A fantastic video introduction to the tongues, peoples and events that shaped the earliest history of the Scots language with versions narrated both in Scots and English and released on a CC BY licence.

The video was created by researchers at the University of Edinburgh’s Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics (AMC), who put the video resource together as part of the From Inglis To Scots (FITS) Project . It has been created in the hope it will be useful to students, teachers and the general public looking to understand the sources of the Scots language and its unique characteristics.

The video is the result of a colaboration between FITS Team members and the University of Edinburgh Digital Innovation Team. It features the voices of Hamish MacDonald, the Scots Scriever in Residence at the National Library of Scotland, and our own Rhona Alcorn, Chief Executive of the Scottish Language Dictionaries and Depute Director of the AMC. While the English version of the script was put together by the FITS Team, the Scots version was kindly composed by Derrick McClure, of the University of Aberdeen.

The video also features an original recording of the James Oswald’s “Pentland Hills”, performed by Alistair Hardie in arrangements by both David Johnston and by Hardie himself.

The Origins of the Scots Language (In Scots)

 

The Origins of the Scots Language (In English)

 

 

 

 

Image: Screen Shot from The Origins of the Scots Language