This book analyses the development of Modern Scots orthography and compares the spelling used in key works of literature, showing how canonical writers of poetry and fiction in Scots have blended convention and innovation in presenting Scots.

The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue defines and illustrates every meaning of every word used in written English in Scotland up to 1700. It is an indispensable reference tool for historians of Scots language, literature, politics, law, and social history.

Purves presents Scots as a separate language in its own right, resisting the often prevalent notion that Scots is merely a dialect of English, and gives a coherent overview of the distinctive grammatical and idiomatic usage of Scots.

What would you say if someone gave you a bap, a dap, or a garron? How would you feel if they called you a dux or a sneuter? Do you know what to do with a flane, a hushock, a kist, or tassie? Could you wear raploch or schort-hoozle? Eat a cake that was gibbery, or keggum? And, with your nearest and dearest, how would you fancy a spot of houghmagandie? North of the Border - it's not just the accent that's different, the whole language is not the same. In fact, there are several different ways of speaking in Scotland, from the Borders in the south to the northernmost Orkney and Shetland Isles. This book will look at them all, although it will focus on Scots — the traditional language of the majority of Scottish people for the past thousand years and more. Fact boxes, a full glossary, timeline and index make the book both fun and informative to use.

A Scot's dialect dictionary, comprising the words in use from the latter part of the seventeenth century to the present day

The Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System provides a comprehensive account of the English writing system, both in its current iteration and highlighting the developing trends that will influence its future. Twenty-nine chapters written by specialists from around the world cover core linguistic and psychological aspects, and also include areas from other disciplines such as typography and computer-mediated communication. Divided into five parts, the volume encompasses a wide range of approaches and addresses issues in the following areas: theory and the English writing system, discussing the effects of etymology and phonology; the history of the English writing system from its earliest development, including spelling, pronunciation and typography; the acquisition and teaching of writing, with discussions of literacy issues and dyslexia; English writing in use around the world, both in the UK and America, and also across Europe and Japan; computer-mediated communication and developments in writing online and on social media. The Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System is essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students working in this area.

Among the topics treated in this collection are the status of Scots as a national language; the orthography of Scots; the actual and potential degree of standardisation of Scots; the debt of the vocabulary of Scots to Gaelic; the use of Scots in fictional dialogue; and the development of Scots as a poetic medium in the modern period. All fourteen articles, written and published between 1979 and 1988, have been extensively revised and updated. J. Derrick McClure is a senior lecturer in the English Department at Aberdeen University and a well-known authority on the history of Scots.