h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think possibly the article should have started thus.......

Listening to a native Scotsman speak English should give us all a newfound appreciation for the courage of the northern tribes. They managed to stand against the might of the Roman Empire so successfully that a massive defensive wall was the only method of defending against them. This courage also prevented the spread of the English language north.

Fit like are oo ken!

Sorry indeed to correct you, but Hadrian's Wall had absolutely nothing to do with the spread of English.

When the Romans were here, they ruled over the ancient Britons, who were Celts, essentially the ancestors of the Welsh; the Anglo-Saxons didn't arrive until a century or two after the Romans left, coming as Germanic tribes never conquered by Rome. Contemporaneously, many Norsemen settled in various parts of Scotland.

Many of the words claimed as 'Scottish dialect' are in fact widespread around Great Britain and are old English, e g byre.

Get carried away if you want, but do your research first.

Cheers.

Words like Pish are Old English - some kind of slur I think
i.e 'you sire are pish' Still all good fun. Lived in Scotland (Borders) for years when I was young each area has loads of slang I would think - 'Fit' was good looking where I lived and so was the word 'slow' so if someone was 'slow looking' they were also fit. 'Moi' was your mouth and 'Puss' was the whole face in general 'twistin yer puss' stop whinging