LOWLAND SCOTS

views updated

LOWLAND SCOTS, sometimes (especially formerly) Lowland Scotch. A common name for the Scottish dialects of Northern English that stresses both their location east and south of the Highland Line and their distinctness from the languages of the Highlands (Gaelic and Highland English). In the Middle Ages, Gaelic was known in Latin as lingua Scotica (the Scottish language) and some Gaels therefore claim that the Lowland tongue has usurped the name SCOTS. See DORIC, INGLIS, LALLANS.

More From encyclopedia.com