1.
Scots language
–
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language which was restricted to most of the Highlands. The language developed during the Middle English period as a distinct entity, although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a linguistic continuum. Scots is often regarded as one of the ancient varieties of English, alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct Germanic language, in the way Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from, Danish. In the 2011 Scottish census, a question on Scots language ability was featured, native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots or use a dialect name such as the Doric, or the Buchan Claik. The old-fashioned Scotch, an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Northern Ireland, the term Lallans, a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands, is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form. Scots in Ireland is known in circles as Ulster-Scots or Ullans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis, the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English Scottisc, before the end of the 15th century, English speech in Scotland was known as English, whereas Scottish referred to Gaelic. From 1495 the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse, meaning Irish, the Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic. Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century and it remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century, continuing in common use while Gaelic was the language of the Scottish court. Scots also includes loan words resulting from contact with Gaelic, Early medieval legal documents include a body of Gaelic legal and administrative loans. Contemporary Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as ceilidh, loch, from the thirteenth century Early Scots spread further into Scotland via the burghs, proto-urban institutions which were first established by King David I. The growth in prestige of Early Scots in the century. By the sixteenth century Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England, from 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster large numbers of Scots-speaking Lowlanders, some 200,000, settled there. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one, Modern Scots is used to describe the language after 1700 when southern Modern English was generally adopted as the literary language though Scots remained the vernacular. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands, the Northern Isles, Caithness, Arran, in Ulster it is spoken in the Counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry and Donegal. Dialects include Insular Scots, Northern Scots, Central Scots, Southern Scots, many speakers are either diglossic and/or able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves
Scots language
–
Lufe God abufe al and yi nychtbour as yi self ("Love God above all and thy neighbour as thyself"), an example of
Early Scots on
John Knox House,
Edinburgh
Scots language
–
Areas where the Scots language was spoken in the 20th century
Scots language
–
Statue of
Robert Burns in
Canberra, Australia
Scots language
–
William Wye Smith-The
New Testament in Braid Scots.
2.
United Kingdom
–
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
United Kingdom
–
Stonehenge, in
Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.
United Kingdom
–
Flag
United Kingdom
–
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the
Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.
United Kingdom
–
The
Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.
3.
Language family
–
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language, called the proto-language of that family. Linguists therefore describe the languages within a language family as being genetically related. Estimates of the number of living languages vary from 5,000 to 8,000, depending on the precision of ones definition of language, the 2013 edition of Ethnologue catalogs just over 7,000 living human languages. A living language is one that is used as the primary form of communication of a group of people. There are also dead and extinct languages, as well as some that are still insufficiently studied to be classified. Membership of languages in a family is established by comparative linguistics. Sister languages are said to have a genetic or genealogical relationship, speakers of a language family belong to a common speech community. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, individuals belonging to other speech communities may also adopt languages from a different language family through the language shift process. Genealogically related languages present shared retentions, that is, features of the proto-language that cannot be explained by chance or borrowing, for example, Germanic languages are Germanic in that they share vocabulary and grammatical features that are not believed to have been present in the Proto-Indo-European language. These features are believed to be innovations that took place in Proto-Germanic, language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. A family is a unit, all its members derive from a common ancestor. Some taxonomists restrict the term family to a level. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, a top-level family is often called a phylum or stock. The closer the branches are to other, the closer the languages will be related. For example, the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Romance, there is a remarkably similar pattern shown by the linguistic tree and the genetic tree of human ancestry that was verified statistically. Languages interpreted in terms of the phylogenetic tree of human languages are transmitted to a great extent vertically as opposed to horizontally. A speech variety may also be considered either a language or a dialect depending on social or political considerations, thus, different sources give sometimes wildly different accounts of the number of languages within a family. Classifications of the Japonic family, for example, range from one language to nearly twenty, most of the worlds languages are known to be related to others
Language family
–
Principal language families of the world (and in some cases geographic groups of families). For greater detail, see
Distribution of languages in the world.
4.
Indo-European languages
–
The Indo-European languages are a language family of several hundred related languages and dialects. There are about 445 living Indo-European languages, according to the estimate by Ethnologue, the most widely spoken Indo-European languages by native speakers are Spanish, English, Hindustani, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, and Punjabi, each with over 100 million speakers. Today, 46% of the population speaks an Indo-European language as a first language. The Indo-European family includes most of the languages of Europe, and parts of Western, Central. It was also predominant in ancient Anatolia, the ancient Tarim Basin and most of Central Asia until the medieval Turkic migrations, all Indo-European languages are descendants of a single prehistoric language, reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European, spoken sometime in the Neolithic era. Several disputed proposals link Indo-European to other language families. In the 16th century, European visitors to the Indian subcontinent began to notice similarities among Indo-Aryan, Iranian, in 1583, English Jesuit missionary Thomas Stephens in Goa wrote a letter to his brother in which he noted similarities between Indian languages and Greek and Latin. Another account to mention the ancient language Sanskrit came from Filippo Sassetti, a merchant born in Florence in 1540, writing in 1585, he noted some word similarities between Sanskrit and Italian. However, neither Stephens nor Sassettis observations led to further scholarly inquiry and he included in his hypothesis Dutch, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Persian, and German, later adding Slavic, Celtic, and Baltic languages. However, Van Boxhorns suggestions did not become known and did not stimulate further research. Ottoman Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi visited Vienna in 1665–1666 as part of a diplomatic mission, gaston Coeurdoux and others made observations of the same type. Coeurdoux made a comparison of Sanskrit, Latin and Greek conjugations in the late 1760s to suggest a relationship among them. Thomas Young first used the term Indo-European in 1813, deriving from the extremes of the language family. A synonym is Indo-Germanic, specifying the familys southeasternmost and northwesternmost branches, a number of other synonymous terms have also been used. Franz Bopps Comparative Grammar appeared between 1833 and 1852 and marks the beginning of Indo-European studies as an academic discipline, the classical phase of Indo-European comparative linguistics leads from this work to August Schleichers 1861 Compendium and up to Karl Brugmanns Grundriss, published in the 1880s. Brugmanns neogrammarian reevaluation of the field and Ferdinand de Saussures development of the theory may be considered the beginning of modern Indo-European studies. This led to the laryngeal theory, a major step forward in Indo-European linguistics. Isolated terms in Luwian/Hittite mentioned in Semitic Old Assyrian texts from the 20th and 19th centuries BC, Hittite texts from about 1650 BC, Armenian, writing known from the beginning of the 5th century AD
Indo-European languages
–
Franz Bopp, pioneer in the field of comparative linguistic studies.
Indo-European languages
5.
Germanic languages
–
It is the third most spoken Indo-European subdivision, behind Italic and Indo-Iranian, and ahead of Balto-Slavic languages. Limburgish varieties have roughly 1.3 million speakers along the Dutch–Belgian–German border, the main North Germanic languages are Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese, which have a combined total of about 20 million speakers. The East Germanic branch included Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic, the last to die off was Crimean Gothic, spoken in the late 18th century in some isolated areas of Crimea. The total number of Germanic languages throughout history is unknown, as some of them—especially East Germanic languages—disappeared during or after the Migration Period. Proto-Germanic, along all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic tribes moving south from Scandinavia in the 2nd century BC, to settle in the area of todays northern Germany, furthermore, it is the de facto language of the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. It is also a language in Nicaragua and Malaysia. German is a language of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland and has regional status in Italy, Poland, Namibia. German also continues to be spoken as a minority language by immigrant communities in North America, South America, Central America, Mexico, a German dialect, Pennsylvania Dutch, is still present amongst Anabaptist populations in Pennsylvania in the United States. Dutch is a language of Aruba, Belgium, Curaçao. The Netherlands also colonised Indonesia, but Dutch was scrapped as a language after Indonesian independence. Dutch was until 1925 an official language in South Africa, but evolved in and was replaced by Afrikaans, Afrikaans is one of the 11 official languages in South Africa and is a lingua franca of Namibia. It is used in other Southern African nations as well, low German is a collection of sometimes very diverse dialects spoken in the northeast of the Netherlands and northern Germany. Scots is spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, frisian is spoken among half a million people who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Luxembourgish is mainly spoken in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, though it extends into small parts of Belgium, France. Limburgish varieties are spoken in the Limburg and Rhineland regions, along the Dutch–Belgian–German border, Swedish is also one of the two official languages in Finland, along with Finnish, and the only official language in the Åland Islands. Danish is also spoken natively by the Danish minority in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, Norwegian is the official language of Norway. Icelandic is the language of Iceland, and is spoken by a significant minority in the Faroe Islands
Germanic languages
–
Countries where a Germanic language is the
first language of the majority of the population
6.
West Germanic languages
–
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages. The three most prevalent West Germanic languages are English, German, and Dutch, additionally, several creoles, patois, and pidgins are based on Dutch and English as they were languages of colonial empires. The West Germanic languages share many lexemes not existing in North Germanic and/or East Germanic—archaisms as well as common neologisms, most scholars doubt that there was a Proto-West-Germanic proto-language common to the West Germanic languages and no others, though a few maintain that Proto-West-Germanic existed. Although there is quite a bit of knowledge about North Sea Germanic or Anglo-Frisian, linguists know almost nothing about Weser-Rhine Germanic, in fact, these two terms were coined in the 1940s to refer to groups of archeological findings rather than linguistic features. Only later were these terms applied to hypothetical dialectal differences within both regions, the rhotacism of /z/ to /r/. The development of the demonstrative pronoun ancestral to English this, rhotacism, for example, was largely complete in West Germanic at a time when North Germanic runic inscriptions still clearly distinguished the two phonemes. However, there are also a number of common archaisms in West Germanic shared by neither Old Norse nor Gothic, the debate on the existence of a Proto-West-Germanic clade was recently summarized, That North Germanic is. A unitary subgroup is completely obvious, as all of its dialects shared a series of innovations. Several scholars have published reconstructions of Proto-West-Germanic morphological paradigms and many authors have reconstructed individual Proto-West-Germanic morphological forms or lexemes, the first comprehensive reconstruction of the Proto-West-Germanic language was published in 2013 by Wolfram Euler. If indeed Proto-West-Germanic existed, it must have been between the 3rd and 7th centuries, after that, the split into West and North Germanic occurred. It has been argued that, judging by their nearly identical syntax, over the course of this period, the dialects diverged successively. Bordering dialects very probably continued to be mutually intelligible even beyond the boundaries of the consonant shift, in fact, many dialects of Limburgish and Ripuarian are still mutually intelligible today. The High German consonant shift distinguished the High German languages from the other West Germanic languages, by early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South to Northern Low Saxon in the North. Although both extremes are considered German, they are not mutually intelligible, the southernmost varieties have completed the second sound shift, whereas the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift. Of modern German varieties, Low German is the one that most resembles modern English, the district of Angeln, from which the name English derives, is in the extreme northern part of Germany between the Danish border and the Baltic coast. The area of the Saxons lay south of Anglia, the Anglo-Saxons, two Germanic tribes, were a combination of a number of peoples from northern Germany and the Jutland Peninsula. Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely defined, most form dialect continua, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible. Also note that English is part of the North Sea Germanic branch of the West Germanic languages, some may only appear in the older languages but are no longer apparent in the modern languages
West Germanic languages
–
Icelandic
7.
Anglo-Frisian languages
–
The Anglo-Frisian languages is the group of West Germanic languages that includes Anglic and Frisian. For additional detail, see Phonological history of Old English, ingvaeonic, also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that comprises Old Frisian, Old English and Old Saxon. It is not thought of as a monolithic proto-language, but rather as a group of related dialects that underwent several areal changes in relative unison. High German languages Low Franconian languages Friedrich Maurer, Nordgermanen und Alemannen, Studien zur Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde,244 p. in German with English summary, Verlag Inspiration Un Ltd. Ringe, Donald R. and Taylor, Ann, the Development of Old English - A Linguistic History of English, vol
Anglo-Frisian languages
–
English
8.
English language
–
English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩
English language
–
The opening to the Old English epic poem
Beowulf,
handwritten in
half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
English language
–
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
English language
–
Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales c.1400
9.
Old English
–
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest historical form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers probably in the mid 5th century, Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic dialects originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the languages of Roman Britain, Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon. It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the standard of the later Old English period, although the dominant forms of Middle. The speech of eastern and northern parts of England was subject to strong Old Norse influence due to Scandinavian rule, Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are Old Frisian and Old Saxon. Like other old Germanic languages, it is different from Modern English. Old English grammar is similar to that of modern German, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs have many inflectional endings and forms. The oldest Old English inscriptions were using a runic system. Old English was not static, and its usage covered a period of 700 years, from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century to the late 11th century, some time after the Norman invasion. While indicating that the establishment of dates is a process, Albert Baugh dates Old English from 450 to 1150, a period of full inflections. Perhaps around 85 per cent of Old English words are no longer in use, Old English is a West Germanic language, developing out of Ingvaeonic dialects from the 5th century. It came to be spoken over most of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which became the Kingdom of England and this included most of present-day England, as well as part of what is now southeastern Scotland, which for several centuries belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Other parts of the island – Wales and most of Scotland – continued to use Celtic languages, Norse was also widely spoken in the parts of England which fell under Danish law. Anglo-Saxon literacy developed after Christianisation in the late 7th century, the oldest surviving text of Old English literature is Cædmons Hymn, composed between 658 and 680. There is a corpus of runic inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries. The Old English Latin alphabet was introduced around the 9th century, with the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by Alfred the Great in the later 9th century, the language of government and literature became standardised around the West Saxon dialect. In Old English, typical of the development of literature, poetry arose before prose, a later literary standard, dating from the later 10th century, arose under the influence of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester, and was followed by such writers as the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham. This form of the language is known as the Winchester standard and it is considered to represent the classical form of Old English
Old English
–
A detail of the first page of the
Beowulf manuscript, showing the words "ofer hron rade", i.e. "over the whale's road (=sea)". It is an example of an Old English stylistic device, the
kenning.
Old English
–
North Germanic
Old English
–
"Her swutelað seo gecwydrædnes ðe" Old English inscription over the arch of the south porticus in the 10th-century
St Mary's parish church, Breamore, Hampshire
Old English
–
The first page of the
Beowulf manuscript with its opening Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
10.
Middle English
–
This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English developed out of Late Old English, seeing many dramatic changes in its grammar, pronunciation and this largely forms the basis for Modern English spelling, although pronunciation has changed considerably since that time. Middle English was succeeded in England by the era of Early Modern English, by that time, a variant of the Northumbrian dialect was developing into the Scots language. During the Middle English period many Old English grammatical features were simplified or disappeared, noun, adjective and verb inflections were simplified, a process that included the reduction of most grammatical case distinctions. Middle English also saw an adoption of Norman French vocabulary, especially in areas such as politics, law. Everyday English vocabulary remained mostly Germanic, with Old Norse influence becoming apparent, significant changes in pronunciation took place, especially for long vowels and diphthongs, which in the later Middle English period began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift. Little survives of early Middle English literature, most likely due to the Norman domination, poets wrote both in the vernacular and courtly English. It is popularly believed that William Shakespeare wrote in Middle English, the latter part of the 11th century was a period of transition from Late Old English to Early Middle English. The influence of Old Norse certainly helped move English from a synthetic language towards a more analytic or isolating word order and it was, after all, a salutary influence. The gain was greater than the loss, there was a gain in directness, in clarity, and in strength. The change to Old English from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive and it is most important to recognise that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. In the mixed population which existed in the Danelaw these endings must have led to confusion, tending gradually to become obscured. This blending of peoples and languages resulted in simplifying English grammar. There are also many Norman-derived terms relating to the cultures that arose in the 12th century. Sometimes, and particularly later, words were taken from Latin, giving such sets as kingly, later French borrowings came from standard rather than Norman French, this leads to such cognate pairs as warden, guardian. The end of Anglo-Saxon rule did not, of course, change the language immediately, the general population would have spoken the same dialects as before the Conquest, these changed slowly until written records of them became available for study, which varies in different regions. Once the writing of Old English came to an end, Middle English had no standard language, Early Middle English has a largely Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, but a greatly simplified inflectional system
Middle English
–
A page from
Geoffrey Chaucer 's
The Canterbury Tales
11.
Early Modern English
–
Prior to and following the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603, the emerging English standard began to influence the spoken and written Middle Scots of Scotland. Modern readers of English are generally able to understand texts written in the phase of the Early Modern English period. The Early Modern English of the early 17th century forms the base of the grammatical and orthographical conventions that survive in Modern English. The change from Middle English to Early Modern English was not just a matter of vocabulary or pronunciation changing, it was the beginning of a new era in the history of English. An era of change in a language with large variations in dialect was replaced by a new era of a more standardised language with a richer lexicon. 1476 – William Caxton starts printing in Westminster, however, the language he uses reflects the variety of styles,1485 – Caxton publishes Thomas Malorys Le Morte dArthur, the first print bestseller in English. Malorys language, while archaic in some respects, is clearly Early Modern,1491 or 1492 – Richard Pynson starts printing in London, his style tends to prefer Chancery Standard, the form of English used by government. C. 1509 – Pynson becomes the official printer. From 1525 – Publication of William Tyndales Bible translation,1539 – Publication of the Great Bible, the first officially authorised Bible in English, edited by Myles Coverdale, largely from the work of Tyndale. This Bible is read to congregations regularly in churches, familiarising much of the population of England with a form of the language. 1549 – Publication of the first Book of Common Prayer in English under the supervision of Thomas Cranmer and this book standardises much of the wording of church services. 1557 – Publication of Tottels Miscellany, 1586–15931592 – The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd c.1590 to c.1612 – Shakespeares plays written. Early vocabulary specific to American English loaned from indigenous languages,1611 – The King James Bible is published, largely based on Tyndales translation. It remains the standard Bible in the Church of England for many years,1623 – Shakespeares First Folio published 1630-1651-William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony, writes in his journal. It will become Of Plymouth Plantation, one of the earliest texts written in the American Colonies,1647 – publication of the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio The period of the English Civil War and the Interregnum was one of social and political upheaval and instability. The dates for Restoration literature are a matter of convention,1651 – Publication of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. 1660-1669-Samuel Pepys writes in his diary and it will become an important eyewitness account of the Restoration Era. 1662 – New edition of the Book of Common Prayer, largely based on the 1549 and this also long remains a standard work in English
Early Modern English
–
Shakespeare 's writings are universally associated with Early Modern English
12.
Writing system
–
A writing system is any conventional method of visually representing verbal communication. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a form of information storage. The processes of encoding and decoding writing systems involve shared understanding between writers and readers of the meaning behind the sets of characters that make up a script, the general attributes of writing systems can be placed into broad categories such as alphabets, syllabaries, or logographies. Any particular system can have attributes of more than one category, in the alphabetic category, there is a standard set of letters of consonants and vowels that encode based on the general principle that the letters represent speech sounds. In a syllabary, each symbol correlates to a syllable or mora, in a logography, each character represents a word, morpheme, or other semantic units. Other categories include abjads, which differ from alphabets in that vowels are not indicated, alphabets typically use a set of 20-to-35 symbols to fully express a language, whereas syllabaries can have 80-to-100, and logographies can have several hundreds of symbols. Systems will also enable the stringing together of these groupings in order to enable a full expression of the language. The reading step can be accomplished purely in the mind as an internal process, writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, which used pictograms, ideograms and other mnemonic symbols. Proto-writing lacked the ability to capture and express a range of thoughts. Soon after, writing provided a form of long distance communication. With the advent of publishing, it provided the medium for a form of mass communication. Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that a system is always associated with at least one spoken language. In contrast, visual representations such as drawings, paintings, and non-verbal items on maps, such as contour lines, are not language-related. Some other symbols, such as numerals and the ampersand, are not directly linked to any specific language, every human community possesses language, which many regard as an innate and defining condition of humanity. However, the development of writing systems, and the process by which they have supplanted traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven, once established, writing systems generally change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Thus they often preserve features and expressions which are no current in the spoken language. One of the benefits of writing systems is that they can preserve a permanent record of information expressed in a language. In the examination of individual scripts, the study of writing systems has developed along partially independent lines, thus, the terminology employed differs somewhat from field to field
Writing system
–
Writing systems
Writing system
–
Predominant national and selected regional or minority scripts
Writing system
–
Chinese characters (漢字) are morpho-syllabic. Each one represents a syllable with a distinct meaning, but some characters may have multiple meanings or pronunciations
Writing system
–
A Specimen of typefaces and styles, by
William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728
Cyclopaedia
13.
Latin script
–
Latin script is used as the standard method of writing in most Western and Central European languages, as well as in many languages in other parts of the world. Latin script is the basis for the largest number of alphabets of any writing system and is the most widely adopted writing system in the world, Latin script is also the basis of the International Phonetic Alphabet. The 26 most widespread letters are the contained in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. The script is either called Roman script or Latin script, in reference to its origin in ancient Rome, in the context of transliteration, the term romanization or romanisation is often found. Unicode uses the term Latin as does the International Organization for Standardization, the numeral system is called the Roman numeral system, and the collection of the elements, Roman numerals. The numbers 1,2,3. are Latin/Roman script numbers for the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, the Latin alphabet spread, along with Latin, from the Italian Peninsula to the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The Latin script also came into use for writing the West Slavic languages and several South Slavic languages, the speakers of East Slavic languages generally adopted Cyrillic along with Orthodox Christianity. The Serbian language uses both scripts, with Cyrillic predominating in official communication and Latin elsewhere, as determined by the Law on Official Use of the Language and Alphabet. As late as 1500, the Latin script was limited primarily to the languages spoken in Western, Northern, the Orthodox Christian Slavs of Eastern and Southeastern Europe mostly used Cyrillic, and the Greek alphabet was in use by Greek-speakers around the eastern Mediterranean. The Arabic script was widespread within Islam, both among Arabs and non-Arab nations like the Iranians, Indonesians, Malays, and Turkic peoples, most of the rest of Asia used a variety of Brahmic alphabets or the Chinese script. It is used for many Austronesian languages, including the languages of the Philippines, Latin letters served as the basis for the forms of the Cherokee syllabary developed by Sequoyah, however, the sound values are completely different. In the late 19th century, the Romanians returned to the Latin alphabet, under French rule and Portuguese missionary influence, a Latin alphabet was devised for the Vietnamese language, which had previously used Chinese characters. In 1928, as part of Mustafa Kemal Atatürks reforms, the new Republic of Turkey adopted a Latin alphabet for the Turkish language, kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iranian-speaking Tajikistan, and the breakaway region of Transnistria kept the Cyrillic alphabet, chiefly due to their close ties with Russia. In the 1930s and 1940s, the majority of Kurds replaced the Arabic script with two Latin alphabets, although the only official Kurdish government uses an Arabic alphabet for public documents, the Latin Kurdish alphabet remains widely used throughout the region by the majority of Kurdish-speakers. In 2015, the Kazakh government announced that the Latin alphabet would replace Cyrillic as the system for the Kazakh language by 2025. In the course of its use, the Latin alphabet was adapted for use in new languages, sometimes representing phonemes not found in languages that were written with the Roman characters. These new forms are given a place in the alphabet by defining an alphabetical order or collation sequence, a digraph is a pair of letters used to write one sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters in sequence. Examples are ⟨ch⟩, ⟨ng⟩, ⟨rh⟩, ⟨sh⟩ in English, a trigraph is made up of three letters, like the German ⟨sch⟩, the Breton ⟨c’h⟩ or the Milanese ⟨oeu⟩
Latin script
–
Latin Roman
14.
Scotland
–
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
Scotland
–
Edinburgh Castle. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of this early settlement is unclear.
Scotland
–
Flag
Scotland
–
The class I
Pictish stone at
Aberlemno known as Aberlemno 1 or the Serpent Stone.
Scotland
–
The
Wallace Monument commemorates
William Wallace, the 13th-century Scottish hero.
15.
Church of Scotland
–
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is the national church of Scotland. Protestant and Presbyterian, its decision to respect liberty of opinion in points which do not enter into the substance of the Faith. Means it is tolerant of a variety of theological positions, including those who would term themselves conservative and liberal in their doctrine, ethics. The Church of Scotland traces its roots back to the beginnings of Christianity in Scotland, while the Church of Scotland traces its roots back to the earliest Christians in Scotland, its identity was principally shaped by the Scottish Reformation of 1560. At that point, many in the church in Scotland broke with Rome, in a process of Protestant reform led, among others. It reformed its doctrines and government, drawing on the principles of John Calvin which Knox had been exposed to living in Geneva. The 1560 Reformation Settlement was not ratified by the crown, as the monarch, Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic, refused to do so, and the question of church government also remained unresolved. In 1572 the acts of 1560 were finally approved by the young King James VI, the son of Queen Mary, melville and his supporters enjoyed some temporary successes—most notably in the Golden Act of 1592, which gave parliamentary approval to Presbyterian courts. By the time he died in 1625, the Church of Scotland had a panel of bishops and archbishops. General Assemblies met only at times and places approved by the Crown, Charles I inherited a settlement in Scotland based on a balanced compromise between Calvinist doctrine and episcopal practice. Lacking the political judgement of his father, he began to upset this by moving into dangerous areas. Disapproving of the plainness of the Scottish service he, together with his Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, the centrepiece of this new strategy was the Prayer Book of 1637, a slightly modified version of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Although this was devised by a panel of Scottish bishops, Charles insistence that it be drawn up in secret, when the Prayer Book was finally introduced at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in mid-1637 it caused an outbreak of rioting, which spread across Scotland. In November 1638, the General Assembly in Glasgow, the first to meet for twenty years, not only declared the Prayer Book unlawful, the Church of Scotland was then established on a Presbyterian basis. Charles attempt at resistance to these developments led to the outbreak of the Bishops Wars, in the ensuing civil wars, the Scots Covenanters at one point made common cause with the English parliamentarians—resulting in the Westminster Confession of Faith being agreed by both. This document remains the standard of the Church of Scotland. Episcopacy was reintroduced to Scotland after the Restoration, the cause of discontent, especially in the south-west of the country. To reduce their influence the Scots Parliament guaranteed Presbyterian governance of the Church by law, controversy still surrounded the relationship between the Church of Scotlands independence and the civil law of Scotland
Church of Scotland
–
John Knox, who in 1559 returned from ministering in
Geneva to lead the Reformation in Scotland.
Church of Scotland
–
Modern logo of the Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
–
Stained glass showing the burning bush and the motto "nec tamen consumebatur",
St. Mungo's Cathedral, Glasgow.
Church of Scotland
–
The
Burning Bush emblem of the Church of Scotland, above the entrance to the
Church Offices in Edinburgh
16.
Local government in Scotland
–
Local government in Scotland is organised through 32 unitary authorities designated as Councils which consist of councillors elected every five years by registered voters in each of the council areas. Councils receive the majority of their funding from the Scottish Government, AEF consists of three parts, Revenue Support Grants, Non-Domestic Rates, and Income and Specific Grants. Councils obtain additional income through the Council Tax, that the council itself sets, Scottish councils co-operate through, and are represented collectively by, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. The history of Scottish local government mainly surrounds involves the counties of Scotland, the counties have their origins in the sheriffdoms or shires over which a sheriff exercised jurisdiction. Malcolm III appears to have introduced sheriffs as part of a policy of replacing native Celtic forms of government with Anglo Saxon and this was continued by his sons Edgar, Alexander I and in particular David I. David completed the division of the country into sheriffdoms by the conversion of existing thanedoms, from the seventeenth century the shires started to be used for local administration apart from judicial functions. In 1667 Commissioners of Supply were appointed in each sheriffdom to collect the land tax, the commissioners eventually assumed other duties in the county. In 1858 police forces were established in each county under the Police Act 1857, as a result of the dual system of local government, burghs often had a high degree of autonomy. Between 1890 and 1975 local government in Scotland was organised with county councils and this system was further refined by the passing of the Local Government Act 1947. The only exceptions to this were the three Island Councils, Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney which had the powers of Regions. The Conservative government of John Major decided to abolish this system, the changes took effect in 1996 with shadow councillors elected in 1995 to oversee the smooth transition of control. The power vested in local authorities is administered by elected councillors, there are currently 1,222, each paid a part-time salary for the undertaking of their duties. In total, there are 32 unitary authorities, the largest being the City of Glasgow with more than 600,000 inhabitants, councillors are subject to a Code of Conduct instituted by the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc. Act 2000 and enforced by the Standards Commission for Scotland, if a person believes that a councillor has broken the code of conduct they make a complaint to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. The Commissioner makes a determination on whether there is a need for an investigation, each council elects a Convener and Depute Convener to chair meetings of the Council and to act as a figurehead for the area. Most councils use the term Provost, the office of Provost or Convener is roughly equivalent to that of a Mayor in other parts of the United Kingdom. Traditionally these roles are ceremonial and have no significant administrative functions, Lord Provosts in the four city councils have the additional duty of acting as Lord Lieutenant for their respective city. The Leader of the Council is elected as the leader of the largest political grouping of councillors, the Leader of the Council has no executive or administrative powers designated by statute, but the position is salaried
Local government in Scotland
–
Scotland
17.
Education in Scotland
–
Scotland has a long history of universal provision of public education, and the Scottish education system is distinctly different from those in the other countries of the United Kingdom. The Scotland Act 1998 gives the Scottish Parliament legislative control over all matters. One unique aspect is that the ancient universities of Scotland issue a Master of Arts as the first degree in humanities, state schools are owned and operated by the local authorities which act as Education Authorities, and the compulsory phase is divided into primary school and secondary school. Schools are supported in delivering learning and teaching by Education Scotland, there are also private schools across the country, although the distribution is uneven with such schools in 22 of the 32 Local Authority areas. At September 2011 the total population in Scotland was 702,104, of which 31,425 pupils. Political responsibility for education at all levels is vested in the Scottish Parliament, children start primary school aged between 4½ and 5½ depending on when the childs birthday falls. Scottish school policy places all those born between March of a year and February of the following year in the same year group. This usually allows those not ready for formal education to have a year at an early years centre. Pupils remain at school for seven years. Then aged eleven or twelve, they start school for a compulsory four years with the following two years being optional. In Scotland, pupils sit National 4/5 exams at the age of fifteen/sixteen, for normally eight subjects including compulsory exams in English, a Science subject and a Social Subject were also compulsory, but this was changed is accordance with the new curriculum. It is now required by the Scottish Parliament for students to have two hours of education a week, each school may vary these compulsory combinations. The school leaving age is sixteen, after which students may choose to remain at school. The International Baccalaureate has also introduced in some independent schools. The table below lists rough equivalences with the system in the rest of the United Kingdom. In many cases, this applies to children of international post-graduate students, the age ranges specify the youngest age for a child entering that year and the oldest age for a child leaving that year. In general, the point for ages is the end of February. All parents of children born between September and February are entitled to entry to Primary School if they believe their child is not ready for school
Education in Scotland
–
Pupils and Early Years Minister
Adam Ingram, Education and Lifelong Learning Secretary
Fiona Hyslop and Schools and Skills Minister
Maureen Watt with pupils at Avenue End Primary Campus in Glasgow.
Education in Scotland
–
Education in Scotland
Education in Scotland
–
The Main Building of
Queen Margaret University
Education in Scotland
–
St Andrews students in undergraduate gowns
18.
Scots law
–
Scots law is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, together with English law and Northern Ireland law, it is one of the three legal systems of the United Kingdom. It shares some elements with the two systems, but it also has its own unique sources, institutions and nomina juris. Although there was some indirect Roman law influence on Scots law, Scots law recognises four sources of law, legislation, legal precedent, specific academic writings, and custom. Legislation affecting Scotland may be passed by the Scottish Parliament, the United Kingdom Parliament, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, some legislation passed by the pre-1707 Parliament of Scotland is still also valid. Since the Union with England Act 1707, Scotland has shared a legislature with England, Scotland retained a fundamentally different legal system from that south of the border, but the Union exerted English influence upon Scots law. The United Kingdom, judicially, consists of three jurisdictions, England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, there are also differences in the terminology used between the jurisdictions. For example, in Scotland there are no Magistrates Courts or Crown Court, but there are Justice of the Peace Courts, Sheriff Courts and the College of Justice. The various historic sources of Scots law, including custom, feudal law, canon law, civilian ius commune, there is evidence to suggest that as late as the 17th century marriage laws in the Highlands and Islands still reflected Gaelic custom, contrary to Catholic religious principles. The Outer Hebrides were added after the Battle of Largs in 1263, from the 12th century feudalism was gradually introduced to Scotland and established feudal land tenure over many parts of the south and east, which eventually spread northward. As feudalism began to develop in Scotland early court systems began to develop, in 1399 a General Council established that the King should hold a parliament at least once a year for the next three years so that his subjects are served by the law. From the 14th century we have surviving examples of early Scottish legal literature, such as the Regiam Majestatem and the Quoniam Attachiamenta. Both of these important texts, as they were copied, had provisions from Roman law, from the reign of King James I to King James V the beginnings of a legal profession began to develop and the administration of criminal and civil justice was centralised. The Parliament of Scotland was normally called on an annual basis during this period, the Act of Union 1707 merged the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England to form the new Kingdom of Great Britain. Article 19 of the Act confirmed the authority of the College of Justice, Court of Session. Article 3, however, merged the Estates of Scotland with the Parliament of England to form the Parliament of Great Britain, with its seat in the Palace of Westminster, London. Under the terms of the Act of Union, Scotland retained its own systems of law, education and Church, the Scottish Enlightenment then reinvigorated Scots law as a university-taught discipline. The transfer of power to London and the introduction of appeal to the House of Lords brought further English influence
Scots law
–
Sir James Dalrymple, Viscount of Stair
Scots law
–
Scotland
Scots law
–
The
Scottish Parliament located in
Edinburgh has
devolved powers to legislate for Scotland.
Scots law
–
High Court of Justiciary
19.
Linguistic continuum
–
That happens, for example, across large parts of India or the Maghreb. Historically, it happened in various parts of Europe such as between Portugal, southern Belgium and southern Italy, and between Flanders and Austria. Leonard Bloomfield used the dialect area. It is analogous to a species in evolutionary biology. Dialect continua typically occur in long-settled agrarian populations, as innovations spread from their various points of origin as waves, in this situation, hierarchical classifications of varieties are impractical. Instead, dialectologists map variation of language features across a dialect continuum. The influential Atlas linguistique de la France pioneered the use of a trained fieldworker and these atlases typically consist of display maps, each showing local forms of a particular item at the survey locations. Secondary studies may include maps, showing the areal distribution of various variants. A common tool in these maps is an isogloss, a line separating areas where different variants of a particular feature predominate, in a dialect continuum, isoglosses for different features are typically spread out, reflecting the gradual transition between varieties. A bundle of coinciding isoglosses indicate a stronger dialect boundary, as might occur at geographical obstacles or long-standing political boundaries, in other cases, intersecting isoglosses and more complex patterns are found. Standard varieties may be developed and codified from one or more locations in a continuum, in such cases the local variety is said to be dependent on, or heteronomous with respect to, the standard variety. The Scandinavian languages, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, are cited as examples. Conversely, a defined in this way may include local varieties that are mutually unintelligible. The choice of standard is determined by a political boundary. As a results, speakers on either side of the boundary may use almost identical varieties, but treat them as dependent on different standards, the choice may be a matter of national, regional or religious identity, and may be controversial. In the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, a standard was developed from local varieties within a continuum with Serbia to the north, the standard was deliberately based on varieties from the west of the republic that were most different from standard Bulgarian. Now known as Macedonian, it is the standard of the independent Republic of Macedonia. Europe provides several examples of dialect continua, the largest of which involve the Germanic, Romance and Slavic branches of the Indo-European language family
Linguistic continuum
–
The Romance dialect continuum; Western (dark green) and Eastern (light green) Romance linguistic areas. The
La Spezia-Rimini Line marked in red
20.
Scottish Reformation
–
The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Kirk, which was strongly Presbyterian in outlook. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation that took place from the sixteenth century, in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, the teachings of Martin Luther began to influence Scotland. Particularly important was the work of the Lutheran Scot Patrick Hamilton and his death in 1542 left the infant Mary, Queen of Scots as his heir, allowing a series of English invasions later known as the Rough Wooing. The English supplied books and distributed Bibles and Protestant literature in the Lowlands when they invaded in 1547, the execution of the Zwingli-influenced George Wishart in 1546, who was burnt at the stake on the orders of Cardinal David Beaton, stimulated the growth of these ideas in reaction. The survivors, including chaplain John Knox, were condemned to serve as galley slaves and their martyrdom stirred resentment of the French and inspiring additional martyrs for the Protestant cause. In 1549, the defeat of the English with French support led to the marriage of Mary to the French dauphin, the Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560 adopted a Protestant confession of faith, rejecting papal jurisdiction and the mass. Knox, having escaped the galleys and having spent time in Geneva, the Calvinism of the reformers led by Knox resulted in a settlement that adopted a Presbyterian system and rejected most of the elaborate trappings of the Medieval church. When her husband Francis II died in 1560, the Catholic Mary returned to Scotland to take up the government and her six-year personal reign was marred by a series of crises, largely caused by the intrigues and rivalries of the leading nobles. Opposition to her third husband Bothwell led to the formation of a coalition of nobles, who captured Mary and forced her abdicate in favour of her son, James was brought up a Protestant, but resisted Presbyterianism and the independence of the Kirk. The Reformation resulted in changes in Scottish society. These included a desire to plant a school in every parish, scotlands ecclesiastical art paid a heavy toll as a result of Reformation iconoclasm. Native craftsmen and artists turned to secular patrons, resulting in the flourishing of Scottish Renaissance painted ceilings, the Reformation also had a severe impact on church music, with song schools closed down, choirs disbanded, music books and manuscripts destroyed and organs removed from churches. These were replaced by the singing of psalms, despite attempts of James VI to refound the song schools. The Kirk became the subject of pride and many Scots saw their country as a new Israel. Christianity spread in Scotland from the century, with evangelisation by Irish-Scots missionaries and, to a lesser extent. The whole Ecclesia Scoticana, with individual Scottish bishoprics, became the daughter of the see of Rome. It was run by special councils made up of all the Scottish bishops, the administration of parishes was often given over to local monastic institutions in a process known as appropriation. By the time of the Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century 80 per cent of Scottish parishes were appropriated, in 1472 St Andrews became the first archbishopric in the Scottish church, to be followed by Glasgow in 1492
Scottish Reformation
–
Statue of
John Knox, a leading figure of the Scottish Reformation
Scottish Reformation
–
Protestant Reformation
Scottish Reformation
–
Henry Wardlaw (died 1440),
Bishop of St Andrews, royal tutor and adviser, founder of
The University of St Andrews and key figure in fighting
Lollardy
Scottish Reformation
–
A mid-16th-century oak panel carving from a house in Dundee. It is an example of art lost in the iconoclasm of the Reformation.
21.
Printing
–
Printing is a process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest examples include Cylinder seals and other such as the Cyrus Cylinder. The earliest known form of printing came from China dating to before 220 A. D. Later developments in printing include the type, first developed by Bi Sheng in China around 1040 AD. Johannes Gutenberg introduced mechanical movable type printing to Europe in the 15th century, modern large-scale printing is typically done using a printing press, while small-scale printing is done free-form with a digital printer. Though paper is the most common material, it is frequently done on metals, plastics, cloth. On paper it is carried out as a large-scale industrial process and is an essential part of publishing. Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns that was used widely throughout East Asia and it originated in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 A. D, the earliest surviving woodblock printed fragments are from China. They are of silk printed with flowers in three colours from the Han Dynasty and they are the earliest example of woodblock printing on paper appeared in the mid-seventh century in China. By the ninth century, printing on paper had taken off, by the tenth century,400,000 copies of some sutras and pictures were printed, and the Confucian classics were in print. A skilled printer could print up to 2,000 double-page sheets per day, Printing spread early to Korea and Japan, which also used Chinese logograms, but the technique was also used in Turpan and Vietnam using a number of other scripts. This technique then spread to Persia and Russia and this technique was transmitted to Europe via the Islamic world, and by around 1400 was being used on paper for old master prints and playing cards. However, Arabs never used this to print the Quran because of the limits imposed by Islamic doctrine, block printing, called tarsh in Arabic developed in Arabic Egypt during the ninth-tenth centuries, mostly for prayers and amulets. There is some evidence to suggest that these print blocks made from non-wood materials, possibly tin, lead, the techniques employed are uncertain, however, and they appear to have had very little influence outside of the Muslim world. Though Europe adopted woodblock printing from the Muslim world, initially for fabric, block printing later went out of use in Islamic Central Asia after movable type printing was introduced from China. Block printing first came to Europe as a method for printing on cloth, images printed on cloth for religious purposes could be quite large and elaborate. When paper became relatively easily available, around 1400, the medium transferred very quickly to small religious images
Printing
–
The intricate frontispiece of the
Diamond Sutra from
Tang Dynasty China, 868 A.D. (
British Library)
Printing
–
The earliest known
woodcut, 1423,
Buxheim, with hand-colouring
Printing
–
Copperplate of 1215–1216 5000
cash paper money with ten bronze movable types
22.
Geneva Bible
–
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was the Bible used by William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, John Knox, John Donne and it was one of the Bibles taken to America on the Mayflower. The Geneva Bible was used by many English Dissenters, and it was respected by Oliver Cromwells soldiers at the time of the English Civil War. Because the language of the Geneva Bible was more forceful and vigorous, in the words of Cleland Boyd McAfee, it drove the Great Bible off the field by sheer power of excellence. The Geneva Bible followed the Great Bible of 1539, the first authorized Bible in English, whittingham was directly responsible for the New Testament, which was complete and published in 1557, while Gilby oversaw the Old Testament. The first full edition of this Bible, with a further revised New Testament, appeared in 1560, over 150 editions were issued, the last probably in 1644. The very first Bible printed in Scotland was a Geneva Bible, some editions from 1576 onwards included Laurence Tomsons revisions of the New Testament. Some editions from 1599 onwards used a new Junius version of the Book of Revelation, the Geneva Bible had also motivated the earlier production of the Bishops Bible under Elizabeth I, for the same reason, and the later Rheims-Douai edition by the Catholic community. The Geneva Bible remained popular among Puritans and remained in use until after the English Civil War. The Geneva notes were included in a few editions of the King James version. Like most English translations of the time, the Geneva Bible was translated from editions of the Greek New Testament. The English rendering was substantially based on the translations by William Tyndale. However, the Geneva Bible was the first English version in all of the Old Testament was translated directly from the Hebrew. The Geneva Bible was the first English Bible to use verse numbers based on the work of Stephanus and it also had an elaborate system of commentary in marginal glosses. This annotation was done by Laurence Tomson, who translated LOiseleurs notes on the Gospels, in 1576 Tomson added LOiseleurs notes for the Epistles, which came from Bezas Greek and Latin edition of the Bible. Beginning in 1599 Franciscus Junius notes on Revelation were added, replacing the original notes deriving from John Bale, bales The Image of both churches had a great effect on these notes as well as Foxes Book of Martyrs. Both the Junius and Bullinger-Bale annotations are explicitly anti-Roman Catholic and representative of much popular Protestant apocalypticism during the Reformation, the 1560 Geneva Bible was printed in Roman type—the style of type regularly used today—but many editions used the older black-letter type. Of the various later English Bible translations, the next to use Roman type was the Douay-Rheims Bible of 1582, the Geneva Bible was also issued in more convenient and affordable sizes than earlier versions
Geneva Bible
–
Geneva Bible 1560 edition
Geneva Bible
–
Example of the blackletter version (1608).
Geneva Bible
–
Geneva Bible Title Page 1589
Geneva Bible
–
Gevena and King James Genesis Chapter 3 Verse 7
23.
James I of England
–
James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciary, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother Mary was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, in 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617 and he was a major advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and British colonization of the Americas began, at 57 years and 246 days, Jamess reign in Scotland was longer than those of any of his predecessors. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. James himself was a scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie, The True Law of Free Monarchies. He sponsored the translation of the Bible that would later be named after him, Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed the wisest fool in Christendom, an epithet associated with his character ever since. Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise Jamess reputation and treat him as a serious, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, Marys rule over Scotland was insecure, and she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and he was baptised Charles James or James Charles on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle. His godparents were Charles IX of France, Elizabeth I of England, Mary refused to let the Archbishop of St Andrews, whom she referred to as a pocky priest, spit in the childs mouth, as was then the custom. The subsequent entertainment, devised by Frenchman Bastian Pagez, featured men dressed as satyrs and sporting tails, Jamess father, Darnley, was murdered on 10 February 1567 at Kirk o Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for Rizzios death. James inherited his fathers titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross, Mary was already unpopular, and her marriage on 15 May 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her. In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle and she was forced to abdicate on 24 July 1567 in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent. The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought in the security of Stirling Castle
James I of England
–
Portrait by
Daniel Mytens, 1621
James I of England
–
Portrait of James as a boy, after
Arnold Bronckorst, 1574
James I of England
–
James (right) depicted beside his mother
Mary (left). In reality, they were separated when he was still a baby.
James I of England
–
James in 1586, age 20
24.
London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
London
–
Palace of Westminster,
Buckingham Palace and
Central London skyline
London
London
London
–
The name London may derive from the
River Thames
25.
Authorized King James Version
–
The King James Version, also known as Authorized Version or simply King James Bible, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. The books of the King James Version include the 39 books of the Old Testament, a section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha. It was first printed by the Kings Printer Robert Barker and was the translation into English approved by the English Church authorities. The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII, the translation is noted for its majesty of style, and has been described as one of the most important books in English culture. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer, the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible for Epistle and Gospel readings, over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English-speaking scholars. Today the unqualified title King James Version usually indicates that this Oxford standard text is meant, the title page carries the words Appointed to be read in Churches, and F. F. For many years it was not to give the translation any specific name. In his Leviathan of 1651, Thomas Hobbes referred to it as the English Translation made in the beginning of the Reign of King James. Similarly, a History of England, whose edition was published in 1775, writes merely that new translation of the Bible, viz. that now in Use, was begun in 1607. King Jamess Bible is used as the name for the 1611 translation in Charles Butlers Horae Biblicae and this name was also found as King James Bible, for example in a book review from 1811. The phrase King Jamess Bible is used as far back as 1715, the use of Authorized Version or Authorised Version, capitalized and used as a name, is found as early as 1814. For some time before this, descriptive phrases such as our present, and only publicly authorised version, our Authorised version, the Oxford English Dictionary records a usage in 1824. In Britain, the 1611 translation is known as the Authorised Version today. As early as 1814, we find King James version, evidently a descriptive phrase, the King James Version is found, unequivocally used as a name, in a letter from 1855. The next year King James Bible, with no possessive, appears as a name in a Scottish source, in the United States, the 1611 translation is generally known as the King James Version today. The followers of John Wycliffe undertook the first complete English translations of the Christian scriptures in the 14th century and these translations were banned in 1409 due to their association with the Lollards
Authorized King James Version
–
1612 First KJV bible in quarto size, courtesy of Shiwei Jiang
Authorized King James Version
–
The title page to the 1611 first edition of the Authorized Version Bible by
Cornelis Boel shows the Apostles
Peter and
Paul seated centrally above the central text, which is flanked by
Moses and
Aaron. In the four corners sit
Matthew,
Mark,
Luke and
John, authors of the four
gospels, with their symbolic animals. The rest of the
Apostles (with
Judas facing away) stand around Peter and Paul. At the very top is the
Tetragrammaton "יהוה".
Authorized King James Version
–
William Tyndale translated the New Testament into English in 1525.
26.
Acts of Union 1707
–
The Acts of Union were two Acts of Parliament, the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had agreed on 22 July 1706. Although described as a Union of Crowns, until 1707 there were in two separate Crowns resting on the same head. The Acts took effect on 1 May 1707, on this date, the Scottish Parliament and the English Parliament united to form the Parliament of Great Britain, based in the Palace of Westminster in London, the home of the English Parliament. Hence, the Acts are referred to as the Union of the Parliaments, on the Union, the historian Simon Schama said What began as a hostile merger, would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world. It was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history, the first attempts at Union surrounded the foreseen unification of the Royal lines of Scotland and England. In pursuing the English throne in the 1560s, Mary, Queen of Scots pledged herself to a union between the two kingdoms. England and Scotland were ruled by the king for the first time in 1603 when James VI of Scotland also became the king of England. However they remained two separate states until 1 May 1707, the first attempt to unite the parliaments of England and Scotland was by Marys son, King James VI and I. On his accession to the English throne in 1603 King James announced his intention to unite his two realms so that he would not be guilty of bigamy. James used his prerogative powers to take the style of King of Great Britain and to give an explicitly British character to his court. In the meantime, James declared that Great Britain be viewed as presently united, and as one realm and kingdom, the Scottish and English parliaments established a commission to negotiate a union, formulating an instrument of union between the two countries. However, the idea of union was unpopular, and when James dropped his policy of a speedy union. When the House of Commons attempted to revive the proposal in 1610, the ordinance was ratified by the Second Protectorate Parliament, as an Act of Union, on 26 June 1657. One united Parliament sat in Westminster, with 30 representatives from Scotland and 30 from Ireland joining the members from England. Whilst free trade was brought about amongst the new Commonwealth, the benefits were generally not felt as a result of heavy taxation used to fund Cromwells New Model Army. This republican union was dissolved automatically with the restoration of King Charles II to the thrones of England and Scotland, Scottish members expelled from the Commonwealth Parliament petitioned unsuccessfully for a continuance of the union. An abortive scheme for union occurred in Scotland in 1670, following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the records of the Parliament of Scotland show much discussion of possible union
Acts of Union 1707
–
"Articles of Union with Scotland", 1707
Acts of Union 1707
Acts of Union 1707
–
Portrait of Queen Anne in 1702, the year she became queen, from the school of
John Closterman
Acts of Union 1707
–
18thC French illustration of an opening of the Scottish Parliament
27.
Renfrewshire
–
Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It also shares borders with Glasgow, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire borders the south-west of Glasgow, lying on the south bank of the River Clyde, and contains many of Glasgows commuter towns and villages, as well as rural areas. Present day Renfrewshire borders the south-west of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgows commuter towns, Renfrewshire also has boundaries with North Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire. The ancient county of Renfrewshire covered a larger area — including both Inverclyde and East Renfrewshire and this area still exists in the form of a lieutenancy area and registration county, and has a statutory funding board called the Renfrewshire Valuation Joint Board. The county was based around its seat, the Royal Burgh of Renfrew. There was also a district named Renfrew which existed between 1975 and 1996, Renfrewshire Council is the elected local authority for Renfrewshire, which is one of 32 local council areas in Scotland. The council is based at Renfrewshire House in Paisley, Renfrewshire Council recently won more awards than any other council in Scotland at the CoSLA Awards ceremony—winning three gold awards with a further three silver awards. This is the highest number of awards won by a single Scottish council since CoSLA started handing out its awards. Renfrewshire Council is administered by the Scottish Labour Party, the Provost of Renfrewshire is Anne Hall. Each department is headed by a Director, who is also an apolitical, as of 4 May 2012, the composition of the council is as follows, As such, the election resulted in the Scottish Labour Party gaining full control of the Renfrewshire Council. There was no party in control of Renfrewshire Council so therefore a Scottish National Party/Scottish Liberal Democrats coalition was formed to run the council for that four-year period. The electoral system of councils in Scotland is governed by the Local Governance Act 2004. Renfrewshire is represented by three constituencies in the Scottish Parliament, Renfrewshire North and West, Paisley and Renfrewshire South, the two constituencies covering Renfrewshire in the Westminster Parliament are Paisley and Renfrewshire North and Paisley and Renfrewshire South. The constituencies are represented by Gavin Newlands and Mhairi Black respectively and it is served by the M8 motorway, which terminates in the area, just east of Langbank, and is a major artery between northwest and southwest Scotland, via the Erskine Bridge. The presence of the airport and the proximity to Glasgow means that Renfrewshire supports one of the busiest transport infrastructures in Scotland, and is frequently congested. Renfrewshire also has bus links provided by, Mcgills Bus Services. The Braehead Arena in Renfrewshire close to the boundary with Glasgow is home to leading professional team, the Scottish Rocks. The arena was also host to the 2000 Ford World Curling Championships, Renfrewshire has 11 secondary schools,51 primary schools and 3 schools for children with additional support needs
Renfrewshire
–
Renfrewshire House, headquarters of Renfrewshire Council
Renfrewshire
–
Renfrewshire Siorrachd Rinn Friù
Renfrewshire
–
Paisley Abbey
28.
Scottish Lowlands
–
The Lowlands are a cultural and historic region of Scotland. The Lowlands is not a geographical or administrative area of the country. There are two main regions, the Midland Valley and the Southern Uplands. The term Lowlands mainly refers to the Midland Valley, however, in normal usage it refers to those parts of Scotland not in the Highlands. The boundary is considered to be a line between Stonehaven and Helensburgh. The Lowlands lie south and east of the line, note that some parts of the Lowlands are not physically low, Merrick for example reaching 2,766 feet, while some areas indisputably in the Highlands are low-lying. In geological terms, the line between Lowlands and Highlands is the Highland Boundary Fault. There was also a legally defined Highland Line in the post-Culloden years, traditional Scottish counties which straddle the Boundary fault include Angus, Dunbartonshire, Stirlingshire, Perthshire, Kincardineshire, Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and Moray. Geographically, Scotland is divided into three areas, the Highlands, the Central plain, and the Southern Uplands. The Lowlands cover roughly the latter two, the northeast plain is also low-land, both geographically and culturally, but in some contexts may be grouped together with the Highlands. The term Lowlands is sometimes used in a restricted sense to refer specifically to the Midland Valley. Much of this area, which has a structure of sedimentary rocks with coal deposits, lies within the basins of the Rivers Forth. Historically, this valley has been the most agriculturally productive region of Scotland, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, coal deposits promoted concentrated industrial activity and urbanization in the Midland Valley, where 80 percent of the population of Scotland now live. The southernmost counties of Scotland, nearest the border with England, are known as the Borders. They are sometimes considered separately from the rest of the Lowlands
Scottish Lowlands
–
A map showing the Scottish Lowlands in light green, while the Scottish Highlands are shown in a darker shade of green.
29.
Scottish Gaelic language
–
Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes also referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. The 2011 census of Scotland showed that a total of 57,375 people in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, the census results indicate a decline of 1,275 Gaelic speakers from 2001. A total of 87,056 people in 2011 reported having some facility with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, only about half of speakers were fully literate in the language. Nevertheless, revival efforts exist and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, Scottish Gaelic is neither an official language of the European Union nor the United Kingdom. Outside Scotland, a group of dialects collectively known as Canadian Gaelic are spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada, mainly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of Gaelic languages in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. About 2,320 Canadians in 2011 also claimed Gaelic languages as their mother tongue, with over 300 in Nova Scotia, aside from Scottish Gaelic, the language may also be referred to simply as Gaelic. In Scotland, the word Gaelic in reference to Scottish Gaelic specifically is pronounced, outside Ireland and Great Britain, Gaelic may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, from the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a language from Irish. Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth, by 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, however, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, by the 10th century, Gaelic had become the dominant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland, was even and totalizing. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west as well as in West Lothian, less dense usage is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken, the area shifted from Cumbric to Old English during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
Scottish Gaelic language
–
1891 distribution of
English and Gaelic in Scotland
Scottish Gaelic language
–
Anne Lorne Gillies speaking publicly in the Scottish Gaelic language.
Scottish Gaelic language
–
Coronation of
King Alexander III on
Moot Hill,
Scone on 13 July 1249. He is being greeted by the ollamh rìgh, the royal poet, who is addressing him with the proclamation "Benach De Re Albanne" (= Beannachd Dè Rìgh Alban, "God's Blessing on the King of Scotland"); the poet goes on to recite Alexander's genealogy.
Scottish Gaelic language
–
Public signage in Gaelic is becoming increasingly common throughout the Scottish Highlands. This sign is located in the bilingual port community of
Mallaig.
30.
Rhotic and non-rhotic accents
–
The English dialects of Scotland, Ireland, and most of the United States and Canada preserve historical /r/, and are thus termed the rhotic varieties. In non-rhotic varieties, speakers no longer pronounce /r/ in postvocalic environments – that is, a non-rhotic speaker usually still pronounces the /r/ in the continuously spoken phrase butter and jam, since in this case the /r/ is followed by a vowel. Loss of postvocalic /r/ began sporadically in informal speech in the 15th century, in the mid-18th century it was still pronounced in most environments, but may occasionally have been deleted entirely, especially after low vowels. By the 1790s, postvocalic /r/-less pronunciation had become common in London and surrounding areas, by the early 19th century, the southern British standard was fully transformed into a non-rhotic variety, though some variation persisted as late as the 1870s. Other terms for rhotic dialects include /r/–pronouncing or r–ful, and for non-rhotic include /r/-deleting, r-dropping, r-vocalized, the earliest traces of a loss of /r/ in English appear in the early 15th century and occur before coronal consonants, especially /s/, giving modern ass, and bass. A second phase of /r/-loss began during the 15th century, and was characterized by sporadic and lexically variable deletion, such as monyng morning and cadenall cardinal. These /r/-less spellings appear throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, but are uncommon and are restricted to private documents, no English authorities describe loss of /r/ in the standard language prior to the mid-18th century, and many do not fully accept it until the 1790s. During the mid-17th century, a number of sources describe /r/ as being weakened, the English playwright Ben Jonsons English Grammar, published posthumously in 1640, records that /r/ was sounded firme in the beginning of words, and more liquid in the middle, and ends. By the 1770s, postvocalic /r/-less pronunciation was becoming common around London even in more formal, the English actor and linguist John Walker uses the spelling ar to indicate the long vowel of aunt in his 1775 rhyming dictionary. Americans returning to England after the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 reported surprise at the significant changes in fashionable pronunciation. By the early 19th century, the southern British standard was fully transformed into a non-rhotic variety, like regional dialects in England, the accents of other areas in America remained rhotic in a display of linguistic lag that preserved the original pronunciation of /r/. In most non-rhotic accents, if a word ending in r is followed closely by a word beginning with a vowel. This phenomenon is referred to as linking R, many non-rhotic speakers also insert an epenthetic /r/ between vowels when the first vowel is one that can occur before syllable-final r. The typical alternative used by RP speakers is to insert a glottal stop where an intrusive R would otherwise be placed, for non-rhotic speakers, what was historically a vowel plus /r/ is now usually realized as a long vowel. This is called compensatory lengthening, lengthening that occurs after the elision of a sound, so in RP and many other non-rhotic accents card, fern, born are pronounced, or similar. This length may be retained in phrases, so while car pronounced in isolation is, but a final schwa usually remains short, so water in isolation is. For some speakers, some long vowels alternate with an ending in schwa, so wear may be. Even General American speakers commonly drop the /r/ in non-final unstressed syllables when another syllable in the word also contains /r/
Rhotic and non-rhotic accents
–
Red areas indicate where rural accents were rhotic in the 1950s. Based on H. Orton et al.,
Survey of English Dialects (1962–71). Some areas with partial rhoticity (for example parts of the
East Riding of Yorkshire) are not shaded on this map.
