Whether you are already a Scots speaker, or whether you are a learner, we hope this series of books will nurture your enthusiasm for the language.
The books were first published in print in 2008. We are delighted to publish them online in 2026 so that they can be enjoyed more widely.
The series is based on the Scottish National Dictionary and A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, which are available as Dictionaries of the Scots Language Online at www.dsl.ac.uk. Additional material came from ongoing research by the dictionaries’ editors, who are responsible for the stewardship of these great reference works and for keeping the record of Scots up to date.
Scots is the language of Lowland Scotland and the Northern Isles. It is also used in parts of Ulster. Along with English and Gaelic, it is one of Scotland’s three indigenous languages and is now one of her official languages as well. Scots is descended from Northern Old English, itself greatly influenced by Old Scandinavian. From the 12th century onwards, it became increasingly established in Lowland Scotland and was then enriched by words borrowed from French, Latin, Gaelic and Dutch. It was the language of government, spoken by kings, courtiers, poets and the people. It has a literary heritage the equal of any in Europe.
Like many other well-established languages, Scots has its own dialects including Glaswegian, Ayrshire, Shetland, Doric, and Border Scots. These exhibit a rich diversity yet share a central core uniting them as varieties of the Scots language. We have tried to reflect the history and variety of Scots in this series and hope you will find some words that you can slip into everyday conversation.
Some of the spelling, especially in the older quotations, may be unfamiliar – but if you try reading the quotations out loud, you will find they are not difficult to understand.