Modern Scotch, or the language as spoken even a hundred years ago,
differs very materially from that in use by the Scots when Cæsar invaded
Britain.
Like the Erse, the latter was an important branch of the Celtic, or
Keltic, family of Indo-European languages, of which the Irish, now almost
extinct, affords a good illustration.
Eighteen centuries, with their destructive and modifying influences,
have been at work upon its structure till its genius has departed, never
to return. The Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman have supplanted many of its
word-forms, and done away with its peculiarities of speech. What is now
left of its former glory is but the shadow.
It is true we meet with Celtic words in current use, but time and neglect
have so disfigured their physiognomies that even the practised mind of
the philologist often fails to indicate their kinship.
Scotch words, or we might say with greater propriety and exactness
Scottish words, for _Scotch_ is seemingly nothing more than a corruption
of _Scottish_, the English form of the Anglo-Saxon _Scyttisc_, vary their
inflections as English words do. The changes, when there are changes,
follow the usages of the Anglo-Saxon.
As should be expected, when is considered the influence of the Teutonic
and Norman-French invasions, the sounds of certain letters, whether taken
singly or in combination, must necessarily have varied. This, as we shall
now see, has been the case.
_Ch_ and _gh_, in Scotch, have always the guttural sound.
The sound of the English diphthong _oo_ is commonly spelled _ou_.
French _u_, a sound which often occurs in the language, is marked _oo_,
_ui_.
In genuine Scottish words the _a_, except when constituting a diphthong,
or when followed by an _e_ mute after a single consonant, sounds
generally like the broad English _a_ in _wall_.
The Scottish diphthong _æ_ always, and _ea_ very often, sound like the
French _e_ masculine, while the Scottish diphthong _ey_ sounds like the
Latin in _ei_.