Investigating spelling change and Anglicization in Scots correspondence

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore what extra-linguistic variables, if any, conditioned a Scottish letter-writer’s spelling choice during a time of increased influence from the emerging (southern) English standard. This is done by examining the effect of three predictor variables on orthographic variant usage for three Older Scots (OSc) features in 16th–18thC Scottish correspondence. Crucially, OSc never fully achieved forming a standard spelling system in the way that English did. The 16th–18thC especially represents a unique time for OSc during which, due to various events increasing Southern English influence, Scots underwent anglicization. As a result, by the end of the period, emblematic Scots features were eventually replaced by English spelling practices. These changes may represent simply an orthographic change, but perhaps they are representative of changes to pronunciation.

Scots orthographic change is a vastly under-researched field warranting further explanation and this thesis aims to contribute to establishing a clearer picture of the influences that determined variant selection during this period of anglicization. Using data from the Helsinki Corpus of Scottish Correspondence (1540–1750, Meurman-Solin & VARIENG 2017), I analyze the influence of three variables on variant selection: writer gender, audience, and region. I explore the effect of these predictors within three case-studies, each looking at an emblematic Scots feature. These features are Sibilant Interchange (e.g., sal > shall), Q-W (e.g., quhilk > which), and etymological /x/ and /xt/ (e.g., nicht > night). The analyses are informed in part by statistical models, specifically generalized linear models.

The findings of these studies are most insightful regarding writer gender, where women were found to be ahead in the change to the incoming spelling variant. This is especially interesting as it aligns more with the previous studies on English—where women were more innovative in the selection of variants—than with those on Scots, which found women to be more conservative. Ultimately, writer gender and region were found to be better predictors of variant selection than audience gender.