Appendix G — Language and Orthography
The language of the Bruce is Northern English, the dialect spoken north of the Humber. Barbour himself calls it “Inglis” (Bk. IV. 253), and Scottish writers down to the sixteenth century do the same. The name “Scots” is therefore a term of pure convenience, signifying the English spoken within the political borders of Scotland, which continued to be an independent literary medium after the Northern English of England had ceased to be such, and had yielded place to the standard dialect of Chaucer and his successors. But the language of the Aberdeen Barbour is substantially that of the Yorkshire Richard Rolle.
The most obvious characteristic of the northern tongue is that in development it was far ahead of its southern contemporary, in so far as it had absolutely got rid of inflections, not even retaining the final e which casts its shadow over Chaucer. Where the final e occurs in the Bruce it is non-significant and unsounded. Like the variable spelling, it is the result of the writing of English by scribes accustomed to the sounds and orthography of contemporary French, which was rich in final e’s179—a process which had seriously complicated the straightforward phonetic spelling of Old English. A peculiar Scots fashion, however, was the representation of the long vowels by a combination with y or i, sometimes in addition to a final e, which came to be regarded as the sign of a long vowel. Thus we have such groups as mar, mair, mayr: done, doyn, doyne. In these and similar cases y is simply an alternative form of i; at first it would be written before letters like m, n, u, where i, having no dot, might be mistaken for a part of the succeeding letter; then in practice the two would become interchangeable according to the caprice of the writer. In this matter the scribe of C is rather more regular than that of E. Now, such a diphthong as ai was in time reduced to a simple sound, when the i became superfluous, and came to be looked upon as a sign of length. With this function it was afterwards, at the pleasure of the writer, transferred to the company of other long vowels where there was no original diphthong. Thus we have the long vowel sound represented in three ways—simple, with following i (y), or with terminal e. In cases like tais, gais, however, the i is part of the termination of the present tense of the verb, of which Barbour is particularly fond.180
But while Scots—in the sense indicated above—had thus early parted with its inflections, it was, on the other hand, more conservative than the southern dialects in its treatment of the vowel sounds. It retained, for example, the Old English ā, which in Southern English was rounded into broad o (oa)—cf. ga, stane (O.E. or A.S. gan, stan) for go, stone. In the Bruce (X. 199; XII. 299) the rhyme more, before may show the rounding influence of r.181 Vowels in words of French origin show slight modification. Anglo-French nasal a before m, n tends to become au, whence daunger, etc., and o or u to become ou as in baroun, felloun. Ai and ei incline to merge in long e as feble (O.F. faible), and sesyt (O.F. seisir); but ai may also become a—e.g., tratour for O.F. traitor.
Aphæresis occurs in such shortened forms as stroy (destroy), semble (assemble), etc.
The following peculiarities may be noticed among the consonants:
ch sometimes = “tch” in middle and end of word—e.g., fech = fetch (II. 532).
h is silent in hoost, as in all Anglo-French words of Latin origin, and sometimes drops out—e.g., ost (II. 559, etc., O.F. ost), also in ayris (heirs, V. 520).
b in combination with m is dropped both in pronunciation and spelling. Cf. chamyr (II. 97), tumlit (IV. 182, etc.). C Hummyr for Humber; E Humbre (XV. 538).
d usually dropped after n—e.g., henmast = hindmost (XII. 268, etc.); sometimes intrusive—e.g., suddandly (VI. 11), but suddanly (VI. 220). In avantage, aventure from French the English d is intrusive.
f represents final ve in pruf or preif, leiff, driff, knaf, haf, etc., retaining the voiced sound (v) which it had in A.S. between vowels, and r l and vowels.
g in words of French origin has before e, i, the English sound = da(j), which was also then the French one—e.g., liege, jugis.
l as indicating merely a long vowel is unsounded in walknyt (VI. 296), walk (wake, VII. 179, etc.). So we have also falt (VI. 345, etc.) and fawt (III. 298); realte and reawte, etc. Skeat holds that the l in the first case represents but a way of writing the first k, so that the words should be wakk, etc., but this does not cover the second case.182
m and n are often interchanged, as in confort, manteme, etc.
ng becomes n before th as lenth, strenth, etc. Cf. also Grammar. The nasal ng may take the place of the liquid n, as in ryng (I. 78, etc.) for “reign” (Fr. regner). The French nasal nce is represented by ng or nch—e.g., Vallang (II. 201) or Vallanch (V. 472) for “Valence.”
r. Metathesis of r is very characteristic of the Northern dialect—e.g., fryst (first), brist (burst, A.S. berstan), tursit (O.F. trusser), etc.
s is changed to sch in schir, isch (issue), etc.; but on the other side we have sall, suld (shall, should) and Inglis.
z has in Fiz the Anglo-French sound ts, as in rats.