began to emerge, orthography and phonology had diverged significantly from that of Northern Middle English. Phonology The Early Scots vowel system (c 1375) The major differences to contemporary southern English are the outcome of Anglo-Saxon as , the distribution of the unchanged Anglo-Saxon and from Anglo-Saxon . The Scandinavian-influenced in words such as birk (birch), brekis (breeches), brig (bridge), kirk (church), kist (chest), mekil (much) and rig (ridge), and the retention of Germanic in words such as lowp (leap), cowp (cf. cheap, to trade) and nowt (cattle). Literature Sample text Renunciation by Alexander Lindsay, knight, Lord of Glenesk, of certain lands, in favour of Margaret Countess of Marr and her sister Elizabeth. 12 March 1379. Notes See also History of the Scots language Phonological history of the Scots language Dictionary of the Scots Language References A History of Scots to 1700 in A Dictionary of Older Scots Vol. 12. Oxford University Press 2002. Aitken, A.J. (1977) How to Pronounce Older Scots in Bards and Makars. Glasgow, Glasgow University Press. Aitken, A.J. (2002) Macafee C. (Ed) The Older Scots Vowels: A History of the Stressed Vowels of Older Scots From the Beginnings to the Eighteenth century. Edinburgh, The Scottish Text Society. Jones, Charles (1997) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language. Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh Press. Slater, J. (1952) 'An edition of Early Scots texts from the beginnings to 1410', Dissertation, 2 Vols, University of Edinburgh. External links Dictionary of the Scots Language Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd Reading Older Scots Teaching Package The Scottish Text Society Scots language Scots, Early Scotland in the High Middle Ages Scotland in the Late Middle Ages