Some of the terms in this chapter remind us that although Scots shares many words with English, many of these words are used slightly differently north and south of the Border. You may be surprised to see some of the following terms described as ‘Scots’, because they are also perfectly regular in Scottish English. In many ways it is difficult to draw a line between the two, and many modern commentators choose not to, instead describing Scots as a linguistic continuum that reaches from Broad Scots to Scottish Standard English.
Scottish place-names, real and imaginary, often feature in literature and film, the latter being loosely based on the former. George Douglas Brown’s ‘Barbie’, Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s ‘Blawearie’, A. J. Cronin’s ‘Tannochbrae’ and Dudley Watkins’ ‘Auchtershoogle’ all have the power to influence the atmosphere of a story. The sounds, spellings and cultural associations of the names they mimic tell a complex story of Scotland’s history and evolution.