in origin.
• Old English, a Germanic language which in its northern dialect first came to Scotland in the seventh century. Both Standard English and Scots are descended from Old English.
• Norse, the language of the Vikings, who began as raiders in the seventh and eighth centuries and ended up as settlers. The Norse language influenced the English language when it came into contact with it. This is still evident in placenames and local dialect in northern England, and also in Scots. The influence of Norse is particularly apparent in the dialect of Shetlands and Orkney.
• Standard (southern) English became increasingly widespread in Scotland during the eighteenth century as the language of government, law, the church and education. Scottish writers such as the philospher David Hume went to great lengths to write and speak in Standard English.
• Modern languages brought to Scotland by twentieth century immigration - including Italian, Polish and Lithuanian in the first half of the twentieth century, Punjabi, Urdu and Chinese in the last 40 years. As both Scottish society and the world change, new languages will continue to be added to the linguistic map of Scotland. 

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