Page:The dialect of the southern counties of Scotland - Murray - 1873.djvu/42

28 To the Scottish philologer this dialect is of importance in more respects than one. Not only does the aphasresis of initial th illustrate the similar forms in some Scottish dialects, but the same (or a similar) Celtic influence which has changed the hwo, hwose, hwat, hwan, hware, of Strongbow's English followers into fo, fose, faad, fan, far, has changed the hwa, hwas, hwat, hwan, hwar, of the Angles and Flemings of the north-east, and Norwegians of the north, into the faa, faa's, fat, fan, faar of Aberdeen, Caithness, Angus, and Moray. The same (or a similar) influence which has in Barony Forth produced loane, hoane, sthoan, eiloane from the old Southern English lond, hond, stond, ilond, has in Scotland produced laan, haan, staan', hielan's, wherever the Teutonic has come in peaceful contact with the Celtic, the original land, hand, stand, heelands, being retained in the old Angle area of the south-east. There is therefore as much to be said for the Celtic as for the Norse influence in at; and what has been shown with regard to at, may mutatis mutandis be shown, I believe, of much else that passes as Danish.

§ 11. From the fourteenth century onwards, Scotland presents a full series of writers in the Northern dialect, which, as spoken