Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/11



"Studies," as the title indicates, lay no claim to be a final or exhaustive treatment of the Scots vernacular in respect of its origin, character, and contents. They are the outcome of an early and sustained predilection for the subject, and testify to an interest in it not alone on its linguistic side, but also as illuminating the track of racial culture. The bulk of the matter has, from time to time, appeared in contributions to the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow and to the "Glasgow Herald," to both of which I shall ever owe a debt of gratitude. Its appearance in its present form is due to the support and countenance of the Carnegie Trust, which is doing so much for original research that would otherwise remain little more than a personal hobby.

It would be a scholarly and patriotic task to trace the historical development and decline of the Scots vernacular, and to base, on an analysis of its literary remains on the one hand and of its living usages on the other, a scientific statement of its morphology and phonology, and of its affinities and characteristics. But I have contented myself with opening up, in independent fashion, suggestive lines of investigation, and with the recording of words and features now fast passing out of recognition. Within the peculiarly debatable sphere of the history of the words referred to, the interpretations offered are tentative and in no sense final. The text was first completed from my own point of view and resources, but I have taken the opportunity in the "Glossary" of checking all such statements, and frankly indicating any divergence these present from the conclusions of recognised authorities. It is hoped that the text will be read in the light of this annotated "Glossary."

Though the work has been presented in a series of "Studies," it is hoped that the reader will not fail to see in the whole a unity of design. Nothing has been introduced which had not naturally a place within the central theme—the antiquity, continuity and persistency of the Scots vernacular. With this principle in view such apparently remotely connected subjects as Aryan Culture and the Gothic Gospels have been treated at length. The former places the Scots vernacular within the