Central Scots is a group of dialects of Scots. Central Scots is spoken from Fife and Perthshire to the Lothians and Wigtownshire, often split into North East Central Scots (Northeast Mid Scots) and South East Central Scots (Southeast Mid Scots), West Central Scots (West Mid Scots) and South West Central Scots (Southwest Mid Scots). Like other varieties of Scots, Central Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations of speakers have adopted more and more features from Standard English. By the end of the twentieth century Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland.<ref>Macafee C. "Studying Scots Vocabulary in Corbett, John; McClure, Derrick; Stuart-Smith, Jane (Editors)(2003) The Edinburgh Companion to Scots. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. . p. 51</ref> Phonology Consonants Most consonants are usually pronounced much as in English but: ch is traditionally realised in, for example, bocht (bought), coch (cough), dochter (daughter), focht (fought), socht (sought ) and troch (trough). ld and nd elision to and occurs in all Central Scots dialects but in the Lothians ‘’ld’’ only simplifies to ‘’l’’ finally where the next word begins with a consonant. ng: is always . nch: usually . brainch (branch), dunch (push), etc. r: or is pronounced in all positions, i.e. rhotically. t: may be a glottal stop between vowels or word final. wh: usually , older . Vowels Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule (SVLR). a (vowel 17) is usually but to the north and east also occurs. Note final a (vowel 12) in awa (away), twa (two) and wha (who) is usually realised South of the Forth, often written awae, twae and whae in dialect writing. aw and au (vowel 12) is usually in the East and parts of Perthshire or in the West to West Lothian, however, is spreading eastwards, for example aw (all), cauld (cold), braw (fine, pleasant), faw (fall) and snaw (snow). ai, ay and a (consonant)e, ae (vowel 4 or 8) are usually realised , for example baith (both), braid (broad), cake, claes (clothes), grape (grope), kail (cole), laid (load), laif (loaf), made, raip (rope), saip (soap), spae (foretell). South of the Forth the initial realisation is often , for example acre, aik (oak), aits, (oats), ale, ane (one) and ance (once) often written yicker, yick, yits, yill, yin and yince in dialect writing. Where that occurs, ae (one-before