niuwskots 2024
niuwskots is designed to be the national spelling system following independence. It handles all dialects of Scots, avoiding the need to privilege one dialect.
OVERVIEW
An independent country needs a spelling system - a single written form - for its language. There is a widespread belief that a language that is not written down is not a language at all, and this has already prevented Holyrood from recognising Scots as a language of the Parliament.
Most people in Scotland speak an English-like language that ranges from 'Doric' to English with a Scottish accent. niuwskots ('New Scots') supplies a written form of that language, covering all dialects.
niuwskots looks nothing like traditional Scots, and nothing like Standard English. The distinguished linguist J. Derrick McClure made the point that 'maximal difference' - looking as different as possible from the system that it's displacing - is a compelling merit in a new spelling system, and niuwskots has that.
Arriving at a single spelling for many dialects can nonetheless be problematic. But it can be done by specifying only loosely how the letters are to be pronounced:
-- the letter 'a' in Aberdeen is pronounced at the back of the mouth and with rounded lips, so that 'bag' sounds like 'bog'.
-- in Dundee, by contrast, the letter 'a' is pronounced with straight lips, as in 'bahg'.
The letter 'a' has no other pronunciation in either accent, so the spelling 'bag' can be used for both accents. People from Aberdeen will pronounce it as 'bog', people from Dundee as 'bahg'.
NOTE: This method of representing many dialects with one spelling derives from J. C. Wells's Lexical Sets, in which words are grouped according to how they behave, and vowels are given specific names.
It's also used in Wikipedia's description of worldwide Englishes, where the chosen single spelling is called the 'diaphoneme'. These two documents are highly technical.
It's clear from the above that niuwskots doesn't tell you how to pronounce words, but then you don't need that. Since niuwskots is a system for spelling General Scottish, and most Scottish people speak General Scottish throughout their daily lives, they know how to pronounce it. Pronunciations also differ according to social circumstances, so a speaker may say (in niuwskots spelling) 'ay thingk souw' on one occasion and 'ah hingk souw' on another, and your writing can show these differences. In niuwskots, you write as you speak.
EXAMPLE
United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
awl hyuwmqn bee-ingz ar born free qnd eekwql in dignitee qnd ryts. dhae ar indewd widh reezqn qn konshqns qn shuwd akt tuwordz wun qnudhqr in q spirit qv brudhqrhuwd.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
ol cxuwmqn beens qr born free n eekwql in dignqtee n ryts. ther indewd wi reezqn qn konshqnts qn shuwd akt tords wun qnudhqr in q spirit q brudhqrhuwd.
DESCRIPTION
The 48 spellings needed to represent the sounds of General Scottish are shown below. The English spelling is given first, then the niuwskots spelling:
CONSONANTS:
1. p pea pee
2. b be bee
3. t tea tee
4. d do duw
5. k cow kew
6. g guard gard
7. m me mee
8. n knee nee
9. ng long long
10. f fee fee
11. v vie vai
12. s see see
13. z zoom zuwm
14. h hoe houw
15. r raw raw
16. y you yuw
17. l lea lee
18. w witch witsh
19. hw which hwitsh
20. th thought thawt
22. dh this dhis
22. sh shoe shuw
23. zh measure mezhqr
24. cx dreich dreecx; loch locx
25. tsh chew tshuw
26. dzh jaw dzhaw
-- sound 9 'ng' has no g-sound after it: it's pronounced as in 'Langham', not as in 'language'. (Some speakers of English always pronounce a g-sound after ng, but that's not Standard English.)
-- spelling 16 'y' represents a consonant-sound here, but a vowel-sound in spelling 38 (below). The context makes the meaning clear.
-- sounds 18 and 19 are different, as shown, but not all speakers of General Scottish make the distinction.
-- spelling 24 'cx' represents two sounds, but it is always clear from the context which one is meant.
VOWELS:
Single-sound vowels:
27. kit kit; bid bid; pit pit
28. fleece flees; bead beed; pea peet
29. dress dres; bed bed; pet pet
30. face faes; bay bae; hay hae; late laet
31. trap trap; bad bad; pat pat; balm bam; palm pam; father fadhqr; pa pah
32. lot lot; pod pod; cot kot;
33. thought thaw; bawd bawd; paw paw; caught kawt
34. goat gouwt; road rouwd; stone stouwn; toe touw
35. foot fuwt; good guwd; food fuwd; put puwt; booed buwd
36. strut strut; bud but; putt put
-- spellings 27 - 36 represent vowels that consist of a single sound, even though some of them are spelt with more than one letter.
-- some speakers do not use sound 33, but use sound 32 for both cases.
Double-sound vowels:
37. buy bai; strive straiv; writhe raidh; tied taid
38. bind bynd; strife stryf; write ryt; tide tyd
39. mouth mewth; how hew; pout pewt
40. choice tshois; boy boi; joy dzhoi
-- spellings 37 - 40 represent vowels that are sequences of two sounds, often called 'diphthongs' (but that word is ambiguous, confusing, and best avoided).
-- sound 38 has a narrower jaw-opening than sound 37. Sound 37 is characteristic of the posh accent known as 'Morningside' (in Edinburgh) and 'Kelvinside' (in Glasgow). Speakers of this accent do not use sound 38.
-- sound 38 is normally used when the root-form ends in a consonant-sound (tide tyd); sound 37 is used when the root-form ends in a vowel-sound ('tied', root-form is 'tie', taid), . But sound 38 may be used instead of sound 37 when the following word is closely joined to it and starts with a consonant-sound ('aye right' y ryt).
Vowels followed by r:
41. north north; born born; for four
42. force fowrs; boar bowr; four fowr; more mowr
43. cure kyuwr; boor buwr; moor muwr
44. girl girql; bird bird; fir fir
45. girl gerql; herd herqd; fern ferqn
46. girl gurql; curl kurql; fur fur
-- sound 42 has a narrower jaw-opening than sound 41. Not all speakers make this distinction.
-- sounds 44 - 46 show that when a vowel-sound is followed by an r-sound and then by another consonant-sound, an extra vowel-sound represented by the letter 'q' (sound 47, below) may be introduced, creating a second syllable. A typical case is warm warqm.
-- sound 44 - 46 also show that a vowel-sound followed by an r-sound can be pronounced in three different ways. Which of the three pronunciations is used depends on the individual word and the speaker, and does not necessarily follow the English spelling.
Reduced vowels:
47. letter letqr; comma komq
48. happy hapi, hape
-- sounds 47 and 48 are not as fully articulated as other vowel-sounds, and are always unstressed.
-- linguists call sound 47 'the murmur vowel' or 'schwa'.
-- sound 48 (unstressed i at the end of a word) can alternatively be e.
LEGAL STRINGS
To be correct niuwskots, a word must consist of strings of letters that are permitted ('legal') in niuwskots. These are the niuwskots legal strings:
1. Only 25 of the 26 letters of the English alphabet are used: j is not allowed. All letters are in lower-case only. This makes niuwskots keyboard-friendly, especially on mobile phones.
2. The only legal strings of consonant-letters or vowel-letters are those found in the examples in items 1 - 48 in the Description above.
3. The letter 'y' can be a consonant-letter or a vowel-letter, according to context.
4. A word may not end with the letter 'a'. It must be completed using 'ah' or 'aw' as appropriate.
5. A hyphen may be used to show that a string of letters represents a string of more than one sound: dhq wurd *eet z spelt ee-ae-tee.
6. An asterisk can be used before proper nouns, to warn the reader that the following word may be unfamiliar: *dzhon *maedzhqr. It is not obligatory. It is also good to use it before the names of letters: *yiuw *kae, *bee *bee *see.
7. Punctuation as in English, except as in 5 and 6 above.
COPYRIGHT
This page, or any extract or set of extracts from it, is free to republish, provided that the legend "niuwskots 2024" is readily visible within the republished material as its designator.
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