Middle Scots - Orthography

Orthography

On the whole Middle Scots scribes never managed to establish a single standardised spelling for every word, but operated a system of free variation based on a number of spelling variants. Some scribes used their own variants, but this was relatively rare. The least variation occurred in the later 16th century as printers moved towards fixed spellings. This ended in the 17th century when printers began to adopt imported English conventions. Middle Scots used a number of now obsolete letters and letter combinations:

• þ (thorn) was equivalent to the modern th as in thae. þ was often indistinguishable from the letter y and often written so.
• ȝ (yogh) in nȝ was /ɲ/ as in the French Bretagne. It later changed to /ŋ/ or /nj/ leading to the modern spellings with z and y as in Menzies /ˈmɪŋʌs/ and Cunyie /ˈkʌnjiː/.
• quh was equivalent to the modern wh.
• sch was equivalent to the modern sh.
• A ligature of long s and short s, similar to German ß, is sometimes used for s.
• The initial ff was a stylised single f.
• The inflection -ys, -is was realised /ɪz/ after sibilate and affricate consonants and other voiced consonants, and /ɪs/ after other voiceless consonants, later contracted to /z/ and /s/ as in Modern Scots -s. The spelling -ys or -is also occurred in other words such as Inglis and Scottis . The older Scots spelling surviving in place names such as Fowlis, Glamis and Wemyss .
• d after an n was often (and still is) silent i.e. barrand is = barren.
• i and j were often interchanged.
• h was often silent.
• l after a and o had become vocalised and remained in use as an orthographic device to indicate vowel length. Hence the place names Balmalcolm /ˈbɑːməkoːm/, Falkirk /ˈfɑːkɪrk/, Kirkcaldy /kərˈkɑːdi/, Culross /ˈkuːrəs/ and Culter /ˈkuːtər/.
• i after a vowel was also used to denote vowel length, e.g. ai /aː/, ei /eː/ oi /oː/ and ui /øː/.
• u, v and w were often interchanged.
• After -ch and -th, some scribes affixed a pleonastic final -t (-cht, -tht); this was unpronounced.
• The word ane represented the numeral ane as well as the indefinite article an and a, and was pronounced similar to Modern Scots usage. For example, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis was pronounced a sateer o the three estates.
• The verbal noun (gerund) -yng (-ing) differentiated itself from the present participle -and /ən/, in Middle Scots, for example techynge, cryand and bydand—-the motto of the Gordon Highlanders. Both the verbal noun and present participle had generally merged to /ən/ by 1700.