It has had a history of considerable interest. Down to
the time of Chaucer, whose influence had much to do with making the
Midland dialect the literary standard for the Southern kingdom, it is
difficult to distinguish the written language of Edinburgh from that
of York, both being developments of Northumbrian. But as English
writers tended more and more to conform to the standard of London,
Northern Middle English gradually ceased to be written; while in
Scotland, separated and usually hostile as it was politically, the
Northern speech continued to develop along its own lines, until in the
beginning of the sixteenth century it attained a form more remote from
standard English and harder for the modern reader than it had been a
century before. The close connection between Scotland and France,
continuing down to the time of Queen Mary, led to the introduction of
many French words which never found a place in English; the proximity
of the Highlands made Gaelic borrowings easy; and the Scandinavian
settlements on both coasts contributed additional elements to the
vocabulary. Further, in its comparative isolation, Scots developed or
retained peculiarities in grammar and pronunciation unknown or lost in
the South. Thus by 1550, the form of English spoken in Scotland was in
a fair way to become an independent language.
This process, however, was rudely halted by the Reformation. The
triumph of this movement in England and its comparative failure in
France threw Scotland, when it became Protestant, into close relations
with England, while the "auld Alliance" with France practically ended
when Mary of Scots returned to her native country.
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