INTRODUCTION Carlisle, including the old Debatable Land or Thriepland, witnessed many an exploit celebrated in the Border ballads, as in Kinmont Willie, Dick o the Cow, Johnnie Armstrong. There were Graemes and Armstrongs on the English and Scottish sides of the Border, and the modern dialect also shows this commingling of the people. Some of the vowels have developed along the same lines as in northern Eng., for instance O.E. ā, a and o in open position. On the other hand the consonants ch, r, wh, h have remained in southern Sc. and l and n have a peculiar development of their own. On the whole the balance is to the Scottish side, as most certainly is the feeling of the inhabitants north of the political boundary, who repudiate with some warmth the contention of Sir James Murray in his D.S.C.S. that their Border speech is more akin to n.Eng. than to Scots. See § 5.1. Northern Scots § 116. Northern Scots is divided into three sub-dialects — i.e. (1) sn.Sc. — e.Angus and the Mearns; (2) mn.Sc. — Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, Nairn; (3) nn.Sc. — including the Black Isle and Easter Ross and Caithness. sn.Sc. § 117. Dr Ellis, E.E.P., V., p. 755, gives the north boundary of this division as stretching from Mount Battock to Skateraw on the coast (5 miles n. Stonehaven). At the present time it is not till the traveller from the North passes Stonehaven that he can definitely say that he is in the sn. area. Stonehaven itself is thoroughly mixed, because of the emptying into it of the fishing villages from the northern and southern sides. The Deeside valley and the area between it and Stonehaven must be regarded as Abdsh. in speech. In the extreme west of Ags. we find the characteristics of e.Per., in the extreme east those of Abdsh., while the central area is a compromise between the two. Vowels of sn.Sc. § 118. Words like one, once, bone, stone (see § 32.4). having ā + n in O.E., have [i] as in Abdsh., so we write them een, eence, been, steen. The vowel [a] in words derived from O.E.. āw, ag, is used in this dialect as in the mn. area instead of the [&oh.] of m.Sc. § 118.1. In this dialect the vowel the ordinary spelling of which is ai, ay, ae, a + cons. + e, is m.fr.t., pronounced with the tongue retracted and raised [e1]. In a list1 of 385 ai words in common use in Ags. 249 had this peculiar [e1] sound and the rest [e] — 136. As there seems to be no rule to determine the distribution of the vowel, it is impossible to say whether it is a late development or a survival from the past. § 118.2. In this dialect the vowel [&sci;] or [&scirtail;] has almost the quality of e in St.Eng. bet — i.e. [ε]. § 119. Among middle-aged people the ui sound is still rounded and the same vowel [ø], m.fr.t.r., is used for all words of the four classes. See §§ 35.1–35.4. Sir William Craigie reports that in his boyhood parents in Dundee used to frown on such pronunciations as pair for puir and the younger generation of to-day seem to be still more affected by the tendency to unround the vowel, the resulting sound being ai or ae [e or e1]. In respect to this ui vowel, Ags. agrees with the southern dialects and not with Abdsh. § 119.1. Words of the enough, tough class (see § 35.6) have en(y)ooch and t(y)ooch, resembling Abdsh. rather than Per. § 120. O.E. ē, æ, ēa (see § 88) tend to have both ai and ee [e, e1, i] in e.Ags. and ai [e1] in w.Ags. § 121. Mr J. Ross, late Rector of Arbroath High School, gave an account of the Mearns dialect of Glenfarquhar (11 mls. w. by s. Stonehaven) as it was c.1849. He considered the dialect to be more akin to m.Sc. (e.Per.) than Deeside. Been, neen, steen are used for bone, none and stone, as in e.Ags. and Abd. O.E. æmacr;. (i-umlaut of ā) is ee [i] in sea, mean (v.), clean, but [ε] in lead (v.), leave, heathen, and [e] in either, heat, neither. Anglian ē is [i] in deed, thread, sheep; [e] in fear, breath. O.E. open e words like heav en, mare, seven, tear, wear (see § 88) have a raised e vowel approaching [i] but not identical with it. O.E. ēa has ee [i] in head, dead, bread, but a raised [e] in beat, sheaf, deaf, leaf, cheap, threat, death, but red has the same 1 Compiled by Dr J. C. Smith, H.M.C.I.S., and checked by Sir William Craigie, University of Chicago, and Dr Soutar, University College, Dundee, all natives of the district.