PHONETIC DESCRIPTION OF SCOTTISH LANGUAGE AND DIALECTS Decline of Scottish Literature. § 14. Before he became King of England, James VI. of Scotland wrote several treatises in his native speech. After the Union of the Crowns the language of his literary efforts was that of his English subjects. His example was followed by other Scottish writers, like Alexander, Earl of Stirling, and Drummond of Hawthornden, so that when the Union of the Parliaments took place, in 1707, English had become the recognised medium of expression for Scottish authors — at least in all subjects of serious import. The gradual change from Scots to English may be traced in our municipal records. The following excerpts from the Aberdeen Burgh Registers illustrate the first and final stages of the process of change: 31st January 1643. Janet Rany, spous to Sergant M‘Gregor, wes convict and put in amerciament for draging doun among hir feit Issobell Walker be the hair, and for etling to strik the said Issobell with ane brasin pan, ffor the quhilk the said Janet Rany was ordanit to crawe God and the pairtie offendit pardon befoir the magistrats, and to be comitet in waird within the wairdhous of the said burgh, thair to remain for the space of tuentie-four hours, or than to releive hir thairfra be payment of tua merkis money to the dean of gild. 24th March 1747. The said day, the magistrates and councill. . . considering that there is presently in agitation an union of the Kings and Marischal Colleges of Aberdeen, sett on foot by the principalls, professors, and masters of the tuo colleges; and the councill considering the great interest and concern this town has in the said Marischall College, they are of opinion that previous to settling any articles, that the town do make a point of it to have the seat of the University in this town, otherways to oppose such an union with the utmost vigour. § 15. The predominance of English in the sphere of letters had its parallel also in the spoken language. First the nobles and then the lower gentry began to send their children to be educated in England. The older Scottish literature had not been able to produce a Scottish Bible, and in consequence the humblest Scot was accustomed to hear English used in Church services, first in readings from the Bible, and later on in the prayers and exhortations of his pastor. Inevitably he came to regard it as the most suitable medium for religious expression. In the consciousness of the average Scotsman the feeling arose that his national speech was inferior to English, and he was apt to modify it in the direction of Eng. or substitute for it the best English he could muster in addressing a superior or a stranger, or in touching upon elevated subjects of discourse. By the end of the 18th century English had supplanted Scots in fashionable circles, in the pulpit, the school, the University, the Law Courts and on the public platform. Allan Ramsay and Revival of Scottish Literature. § 16. The political reaction against that Anglicising tendency which culminated in the Union of 1707 was coincident with a great revival of interest in our older Scottish literature, associated chiefly with the name of Allan Ramsay. Ramsay was born in 1686, at Leadhills in Lanarkshire, where he remained till his fifteenth year. The rest of his life was spent in Edinburgh. His local dialect would differ only very slightly from that of Edinburgh, so that the Scots he used may be taken as typical of Central Scots, and may be regarded as the popular and legitimate descendant of the old Anglian speech of the early Scottish kings. Four writers of genius who followed Ramsay — viz. Fergusson, Burns, Scott and Galt — all used the same dialect of Scots, and the great majority of Scottish writers have followed their example, and so have created our modern conventional literary language. § 17. Though the vernacular on which this literary dialect was founded had lost status as the standard speech for the highest purposes, it was still in a sense the national tongue. In the beginning of the 18th century all classes spoke Scots, even although the educated upper sections of society had begun to write and speak English. All over Scotland a great body of song and balladry, of satiric and romantic tales, and of proverbial wisdom was lodged in the memory of the people. The heroic stories of Bruce and Wallace were better known then than they are at the present time, even if the actual lines from Barbour and Blind Harry were not recited as in former centuries. Diligent collectors of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Percy in England and Scotland, Scott and his followers in the South of Scotland and Buchan in the North, gathered enough of this ancient store of legendary song and ballad to show what its extent must have been before the art of memorising had declined. This widespread knowledge of ancient song, ballad and story ensured a comparatively copious vocabulary in the popular speech. Although the “termis aureate” of the old literary dialect found no place in it. the language of the people incorporated a considerable number of words from Anglo-French, from Latin and from continental French. The last-named came in later than