Iseabail's list of Scots language reference resources

General    

Scottish Language Dictionaries (SLD)  have excellent information on Scots, present and past, in their dictionaries – see  http://www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk and see especially the introductions to the  Concise Scots Dictionary and the Scottish National Dictionary.  SLD also has a special site for schools, the Scuilwab  http://www.scuilwab.org.uk  with information for children and teachers.

Corbett, John, McClure J. Derrick, Stuart-Smith, Jane eds. (2003) The Edinburgh Companion to Scots, Edinburgh University Press. Essays on various aspects of Scots, particularly useful for students.

Eagle, Andy (2005) Wir Ain Leid. An Innin tae Modren Scots/ An Introduction to Modern Scots  http://www.scots-online.org An introduction for the non-specialist.

Görlach, Manfred (2002) A Textual History of Scots, Heidelberg: C. Winter. A history of Scots with a wide selection of Older and Modern Scots texts, including local dialects.

Görlach, Manfred ed. (1985) Focus on: Scotland, Amsterdam: Benjamins. Essays on various aspects of Scots, and texts in different dialects.

Jones, Charles ed. (1997) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh University Press.   A collection of essays on different aspects of Scots, dealing with its history from the earliest records to the present.

Kay, Billy (1986, 2006) The Mither Tongue, Edinburgh: Mainstream. A survey of Scots for the non-specialist, with recommendations for its future support.

McArthur, Tom ed. (1992) The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press. Various articles dealing with Scots (by A J Aitken). Abridged edition 1996.

McClure, J Derrick (1988, 1997) Why Scots Matters  2nd edn, Edinburgh: Saltire Society. The position of Scots in the modern world and what should be done about it.

Robinson, Christine and Crawford, Carol Ann (2001) Scotspeak: A Guide to the pronunciation of modern urban Scots. Perth: Scots Language Centre.

Scotsgate   http://www.scotsgate.com    Website covering various aspects of Scots language.

Scots Wikipedia http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/.sco Brief history and description of Scots language in Scots. The site also has other wikipedia articles translated into Scots. English version has different history and outline.


Journals

Chapman   http://www.chapman-pub.co.uk Literary magazine, edited by Joy Hendry. Articles in and on Scots and Gaelic, as well as English.

Lallans  http://www.lallans.co.uk  Magazine of the Scots Language Society, written entirely in Scots.

Scottish Language http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/   Annual magazine on language topics published by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.

Ullans magazine of the Ulster-Scots Language Society (218 York Street, (2nd Floor),  Belfast BT15 1GY, Northern Ireland  Tel. 00 44 28 9075 8985).

Other reference works

Mather, James Y. and H. H. Speitel (1975,1977,1986) The Linguistic Atlas of Scotland 3 vols, London: Croom Helm. The first two volumes deal with lexical material and the third with phonetic.

Murison, David (1981) Scots Saws: from the folk-wisdom of Scotland, Edinburgh: Mercat Press.

Macleod, Iseabail (1986, 2006) The Pocket Guide to Scottish Words, Glasgow: Richard Drew. Selection is an implicit statement about currency and cultural significance.

Opie, Iona and Peter (1959, 1977) The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, Oxford University Press, republished Frogmore, St Albans: Granada Publishing

Spelling

Allan, Alasdair (1995) 'Scots spellin - ettlin efter the quantum lowp', English World-Wide 16:1, 61-103.
Lallans 56 and 57 (2000) has several articles on spelling,  with discussion on the 'Report o the Scots Spellin Comatee'.

McClure, J. Derrick (1985, 1995) 'The debate on Scots orthography' in J. Derrick McClure Scots and its Literature, Amsterdam: Benjamins, 37-43.

Purves, David (1997, revised 2002) A Scots Grammar. Scots Grammar and Usage, Edinburgh: The Saltire Society. See pp. 57-61.

Scots Style Sheet (1955) Lines Review 9, 30-31 (with introduction by Albert Mackie, 29-30). Reprinted (most recently) in David Purves, A Scots Grammar. Scots Grammar and Usage Edinburgh: Saltire Society (2002).  Some basic points, notably 'aa'  for 'all, a' and in 'baa', caa' etc; compiled in an Edinburgh pub by poets of the Scottish Renaissance in 1947.

Grammar

Purves, David (1997, revised 2002) A Scots Grammar. Scots Grammar and Usage, Edinburgh: The Saltire Society.

Rennie, Susan (1999) Grammar Broonie: A Guide tae Scots Grammar, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association. For schools.

Robertson, T. A. and John Graham (1952) Grammar and Usage of the Shetland Dialect, Lerwick: Shetland Times Ltd.

Robinson, Philip (1997) Ulster-Scots. A Grammar of the Traditional Written and Spoken Language, Belfast: Ullans Press.