Excerpt from A Scots Dialect Dictionary: Comprising the Words in Use From the Latter Part of the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day

The Introduction and the Dialect Map by Mr Grant I owe to the zeal for the Scottish vernacular shown by him as Convener of the Scottish branch of the English Association. His professional knowledge and experience as Lecturer in Phonetics to the Aberdeen Provincial Committee for the Training of Teachers render him exceptionally fitted to deal with the subjects handled in the Introduc tion and to draw the map showing the distribution of the dialects. These subjects are in brief as follows (i) A short history of Scottish, showing its original identity with Northern English; its use as a literary language down to about 1600; its decline during the seventeenth century; and the revival of a vernacular literature about 1700. (2) The separation into dialects; the distribution of these so far as at present known; their leading characteristics; and the extent to which they have been used in literature. (3) The pronunciation of Scottish, with special reference to the literary forms and the usual spelling. (4) The present state of studies in Scottish and the efforts to record the existing dialects.

I have also received from Mr Grant two large lists of words, which have been incorporated in the Appendix as far as was needful.

The readiness with which Mr Grant undertook to comply with my request that he should write the Introduction on these lines, and his accomplishment of his voluntary contribution to the usefulness of this book, lay me and - may I say - all who use this book, under very great obligation. I trust that its publication may help to further the purpose to which he is devoting so much energy - the purpose of ultimately gathering all available material over Scotland for a thoroughly scientific Dictionary comprehending all Scottish, Early, Middle, and Modern, so far as this is possible. Further contributions of words not found in this or any other Dialect Dictionary will be gratefully welcomed if sent to Mr Grant or to myself. All such words should be vouched for by the senders, with the exact meaning, the locality in which they are used, and an indication of the pronunciation.

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