thelyniezian writes:
I have certainly heard it argued that the Anglic language spoken in Scotland constitutes a separate Scots language, not simply another set of dialects. However, many people use standard English now anyway if they’re not in casual conversation with other Scots. At least when they go on TV if nothing else. Much the same as with a lot of old English regional dialects, though they’re not different enough to be classified as distinct languages.
The reason they are similar is probably because a lot of the Lowland areas were once part of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms such as Bernicia and later Northumbria, and would have spoken a form of Old English.
Actually, Scots is indeed a separate language. It has an ISO code from SIL, and they are the ones that give out ISO codes. Anything that has an ISO code means that linguistic science feels that it is a separate language. Scots actually split off from Middle English in ~1500, so it has been separated for 500 years. The amount of divergence in Scots (English has only 42% intelligibility of Scots) is around what you might expect after 500 years of separation.
