94-513: Anstruther / ˈ æ n s t r ə ð ər / ( Scots : Ainster or Enster / ˈ eɪ n s t ər / ; Scottish Gaelic : Ànsruthair ) is a coastal town in Fife , Scotland , situated on the north-shore of the Firth of Forth and 9 mi (14 km) south-southeast of St Andrews . The town comprises two settlements, Anstruther Easter and Anstruther Wester, which are divided by
188-905: A 1996 trial before the Census, by the General Register Office for Scotland (GRO), suggested that there were around 1.5 million speakers of Scots, with 30% of Scots responding "Yes" to the question "Can you speak the Scots language?", but only 17% responding "Aye" to the question "Can you speak Scots?". It was also found that older, working-class people were more likely to answer in the affirmative. The University of Aberdeen Scots Leid Quorum performed its own research in 1995, cautiously suggesting that there were 2.7 million speakers, though with clarification as to why these figures required context. The GRO questions, as freely acknowledged by those who set them, were not as detailed and systematic as those of
282-625: A Scots language listing. The Ferret, a UK -based fact-checking service, wrote an exploratory article in December 2022 to address misconceptions about the Scots language to improve public awareness of its endangered status. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles , Caithness , Arran and Campbeltown . In Ulster , the northern province in Ireland , its area
376-462: A collection of children's nursery rhymes and poems in Scots. The book contains a five-page glossary of contemporary Scots words and their pronunciations. Alexander Gray 's translations into Scots constitute the greater part of his work, and are the main basis for his reputation. In 1983, William Laughton Lorimer 's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published. Scots
470-433: A continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to Scottish Standard English . Many speakers are diglossic and may be able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine. Because standard English now generally has the role of a Dachsprache ('roofing language'), disputes often arise as to whether
564-415: A language from a dialect , scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots, particularly its relationship to English . Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects exist, they often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum , with Scottish Standard English at
658-482: A more phonological manner rather than following the pan-dialect conventions of modern literary Scots, especially for the northern and insular dialects of Scots. Alexander I of Scotland Alexander I ( medieval Gaelic : Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim ; modern Gaelic : Alasdair mac Mhaol Chaluim ; c. 1078 – 23 April 1124), posthumously nicknamed The Fierce , was the King of Alba ( Scotland ) from 1107 to his death. He
752-452: A new care home facility on the town's Bankie Park was reversed after a campaign by residents. Anstruther has been twinned with Bapaume , France since October 1991. Stagecoach East Scotland operates two primary bus services which run via Anstruther. These are: Traditionally, the two Anstruthers returned a single Member of Parliament (MP) together with Kilrenny , Pittenweem , St Andrews , Cupar and Crail . Currently, Anstruther
846-567: A recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis , the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English : Scottisc (modern English "Scottish"), which replaced the earlier i-mutated version Scyttisc . Before the end of the fifteenth century, English speech in Scotland was known as "English" (written Ynglis or Inglis at the time), whereas "Scottish" ( Scottis ) referred to Gaelic . By
940-612: A representative sample of Scotland's adult population) claim to speak Scots to varying degrees. The 2011 UK census was the first to ask residents of Scotland about Scots. A campaign called Aye Can was set up to help individuals answer the question. The specific wording used was "Which of these can you do? Tick all that apply" with options for "Understand", "Speak", "Read" and "Write" in three columns: English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots. Of approximately 5.1 million respondents, about 1.2 million (24%) could speak, read and write Scots, 3.2 million (62%) had no skills in Scots and
1034-685: A stream, the Dreel Burn. With a population of 3,500, it is the largest community on the Firth of Forth's north-shore coastline known as the East Neuk . To the east, it merges with the village of Cellardyke . Founded as a fishing village, Anstruther is home to the Scottish Fisheries Museum . Recreational vessels are now moored in the harbour, and a golf course is situated near the town. Anstruther Pleasure Cruises operate sightseeing/wildlife cruises from
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#17328439157121128-501: A suitable medium of education or culture". Students reverted to Scots outside the classroom, but the reversion was not complete. What occurred, and has been occurring ever since, is a process of language attrition , whereby successive generations have adopted more and more features from Standard English. This process has accelerated rapidly since widespread access to mass media in English and increased population mobility became available after
1222-610: Is Buckie House, built in the late 17th century and restored in 1968 by W Murray Jack. The east gable was decorated with scallop shells and whelks or 'buckies' by the slater Andrew Batchelor in the mid 19th century. Its exterior was restored in 2010. The name of Anstruther derives from Scottish Gaelic . The second element is sruthair ('burn, stream'), but the first element less certain: it is possibly Gaelic á(i)n ('driving') or aon ('one'), thus meaning either 'driving current or burn' or '(place of or on) one burn'. The name of Anstruther Easter derives from Scots easter ('eastern'), since
1316-475: Is Alexander's father, Malcolm III, and Domnall was Alexander's half brother. The Province or Kingdom of Moray was ruled by the family of Macbeth (Mac Bethad mac Findláich) and Lulach (Lulach mac Gille Coemgáin): not overmighty subjects, but a family who had ruled Alba within little more than a lifetime. Who the Mormaer or King was at this time is not known; it may have been Óengus of Moray or his father, whose name
1410-520: Is a sister language of Modern English , as the two diverged from the same medieval form of English. Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland by the Scottish government, a regional or minority language of Europe, and a vulnerable language by UNESCO . In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots. Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing
1504-552: Is in Scots, for example. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Other well-known authors like Robert Louis Stevenson , William Alexander, George MacDonald , J. M. Barrie and other members of the Kailyard school like Ian Maclaren also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue. In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions. In
1598-732: Is in the North East Fife Scottish Parliament constituency. The MSP is currently Willie Rennie , who won back the seat for the Liberal Democrats from Roderick Campbell of the SNP in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election and retained it in 2021 . For the purposes of the additional member system used to elect MSPs to the Scottish Parliament, Anstruther is in the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region . In local politics,
1692-654: Is in the North East Fife UK Parliament constituency. The sitting member is Wendy Chamberlain of the Scottish Liberal Democrats . In the 2017 General Election , then-MP Stephen Gethins of the SNP retained his seat by a majority of only two votes, narrowly defeating the Liberal Democrat candidate Elizabeth Riches, a resident of Anstruther and former local councillor, after three recounts. Anstruther
1786-745: Is lykest to our language..." ( For though several have written of (the subject) in English, which is the language most similar to ours... ). However, with the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England, most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion. In his first speech to the English Parliament in March 1603, King James VI and I declared, "Hath not God first united these two Kingdomes both in Language, Religion, and similitude of maners?" . Following James VI's move to London,
1880-533: Is not known. As for the Mearns, the only known Mormaer of Mearns , Máel Petair , had murdered Alexander's half-brother Duncan II (Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim) in 1094. Alexander died in April 1124 at his court at Stirling ; his brother David, probably the acknowledged heir since the death of Sybilla, succeeded him. Alexander was depicted in a fantasy novel, Pater Nostras Canis Dirus: The Garrison Effect (2010). Alexander
1974-454: Is on a small hill. This structure incorporates a tower/spire feature rare to Britain, but common to the area. Anstruther War Memorial is located in the cemetery, somewhat further inland. It is of an unusual war memorial form, being totally flat to the ground, in the centre of a landscaped roundel, broadly adopting the shape of a celtic cross . The town has several fish and chip shops. The Anstruther Fish Bar , which won Fish and Chip shop of
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#17328439157122068-575: Is sometimes used in contemporary fiction, such as the Edinburgh dialect of Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a motion picture of the same name ). But'n'Ben A-Go-Go by Matthew Fitt is a cyberpunk novel written entirely in what Wir Ain Leed ("Our Own Language") calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms . The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
2162-550: Is used to describe the Scots language after 1700. A seminal study of Scots was undertaken by JAH Murray and published as Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland . Murray's results were given further publicity by being included in Alexander John Ellis 's book On Early English Pronunciation, Part V alongside results from Orkney and Shetland, as well as the whole of England. Murray and Ellis differed slightly on
2256-529: Is usually defined through the works of Robert John Gregg to include the counties of Down , Antrim , Londonderry and Donegal (especially in East Donegal and Inishowen ). More recently, the Fintona -born linguist Warren Maguire has argued that some of the criteria that Gregg used as distinctive of Ulster-Scots are common in south-west Tyrone and were found in other sites across Northern Ireland investigated by
2350-484: The Archbishop of Canterbury , Ralph d'Escures , rather than Thurstan of York . Alexander also patronised Saint Andrews , granting lands intended for an Augustinian Priory , which may have been the same as that intended to honour his wife. For all his religiosity, Alexander was not remembered as a man of peace. John of Fordun says of him: Now the king was a lettered and godly man; very humble and amiable towards
2444-551: The Caves of Caiplie situated on the coastal path to Crail . Following the end of the Cold War , one of Anstruther's best-kept secrets has become a major tourist attraction. A secret nuclear bunker , built in 1951 and operational until 1993, is located on the B940 near the village. During its operational life, it looked like an ordinary domestic dwelling, but has been renovated and is now open to
2538-470: The English Dialect Dictionary , edited by Joseph Wright . Wright had great difficulty in recruiting volunteers from Scotland, as many refused to cooperate with a venture that regarded Scots as a dialect of English, and he obtained enough help only through the assistance from a Professor Shearer in Scotland. Wright himself rejected the argument that Scots was a separate language, saying that this
2632-501: The Linguistic Survey of Scotland . Dialects of Scots include Insular Scots , Northern Scots , Central Scots , Southern Scots and Ulster Scots . It has been difficult to determine the number of speakers of Scots via census, because many respondents might interpret the question "Do you speak Scots?" in different ways. Campaigners for Scots pressed for this question to be included in the 2001 UK National Census . The results from
2726-494: The Low Countries . Scots also includes loan words in the legal and administrative fields resulting from contact with Middle Irish , and reflected in early medieval legal documents. Contemporary Scottish Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as cèilidh , loch , whisky , glen and clan . Cumbric and Pictish , the medieval Brittonic languages of Northern England and Scotland, are
2820-706: The Protestant Church of Scotland adopted the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible; subsequently, the Acts of Union 1707 led to Scotland joining England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , having a single Parliament of Great Britain based in London. After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as
2914-629: The Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles of Scotland , and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots ), it is sometimes called: Lowland Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic , the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands , the Hebrides , and Galloway after the sixteenth century; or Broad Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English . Modern Scots
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3008-461: The Second World War . It has recently taken on the nature of wholesale language shift , sometimes also termed language change , convergence or merger . By the end of the twentieth century, Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland . Residual features of Scots are often regarded as slang. A 2010 Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards
3102-579: The University of Aberdeen , and only included reared speakers (people raised speaking Scots), not those who had learned the language. Part of the difference resulted from the central question posed by surveys: "Do you speak Scots?". In the Aberdeen University study, the question was augmented with the further clause "... or a dialect of Scots such as Border etc.", which resulted in greater recognition from respondents. The GRO concluded that there simply
3196-612: The prestige dialect of most of eastern Scotland. By the sixteenth century, Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. From 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster , some 200,000 Scots-speaking Lowlanders settled as colonists in Ulster in Ireland. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one. The name Modern Scots
3290-544: The " Buchan Claik ". The old-fashioned Scotch , an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster. The term Lallans , a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz] , is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form . Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots ( Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or "Ullans",
3384-556: The Confessor . Alexander was named after Pope Alexander II . He was the younger brother of King Edgar , who was unmarried, and his brother's heir presumptive by 1104 (and perhaps earlier). In that year, he was the senior layman present at the examination of the remains of Saint Cuthbert at Durham prior to their re-interment. He held lands in Scotland north of the Forth and in Lothian . On
3478-542: The Crowns in 1603, the Standard English of England came to have an increasing influence on the spelling of Scots through the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England. After the Acts of Union in 1707 the emerging Scottish form of Standard English replaced Scots for most formal writing in Scotland. The eighteenth-century Scots revival saw the introduction of a new literary language descended from
3572-473: The Holy Land and also swore fealty to Edward I in 1292 and again in 1296. In 1225, it took the intervention of Pope Honorius III to settle a teinds dispute between the monks of Dryburgh Abbey and the fishermen of Anstruther, suggesting that the fishing was sufficiently good to warrant arguing over. In December 1583, James VI of Scotland gave the town the status of a Royal Burgh and trading rights, recognizing
3666-462: The Italian origin theory are inaccurate. The de Candela family actually came from Dorset, coming to England probably from Normandy in or around 1066. The de Candela name was dropped by a later generation, in a charter confirming a grant of land to Dryburgh Abbey in 1225, Henry is described as 'Henricus de Aynstrother dominus ejusdem'. His son, also called Henry, was a companion of Louis IX in his crusades to
3760-449: The Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent sister language forming a pluricentric diasystem with English. German linguist Heinz Kloss considered Modern Scots a Halbsprache ('half language') in terms of an abstand and ausbau languages framework, although today in Scotland most people's speech is somewhere on
3854-697: The Middle English of Northumbria due to twelfth- and thirteenth-century immigration of Scandinavian-influenced Middle English–speakers from the North and Midlands of England . Later influences on the development of Scots came from the Romance languages via ecclesiastical and legal Latin , Norman French , and later Parisian French , due to the Auld Alliance . Additionally, there were Dutch and Middle Low German influences due to trade with and immigration from
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3948-560: The Philosopher's Stane , a Scots translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was published by Matthew Fitt . The vowel system of Modern Scots: Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish vowel length rule . The orthography of Early Scots had become more or less standardised by the middle to late sixteenth century. After the Union of
4042-480: The Scots language was also featured. It was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. The Scottish Government set its first Scots Language Policy in 2015, in which it pledged to support its preservation and encourage respect, recognition and use of Scots. The Scottish Parliament website also offers some information on
4136-467: The Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals in a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", also finding "the most frequent speakers are least likely to agree that it is not a language (58%) and those never speaking Scots most likely to do so (72%)". Before the Treaty of Union 1707 , when Scotland and England joined to form
4230-573: The Scottish Executive recognises and respects Scots (in all its forms) as a distinct language, and does not consider the use of Scots to be an indication of poor competence in English. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, its independent – if somewhat fluid – orthographic conventions , and in its former use as the language of the original Parliament of Scotland . Because Scotland retained distinct political, legal, and religious systems after
4324-622: The Standard English cognate . This Written Scots drew not only on the vernacular, but also on the King James Bible , and was heavily influenced by the norms and conventions of Augustan English poetry . Consequently, this written Scots looked very similar to contemporary Standard English, suggesting a somewhat modified version of that, rather than a distinct speech form with a phonological system which had been developing independently for many centuries. This modern literary dialect, "Scots of
4418-497: The Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. During the 2010s, increased interest was expressed in the language. The status of the language was raised in Scottish schools, with Scots being included in the new national school curriculum . Previously in Scotland's schools there had been little education taking place through the medium of Scots, although it may have been covered superficially in English lessons, which could entail reading some Scots literature and observing
4512-680: The activities of those such as Thomas Sheridan , who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution . Charging a guinea at a time (about £200 in today's money ), they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh . Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. These eighteenth-century activities would lead to
4606-511: The attackers were from Moray and Mearns. Alexander pursued them north, to "Stockford" in Ross (near Beauly ) where he defeated them. This, says Wyntoun, is why he was named the "Fierce". The dating of this is uncertain, as are his enemies' identities. However, in 1116 the Annals of Ulster report: "Ladhmann son of Domnall, grandson of the king of Scotland, was killed by the men of Moray." The king referred to
4700-519: The beginning of the fifteenth century, the English language used in Scotland had arguably become a distinct language, albeit one lacking a name which clearly distinguished it from all the other English variants and dialects spoken in Britain. From 1495, the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse , meaning "Irish", was used as a name for Gaelic. For example, towards
4794-521: The book" or Standard Scots, once again gave Scots an orthography of its own, lacking neither "authority nor author". This literary language used throughout Lowland Scotland and Ulster, embodied by writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Murray , David Herbison , James Orr, James Hogg and William Laidlaw among others, is well described in the 1921 Manual of Modern Scots . Other authors developed dialect writing, preferring to represent their own speech in
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#17328439157124888-557: The border between English and Scots dialects. Scots was studied alongside English and Scots Gaelic in the Linguistic Survey of Scotland at the University of Edinburgh , which began in 1949 and began to publish results in the 1970s. Also beginning in the 1970s, the Atlas Linguarum Europae studied the Scots language used at 15 sites in Scotland, each with its own dialect. From the mid-sixteenth century, written Scots
4982-525: The clerics and regulars, but terrible beyond measure to the rest of his subjects; a man of large heart, exerting himself in all things beyond his strength. He manifested the terrible aspect of his character in his reprisals in the Province of Moray . Andrew of Wyntoun 's Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland says that Alexander was holding court at Invergowrie when he was attacked by "men of the Isles". Walter Bower says
5076-403: The creation of Scottish Standard English . Scots remained the vernacular of many rural communities and the growing number of urban working-class Scots. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the use of Scots as a literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as Robert Burns . Such writers established a new cross-dialect literary norm. Scots terms were included in
5170-442: The death of Edgar in 1107, Alexander succeeded to the Scottish crown but, in accordance with Edgar's instructions, their brother David was granted an appanage in southern Scotland . Edgar's will granted David the lands of the former kingdom of Strathclyde or Cumbria and this was apparently agreed in advance by Edgar, Alexander, David and their brother-in-law Henry I of England . In 1113, perhaps at Henry's instigation, and with
5264-533: The earliest recorded lord of Anstruther was mentioned in a charter of 1225. There have been several theories as to the origin of the, possibly mythical, William, but recent research has suggested he may have been a Norman from Italy. There is evidence that William the Conqueror sought assistance from William, Count of Candela. He sent his son (or possibly his grandson). It may be this was the William de Candela, who received
5358-694: The early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid whose benchmark poem " A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle " (1926) did much to demonstrate the power of Scots as a modern idiom. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young , John Buchan , Sydney Goodsir Smith , Robert Garioch , Edith Anne Robertson and Robert McLellan . The revival extended to verse and other literature. In 1955, three Ayrshire men – Sandy MacMillan, an English teacher at Ayr Academy ; Thomas Limond, noted town chamberlain of Ayr ; and A. L. "Ross" Taylor, rector of Cumnock Academy – collaborated to write Bairnsangs ("Child Songs"),
5452-411: The end of the fifteenth century, William Dunbar was using Erse to refer to Gaelic and, in the early sixteenth century, Gavin Douglas was using Scottis as a name for the Lowland vernacular. The Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic . Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century, as
5546-544: The evidence argues that Alexander and Sybilla were a devoted but childless couple and Sybilla was of noteworthy piety. Sybilla died in unrecorded circumstances at Eilean nam Ban ( Kenmore on Loch Tay ) in July 1122 and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey . Alexander did not remarry and Walter Bower wrote that he planned an Augustinian Priory at the Eilean nam Ban dedicated to Sybilla's memory, and he may have taken steps to have her venerated . Alexander had at least one illegitimate child, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair , who
5640-401: The fifteenth century, much literature based on the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such as Robert Henryson , William Dunbar , Gavin Douglas and David Lyndsay . The Complaynt of Scotland was an early printed work in Scots. The Eneados is a Middle Scots translation of Virgil 's Aeneid , completed by Gavin Douglas in 1513. After
5734-417: The grant of land from Alexander. William de Candela's son, another William, was said to be a benefactor to the monks of Balmerino Abbey . Balmerino was founded in 1229, long after the likely lifetime of this William. Land in Anstruther Easter, on which a chapel was built and now occupied by the Scottish Fisheries Museum, was gifted to Balmerino by another William, sometime in the 1280s. Both this suggestion, and
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#17328439157125828-409: The great western entrance of Dunfermline Abbey , where his mother was buried. His mother's chaplain and hagiographer Thurgot was named Bishop of Saint Andrews (or Cell Rígmonaid ) in 1107, presumably by Alexander's order. The case of Thurgot's would-be successor Eadmer shows that Alexander's wishes were not always accepted by the religious community, perhaps because Eadmer had the backing of
5922-403: The harbour to the Isle of May , the UK's primary puffin location, on board the vessel the May Princess from April to October. An abundance of other wildlife, including seal colonies, also inhabit the island. The Waid Academy , the local state comprehensive school, is a focus of the community and through its secondary role as a community centre. Anstruther has a parish church at its centre that
6016-433: The importance of the port, called the draucht of Anstruther . The bounds of the new Burgh were the "Silver Dyke" on the east, the low water line on the south, the Anstruther burn to the west, and the Kylrynnie march road . James Melville 's diary provides a graphic account of the arrival of a ship from the Spanish Armada to Anstruther. Local tradition has long held that some of the survivors remained and intermarried with
6110-442: The language in Scots. In September 2024, experts of the Council of Europe called on the UK Government to "boost support for regional and minority languages", including the Scots Language. The serious use of the Scots language for news, encyclopaediae, documentaries, etc., remains rare. It is reportedly reserved for niches where it is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night or traditions' representations. Since 2016,
6204-509: The language used in different situations. Such an approach would be inappropriate for a Census." Thus, although it was acknowledged that the "inclusion of such a Census question would undoubtedly raise the profile of Scots", no question about Scots was, in the end, included in the 2001 Census. The Scottish Government's Pupils in Scotland Census 2008 found that 306 pupils spoke Scots as their main home language. A Scottish Government study in 2010 found that 85% of around 1000 respondents (being
6298-571: The local dialect. Much of the material used was often Standard English disguised as Scots, which caused upset among proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is, "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)", whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation". A course in Scots language and culture delivered through
6392-415: The locals. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the town was home to The Beggar's Benison , a gentleman's club devoted to "the convivial celebration of male sexuality". By the 19th century, Anstruther-Easter, Anstruther-Wester, and Kilrenny were all separate royal and parliamentary boroughs . Anstruther-Easter held tanning , shipbuilding , and fish-curing establishments, as well as a coasting trade. In 1871,
6486-415: The medium of Standard English and produced by the Open University (OU) in Scotland, the Open University's School of Languages and Applied Linguistics as well as Education Scotland became available online for the first time in December 2019. In the 2011 Scottish census , a question on Scots language ability was featured In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , a question in relation to
6580-420: The newspaper The National has regularly published articles in the language. The 2010s also saw an increasing number of English books translated in Scots and becoming widely available, particularly those in popular children's fiction series such as The Gruffalo , Harry Potter , Diary of a Wimpy Kid , and several by Roald Dahl and David Walliams . In 2021, the music streaming service Spotify created
6674-401: The old court Scots, but with an orthography that had abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings and adopted many standard English spellings. Despite the updated spelling, however, the rhymes make it clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended. These writings also introduced what came to be known as the apologetic apostrophe , generally occurring where a consonant exists in
6768-451: The other. Scots is sometimes regarded as a variety of English, though it has its own distinct dialects; other scholars treat Scots as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian is closely linked to but distinct from Danish . Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or "broad Scots" in English) or use a dialect name such as the " Doric " or
6862-558: The past (e.g. Corby or the former mining areas of Kent ). In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , it was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. Among the earliest Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (fourteenth century), Wyntoun 's Cronykil and Blind Harry 's The Wallace (fifteenth century). From
6956-591: The public as a museum. The bunker was a subsidiary Regional Seat of Government in time of possible nuclear emergency and would have been occupied by the UK Armed Forces , UKWMO , Royal Observer Corps and other Civil Service personnel. Somewhat out from the town centre, in Anstruther Wester, stands the Dreel Tavern, taking its name from the adjacent burn . This building dates from the 17th century. Nearby
7050-457: The region was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . By the tenth century, Middle Irish was the language of the Scottish court , and the common use of Old English remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century. The succeeding variety of Northern Early Middle English spoken in southeastern Scotland is also known as Early Scots . It began to further diverge from
7144-413: The remainder had some degree of skill, such as understanding Scots (0.27 million, 5.2%) or being able to speak it but not read or write it (0.18 million, 3.5%). There were also small numbers of Scots speakers recorded in England and Wales on the 2011 Census, with the largest numbers being either in bordering areas (e.g. Carlisle ) or in areas that had recruited large numbers of Scottish workers in
7238-590: The royal burgh of Anstruther-Easter had a population of 1169; the parliamentary burgh, 1289. Anstruther-Wester held 484. The Board of Fisheries constructed a new harbour in the 1870s, completed by 1877 at a cost of £ 80,000. By the First World War , the communities were connected to St Andrews by the North British Railway . The Dreel Halls complex incorporates the former Anstruther Wester Town Hall, which dates from 1795, while Anstruther Easter Town Hall
7332-515: The seventeenth century, anglicisation increased. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the North East were written down. Writers of the period were Robert Sempill , Robert Sempill the younger , Francis Sempill , Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie . In the eighteenth century, writers such as Allan Ramsay , Robert Burns , James Orr , Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott continued to use Scots – Burns's " Auld Lang Syne "
7426-511: The support of his Anglo-Norman allies , David demanded and received, additional lands in Lothian along the Upper Tweed and Teviot . David did not receive the title of king, but of " prince of the Cumbrians ", and his lands remained under Alexander's final authority. The dispute over Tweeddale and Teviotdale does not appear to have damaged relations between Alexander and David, although it
7520-461: The suspected source of a small number of Scots words, such as lum (derived from Cumbric) meaning "chimney". From the thirteenth century, the Early Scots language spread further into Scotland via the burghs , which were proto-urban institutions first established by King David I . In fourteenth-century Scotland, the growth in prestige of Early Scots and the complementary decline of French made Scots
7614-807: The twentieth-century biographer of James Boswell (1740–1795), described James's view of the use of Scots by his father Alexander Boswell (1706–1782) in the eighteenth century while serving as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland : He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar. However, others did scorn Scots, such as Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals David Hume and Adam Smith , who went to great lengths to get rid of every Scotticism from their writings. Following such examples, many well-off Scots took to learning English through
7708-585: The varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right. The UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Notwithstanding the UK government's and the Scottish Executive's obligations under part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
7802-403: The village lies to the east of Anstruther, and Anstruther Wester correspondingly from Scots wester ('western'). Anstruther-Easter and Anstruther-Wester are separated by a small stream called Dreel Burn. Local tradition states that early in the 12th century, Alexander I of Scotland granted the lands of Anstruther to a William de Candela. However, no records survive of this original grant, and
7896-542: The ward of East Neuk and Landward (of which Anstruther is part) elects three councillors to Fife Council under the single transferable vote system. Prior to Brexit in 2020, Anstruther was part of the Scotland European Parliament constituency. Scots language Scots is a language variety descended from Early Middle English in the West Germanic language family . Most commonly spoken in
7990-517: The year in 2001–2002, was awarded the same prize once again by the Sea Fish Organisation in 2009. Anstruther is home to Scotland's only true-scale model Solar System. The model, which shows the Sun and planets and the distances between them all at the same scale of 1 to ten thousand million, is located mostly in the town centre. It stretches almost 600 m from the Sun to Pluto. Anstruther is close to
8084-477: Was a "quite modern mistake". During the first half of the twentieth century, knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary norms waned, and as of 2006 , there is no institutionalised standard literary form. By the 1940s, the Scottish Education Department 's language policy was that Scots had no value: "it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as
8178-461: Was completed in 1872. Herring fishing remained a feature of the area until the mid-20th century when, after a record catch in 1936, the shoals mysteriously declined until the industry effectively disappeared by 1947. At one time, the town was well served by trains on the Fife Coast Railway . The line was closed to passengers in 1965. In the summer of 2018 a decision by Fife Council to build
8272-652: Was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England. When William Flower , an English herald , spoke with Mary of Guise and her councillors in 1560, they first used the "Scottyshe toung" . As he found this hard to understand, they switched into her native French. King James VI , who in 1603 became James I of England , observed in his work Some Reulis and Cautelis to Be Observit and Eschewit in Scottis Poesie that "For albeit sindrie hes written of it in English, quhilk
8366-419: Was later involved in a revolt against David I in the 1130s. He was imprisoned at Roxburgh for many years afterwards, perhaps until his death sometime after 1157. Alexander was, like his brothers Edgar and David, a notably pious king. He was responsible for foundations at Scone and Inchcolm , the latter founded in thanks for his survival of a tempest at sea nearby. He had the two towers built which flanked
8460-415: Was not enough linguistic self-awareness amongst the Scottish populace, with people still thinking of themselves as speaking badly pronounced, grammatically inferior English rather than Scots, for an accurate census to be taken. The GRO research concluded that "[a] more precise estimate of genuine Scots language ability would require a more in-depth interview survey and may involve asking various questions about
8554-453: Was the fifth son of Malcolm III and his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Edward Ætheling, a prince of the pre-conquest English royal house. He succeeded his brother, King Edgar , and his successor was his brother David . He was married to Sybilla of Normandy , an illegitimate daughter of Henry I of England . Alexander was the fifth (some sources say fourth) son of Malcolm III and his wife Margaret of Wessex , grandniece of Edward
8648-432: Was the notion of "Scottishness" itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume , defined themselves as Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed union. Nevertheless, Scots was still spoken across a wide range of domains until the end of the eighteenth century. Frederick Pottle ,
8742-491: Was translated into Scots by Rab Wilson and published in 2004. Alexander Hutchison has translated the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s, Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of Tartuffe by Molière . J. K. Annand translated poetry and fiction from German and Medieval Latin into Scots. The strip cartoons Oor Wullie and The Broons in the Sunday Post use some Scots. In 2018, Harry Potter and
8836-652: Was unpopular in some quarters. A Gaelic poem laments: It's bad what Malcolm's son has done, dividing us from Alexander; he causes, like each king's son before, the plunder of stable Alba. The dispute over the eastern marches does not appear to have caused lasting trouble between Alexander and Henry of England. In 1114, he joined Henry on campaign in Wales against Gruffudd ap Cynan of Gwynedd . Alexander's marriage with Henry's illegitimate daughter Sybilla of Normandy may have occurred as early as 1107, or as late as 1114. William of Malmesbury 's account attacks Sybilla, but
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