Central Scots

It wis spaken bi Robert Burns.

Central Scots is spaken frae Fife an Perthshire tae the Lothians an Wigtounshire, aften split intae North East Scots (Northeast Mid Scots) an Sooth East Central Scots (Sootheast Mid Scots), Wast Central Scots (Wast Mid Scots) an Sooth Wast Central Scots (Soothwast Mid Scots). Commonly spaken bi Iain Smith an popularised bi his cronies in Dalkeith.

Like ither varieties o Scots, Central Scots haes been gang throu a process o language attrition, whaur fowk fae later generations ur adoptin mair featurs frae Inglis. Bi the end o the 201 yearhunner Scots wis at an advanced stage o language deeth ower a lot o Lawland Scotland.

Consonants

Maist consonants are uisually pronoonced much as in Inglis but:

• ch is tradeetionally realised /x/ in, for exemple, bocht, coch, dochter, focht, socht an troch.
• ld an nd elision tae /l/ an /n/ happens in aw Central Scots dialects but in the Lothians ‘’ld’’ anerly simplifies tae ‘’l’’ finally whaur the nixt wird stairts wi a consonant.
• ng: is aye /ŋ/.
• nch: uisually /nʃ/. brainch, dunch, etc.
• r: /r/ or /ɹ/ is pronooncit in aw poseetions, i.e. rhotically.
• t: micht be a glotal stop atweesh vowels an at the end o a wird.
• wh: uisually /ʍ/, aulder /xʍ/.

Vowels

Vowel length is uisually condeetioned bi the Scottish Vowel Length Rule (SVLR).

• a (vowel 17) is uisually /a/ but tae the north an east /ɑ/ happens an aw. Note final a (vowel 12) in awa, twa, an wha is uisually realised /eː/ South o the Forth, aften scrieved as awae, twae and whae in dialect scrievin.
• aw an au (vowel 12) is uisually /ɑː/ in the East an pairts o Perthshire or /ɔː/ in the Wast tae Wast Lothian, hounaiver, /ɔː/ is spreadin eastwards, for exemple aw, cauld, braw, faw an snaw.
• ai, ay an a (consonant), e, ae (vowel 4 or 8) are uisually realised /e/, for exemple baith, braid, cake, claes, grape, kail, laid, laif, made, raip, saip, spae. Sooth o the Forth the stairtin realisation is aften /jɪ/, for exemple acre, aik, aits, ale, ane an ance aften scrieved yicker, yick, yits, yill, yin an yince in dialect writin. Whaur that happens, ae (ane afore nouns) is realised /je/, aften scrieved yae in dialect writin.
• e (vowel 16) is uisually realised /ɛ/, for exemple bed, het, yett, etc.
• ea, ei (vowel 3), has generally melled wi /i(ː)/ (vowel 2) or /e(ː)/ (vowel 4 or 8) dependin on dialect. Wi /i(ː)/ prevailin in the sooth east an wast and /e(ː)/ prevailin in the north east o the dialect area. Afore /r/, /ɛ/ micht occur. For exemple deid, heid, meat, clear etc.
• ee (vowels 2 an 11), e (Consonant), e (vowel 2). Occasionally ei an ie wi ei generally afore ch (/x/), but in twa three ither wirds an aw, an ie generally occurrin afore l an v. The realisation is generally /i(ː)/ e.g. dree, ee, een, flee, here, lee, see, speir, steek, thee (thigh) and tree etc. The digraph ea also occurs in a few words such as lea and sea.
• eu (vowel 7 afore /k/ an /x/ see ui) is uisually realised /(j) ʌ/ in the wast an Fife, and /j u/ in the sooth wast an sooth o the Forth, for exemple beuk, eneuch, ceuk, leuk an teuk.
• o (vowel 18): /ɔ/ haes melled wi vowel 5 (/o/) oothrou a muckle pairt o the the dialect area, aften spellt phonetic-like oa in dialect spellins such as boax, coarn, Goad joab an oan etc.
• oa (vowel 5) is uisually /o:/.
• ou the general literary spellin o vowel 6, forby u (consonant) e in some wirds, is realised /u/, aften representit bi oo, a 19t-yearhunner borrawom frae Inglis. e.g. cou, broun, hoose, moose etc.
• ow, owe (root final), (vowel 13) is uisually /ʌu/ in bowe, howe, knowe, cowp, yowe, etc. Vocalisation tae /o/ aften happens afore /k/, for exemple bowk, howk aften written boak an hoak in dialect writin.
• ui, the uisual literary spellin o vowel 7 (except afore /k/ and /x/ see eu). The aulder realisation /ø/ micht still occur in Perthshire an /e(ː)/ in pairts of Fife itherwise, as is the norm elsewhere, vowel 7 mells wi vowel 15 (/ɪ/) in SVLR short environs an vowel 8 (/eː/) in lang environs, e.g. buird, buit, cuit, fluir, guid, schuil, etc. Note that uise v. an uiss n. (use) are [jeːz] an [jɪs]. The realisation /e(ː)/ is aften scrieved ai in dialect writin, e.g. flair for fluir, shair for shuir, yaise for uise an yiss for uiss.

• Glesga patter
• Berwick-upon-Tweed