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Here I provide a list of Scottish words that I've found to have amazing similarity to words in the Scandinavian words (examples from non-Scandinavian Nordic languages will be given when known). These words are specific to Scots and not (necessarily to English). Here I assume (from good evidence) that Scots is its own Germanic language which has evolved separately to the various types of English found in the history of England.

 

 

Scots English is the current standard as according to the Scottish government but it is essentially English with a few extra words. Scots, proper, is part of the oral history of Scotland and has no proper (read: official) defining list of orthography. The Scots version of Wikipedia even uses some words that I understand (given the context) but have never heard of them before. English as a standard language with one list of orthographically correct words is rather new compared to the age of the language itself.

This means that the Scots words that I list below have no formally accepted spelling. There might be some pseudo-official spelling as given by (say) Collins' Dictionaries but in reality the language has evolved naturally and more so through speech than writing. That is to say there is (currently) no right or wrong spelling. The real interest in this article is to consider why the Scots words are so similar to the Scandinavian ones. Obviously, geographic proximity is a major factor but beyond that it is interesting to consider why the words have survived in Scots. It would be nice to know, if possible, who gave the words to who. Unfortunately my knowledge of the languages involved is not great enough to answer that last thought. It could be that the words existed in Old English and have transferred well in Nordic languages in modern day but only through oral history and usage for the Scots. Again, my knowledge of Old English is poor.

There are some words that which are words from say Old English, and perhaps older, which are present in all modern Germanic languages but I'm ignoring those and trying to focus on those words which are 'uniquely' Scottish and not apparent in standard English. For example, I am ignoring hound (English) which also appears in German and Norwegian with the spelling Hund. I'm also ignoring the word son which as I pointed out in a previous article is apparent in all Germanic languages in very similar forms. To be clearer, I am ignoring words that appear in standard English with Nordic origins but focussing upon words which are unique to Scots but have Nordic origins. These words may have even older origins in Old German (in its various forms) but my knowledge there is lacking.

The Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian) are often quite similar in their spelling and pronunciation. In some cases the spelling is exactly the same. Interestingly, the equivalents in Icelandic are also quite close. In a few of the cases I can provide the Faroese equivalent but only anecdotetally from experience. NB: Yes, I'm aware that Iceland and the Faroe Islands are not Scandinavia, and neither is Finland (whose crazy language is closer to Klingon ;-) ).

Update: I've come across a book on Gutenberg that also studies such similarities: Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch, by George Tobias Flom. Note that the word 'Scotch' is only used to refer to Whisky in modern Scots and is otherwise looked upon disdainfully as it is considered condescending. It would seem that this book has bested my efforts; however, some of the words seem like they also belong in modern English while others are (to me) so rare that they have fallen out of modern usage.

 

This is how I will set out each word:

Scots word (pronunciation using standard English if different from the spelling) [English word]

Nordic equivalent (note that I default to Bokmal for Norwegian).

Meaning in English and Nordic languages.

 

Hoose (Hoose) [House]

Swe/Dan/Nor: Hus

Ok, so the meaning of the first few words is actually pretty simple and don't really require much said about them. This word means house, or home, but the interesting thing is that the pronunciation in Scots is the exact same as it is in the Scandinavian languages (ignoring variations due to local accents).

 

Oot [Out]

Swe/Dan/No: Ut

Here the pronunciation is the same in Scottish as it is in Scandinavian. The meaning of this one is simple: out, as in outside. In the Scandinavian languages I believe the word ut is slightly more general in usage and can be used as "outside" as well as "out".

 

Efter (Ef-ter, also Ef-tur, Ef-tir and other vowel permutations probalby) [After]

Swe: Efter; Dan: Efter; No: Etter; Ice: Eftir; Faroese: Eftir.

Yep, it means "after" and the pronunciation is basically the same. Only really Norwegian is the odd one out here. As I suggested earlier there is no standard lexicon for orthography in Scots, hence it is possible to write the Efter with a permutation on the last vowel depending on one's local dialect. Again, there are no hard rules but rather the sounds seem to have evolved one way or another depending on which town / coast that one is raised in.

 

Burn (burn) [Burn, and also River]

Swe: bränn; Dan: brænde; No: brenne; Ice: brenna

The word can mean ''to burn'' as you would with fire but it can also be a river. The best known example in Scotland is Bannock Burn, which means Bannock River. A burn is more commonly used in modern speech when talking about a steam (perhaps in a ravine), while use of the word as referring to a river seems to be more archaic. I base this assertion on experience. The interesting thing here is that the Nordic languages also have a word that contains this dual meaning: one that refers to water and to fire. A strange dualism of opposites in a single word. The words also start with "B". :-) There might be a deeper philosophical meaning here but I'm too cautious to currently suggest one. As far as I know the pronunciations in the Nordic languages are all quite similar, with the exception of Danish. The Swedish is said like Brehn, or Brenn, in English.

 

Flittin' (flitting, or similar) [To move house]

Swe: Flytta; Dan/ No: Flytte.

The Scandinavian word is far more general than the Scottish one. The Scandinavian version literally means to move (shift). In Scots, however, the word is (afaik) only used when referring to moving house ("Ahm flitting hoose" - I'm moving house). Furthermore, I've only ever heard if from the west coast in the lowlands: i.e. Glasgow / Strathclyde.

 

Greetin [crying]

Swe: Gråta ; No: gråte (Danish equivalent seems further away in pronunciation)

Literally means crying, or to cry. The pronunciation in Swedish is something like Groh-tah, while Scottish is as you would expect from the spelling: Gree-tin. I think the similarity is close enough that a link exists. Whether we got it from them or the other way round would be interesting to know.

 

Braw [excellent, fantastic]

Swe: Bra (exact same pronunciation as Scottish); No / Dan : Bra (pronunciation is different, the 'a' is more like 'ah' than 'aw')

In the Scandinavian languages the word bra merely means good, while in Scottish (chielfy / only east coast from my experience) the word means something better than good. Example: "That was braw" would mean that something was great.

 

Fuhl (sometimes also 'full' as in English) [to be drunk]

Swe: Full

The pronunciation in Swedish is almost exactly the same as it is in Scottish. This word is not so common among my contemporaries, I heard it from my grandmother is on the west coast of the central belt. How widespread it is among people of her generation I couldn't say. The interesting thing is that the pronunciation AND meaning are identical. There has to be a deep etymological connection here, I'm sure of it.

 

Wid [Wood]

Ice: viður, Old Ice (Norse): við/viðr

In Scottish it is pronounced as it looks, the 'i' is short short as in 'in' and has the meaning wood. In everyday usage I believe it is more often used as the material rather than to mean a forest, and possibly more common on the east coast. The link to the Scandanavian, or Nordic, langauges is perhaps the most tenuous of all the words I've proposed so far but here is my line of thought...

This is one I noticed after reading about Tolkien's mythical place called Mirkwood, which is inspired by the Old Norse (specifically Old Icelandic I believe) Myrkviðr which means Dark Wood (read as Dark Forest). Thus við of Old Norse may become wid in Scottish. Of course the link could simple be a permutation of vowels as happens across different dialects in many languages where "a" becomes "e" or what not. The dictionary suggests that Old German has 'witu' which is possibly closer. The vowel in the nordic languages is longer and closer to 'ee', and in the case of Old German I'm not sure.

Interesting Myrk could become English murk or murky which is closer to cloudy than dirty, while in modern Scandinavian it comes mørk (No/Da) or mörk (Swe) which means dark. Mirk/mirky is not a variation I would use which leads me to guess that it could be more common in England. The first use of the name in English is attributed to William Morris.

 

Stain [Stone]

Da/Swe: Sten, No: Stein, Ice: Steinn

In Scots the 'ai' is simliar to 'ay' in hay.

 

Bairn [child]

Ice/No/Da/Swe: Barn

This is a pretty easy one to spot. In Scots the 'ai' is simliar to 'ay' in hay, while in the nordic languages the 'a' is similar to English 'sand'. The meaning is essentially identical although I believe the plural takes no ending in the nordic langauges while Scots it takes an 's' as in English.

 

Quine [girl / possible woman]

Da: Kvinde, No: Kvinne, Swe: Kvinna

This is only really used in Aberdeen, and surrounding area. It still exists in modern usage in that area (afaik) but is almost unheard of anywhere else. The pronunciation is something like 'kwine', where 'wine' sounds as it normally does in English. It the modern Aberdonian usage I believe the meaning is closer to 'girl' than woman, and possibly slightly derogatory (not sure), while in Scandinavian the word means 'woman' (not girl).

 

I will update this list with more examples as I find them.