Wiktionary:About Scots

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

Main category: Scots language

The Scots language is an Anglic language, traditionally spoken in what is today Scotland and Northern Ireland. It has various relations with English, notably being a source of some words in English (often of Scandinavian or Gaelic origin), and providing cognate terms from Old English, aiding reconstruction of Old English terms. It shares close affinity with dialects of Northern England. Different sources consider Scots a dialect of English or a separate language. Either way, many terms in the two are identical in spelling if not standard pronunciation. There is significant overlap with Scottish English.

Be very careful adding Scots terms. Much of what is passed off as Scots on the Internet is in fact a caricature of Scots written by people who don't speak the language. See the long discussion on meta.wikimedia.org about Scots Wikipedia. The Dictionary of the Scots Language (see references) can be trusted. Absence of a word in Dictionary of the Scots Language does not mean the word is not used in Scots. Perhaps the word is spelled the same as in English or there is no attestation of a Scots spelling.

Dialect labels

The following labels may be used with {{label}} (short form {{lb}}) to tag terms as belonging to a specific dialect of Scots:

• {{lb|sco|Border Scots}} => (Border Scots)
• {{lb|sco|Doric Scots}} => (Doric)
• {{lb|sco|Lowlands Scots}} => (Lowlands Scots)
• {{lb|sco|South Scots}} => (South Scots)
• {{lb|sco|Ulster Scots}} => (Ulster)
• {{lb|sco|Middle Scots}} => (Middle Scots) (for obsolete terms attested only between 1450 and 1700, regardless of region)

Other labels may be used as well, but they will neither put the term into a category for the dialect nor provide a link to a Wikipedia article on the dialect.

See also

• Wiktionary:English entry guidelines
• Dictionary of the Scots Language (Homepage)
• R:DSL (template to link to Dictionary of the Scots Language)
• Scots Online