Scottish Language Dictionaries

Scottish Language Dictionaries (SLD) was set up in 2002 to develop Scottish lexicography and plays a central role in the culture of Scotland. The greatest part of the work of SLD focuses on the Scots language, maintaining and developing existing dictionaries, such as the Scottish National Dictionary (1931-1976), the Dictionary of the Older Scots Tongue (1937-2002), the online Dictionary of the Scots Language (2004) and the Concise Scots Dictionary (1985).

An essential part of this work is recording the living language in order that their reference resources will accurately reflect everyday speech and current writing. They are also increasingly involved in outreach work and education at all levels, promoting the Scots language at home and abroad.

SLD work for the people of Scotland. Their lexicographical projects preserve Scots, a vital part of Scotland's culture, past and contemporary. Their Scots dictionaries, online resources and hugely popular outreach programme supports the use of Scots in public life. They work for Scotland in their promotion of the linguistic aspect of Scotland's rich culture internationally; they have made successful contact with many Scottish heritage organisations in North America and participated in the debut of a Scottish writing exhibition at the Modern Language Association annual convention of academics and teachers in Philadelphia in December 2004.

SLD provide a consultative service on Scots, for which they receive queries through their website from all over the world from the general public, academics, students and even crossword mavens.

The Word Collection

SLD collect information on the Scots of today with the help of volunteer oral collectors and readers. Anyone who is interested in Scots can take part by gathering words and expressions from their own usage or from that of family and friends, or by marking the Scots words used in the flood of contemporary writing for excerption by SLD's editors. The results are stored in a database which is being used to update our dictionaries and to provide information for researchers.

The Dictionary of the Scots Language

This exceptional achievement was launched in March 2004. It is an electronic version of the two great historical works of Scots Lexicography, the Scottish National Dictionary (10 volumes) and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (12 volumes). A project involving the co-operation of six Scottish Universities and funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, the Dictionary of the Scots Language is now available online, free of charge.

New Supplement - bringing the record of Scots up to date

A New Supplement to the Scottish National Dictionary is now added to the electronic Dictionary of the Scots Language and is available free on the Dictionary of the Scots Language website.

The completion of the New Supplement marks the end of an exciting project aimed at preserving and supporting one of Scotland's languages. The New Supplement project now updates the record of the Scots language to the 21st century. Sources are mainly literary works of the last three decades. Oral material is also included where possible.

The Dictionary of the Scots Language, of which the New Supplement is now a part, consists of:

• The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST, 12 volumes), covering the language from its earliest records in the 12th century up to 1700
• The Scottish National Dictionary (SND, 10 volumes), from 1700 to the 1970s, including the first Supplement

This project has been made possible by a grant of £90,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, along with continuing funding from the Scottish Arts Council.

The Dictionaries are produced by Scottish Language Dictionaries, an independent charity with strong academic links. The updating of the record of Scots is a continuing process with contributions from all kinds of sources.

The Scuilwab

The Scuilwab is SLD's website for schools, which celebrates diversity of language and culture among Scots children and provides a resource for pupils and teachers from early years up to Advanced Higher Level. This was funded by the Scottish Arts Council, and a further grant has just been awarded to develop the 14+ section of the website.

SLD's main website can be regarded as the international face of Scots lexicography. Queries are received from all over the world, but particularly from North America.

Outreach

SLD's outreach officer and other members of staff give talks to or chair discussions with schools, children's groups, writers groups, adult learning organisations and anyone with an interest, or potential interest, in Scots. Such two-way communication enables SLD to publicise and improve its services and to widen information on the Scots language.

Although declared a language by the EU, Scots still suffers from the stigma of years of suppression and many speakers are still conditioned to think of their native language as a slang form of English. As a result, it is common for Scots speakers today to suffer from a lack of confidence in public speaking. In fact, Scots is a language in its own right, with its own respected history and development which includes English in its pedigree alongside French, Norwegian and Old Northumbrian.

 

SLD's UK outreach focuses primarily on intensive work to contact as many organisations and schools as they can, aiming to correct the misconception that Scots is a deprecated form of English. They encourage the use of Scots in local writers' groups and in schools and work to give Scots speakers their voices back.