HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO SCOTLAND? DID YOU FIND THE ACCENT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND AT TIMES? IF THE ANSWER IS YES, THERE MIGHT BE AN IMPORTANT REASON. SOME SCOTTISH PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY IN THE LOWLANDS, HAVE THEIR OWN DIALECT: "SCOTS".
The dialect originated over the course of several centuries. It’s a mixture of the heavy Scottish accent and Middle English. This was the type of English spoken in the Middle Ages. Scots was originally a reference to the Scottish Gaelic language. Eventually though, many Lowlanders began to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse (Irish). The word Scot came from the Gaelic term "Scotii". The Scotii were the Gaelic Irish who came to Scotland in the 4th Century with their own language. However, by the 15th Century, the word "Scots" referred to the dialect spoken in the Lowlands and eastern Scotland.