Phonology
The Early Scots vowel system (c 1375)
| Long vowels | Diphthongs | Short vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Realisation | Examples | Realisation | Examples | Realisation | Examples |
| 1: /iː/ | mine | 8: /ai/ | pain | 15: /ɪ/ | pin |
| 2: /eː/ | sene (seen) | 9: /oi/ | noise | 16: /ɛ/ | men |
| 3: /ɛː/ | lene (lean) | 10: /ui/ | point | 17: /a/ | man |
| 4: /aː/ | bane (bone) | 11: /ei/ | dey (die) | 18: /o/ | fon (folly) |
| 5: /oː/ | cole (coal) | 12: /au/ | law | 19: /u/ | gun |
| 6: /uː/ | doun (down) | 13: /ou/ | lown (calm) | ||
| 7: /øː/ (/yː/) | mone (moon) | 14a: /iu/ | spew, grew | ||
| 14b: /ɛu, ɛou/ | dew | ||||
The major differences to contemporary southern English are the outcome of Anglo-Saxon /oː/ as /øː/, the distribution of the unchanged Anglo-Saxon /aː/ and /oː/ from Anglo-Saxon /o/. The Scandinavian-influenced /k/ in words such as birk (birch), brekis (breeches), brig (bridge), kirk (church), kist (chest), mekil (much) and rig (ridge), and the retention of Germanic /ou/ in words such as lowp (leap), cowp (cf. cheap, to trade) and nowt (cattle).
Read more about this topic: Early Scots
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