. u, v and w were often interchanged. After -ch and -th, some scribes affixed a pleonastic final -t (-cht, -tht); this was unpronounced. The word ane represented the numeral ane as well as the indefinite article an and a, and was pronounced similar to Modern Scots usage. For example, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis was pronounced . The verbal noun (gerund) -yng (-ing) differentiated itself from the present participle -and , in Middle Scots, for example —-the motto of the Gordon Highlanders. Both the verbal noun and present participle had generally merged to by 1700. Phonology The development of Middle Scots vowels: The Scottish Vowel Length Rule is assumed to have come into being between the early Middle Scots and late Middle Scots period. Here vowel length is conditioned by phonetic and morphemic environment. The affected vowels tended to be realised fully long in end-stressed syllables before voiced oral continuants except , in hiatus, before word or morpheme boundaries and before and . The major differences to contemporary southern English were the now well established early merger of with (dey 'die', ley 'lie'), early 15th century l-vocalisation where (except intervocalically and before ), and usually merged with , and , medial and final was lost (deil 'devil', ser 'serve'). The Great Vowel Shift occurred partially, and remained unaffected, became , , , and became , , and . Literature Sample text This is an excerpt from Nicol Burne's anti-reformation pamphlet Of the praying in Latine (1581): See also History of the Scots language Phonological history of the Scots language Dictionary of the Scots Language References Further reading 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. Jones C. (ed) The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh Press. External links Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd The Palaeography of Scottish Documents 1500 - 1750 Reading Older Scots Teaching Package The Scottish Text Society Scots Scots language Scots, Middle