The SCOTS Corpus of Texts and Speech is an online resource featuring nearly 4.6 million words of text, with audio recordings to accompany many of the spoken texts. The languages featured are Scots, English and Gaelic.

You can use the ‘Browse’ feature to look for examples of text with video or audio.

You can also use the ‘Search’ feature to search for a Scots word or phrase; audio or text from a particular region; or examples of spoken language only. You can add the necessary parameters to your search to make the search as broad or specific as necessary.

For example:

Click here to see the search results for the Scots word ‘bide’;

Click here to see the search results for the Scots word ‘fae’ in written language between 1995 – 2004;

Click here to see the search results for male speakers and the use of the Scots word ‘hing’ in spoken language.

Texts which are notable for their use of Scots include:

Prose fiction:

All that Glisters by Anne Donovan (written text only)

Better Ower Yer Thrapple by Robert Fairnie (written text only)

Prose (non-fiction):

Article for the Shetland Times- An apology to Shetland knitters by Christine De Luca (written text only)

Scots – in Scots by Billy Kay (written text only)

Poetry:

Chuddy by Sheena Blackall (written text only)

Sorry by Wendy de Rusett (written text only)

Conversations (all with transcript and audio):

Glasgow woman on childhood memories

Fife couple on shared memories

Three Ayrshire sisters reminiscing

Couple from Auchenblae talking about local varieties of language

Three Shetland women on gardening in Scotland

Buckie - Mother and child 02, recording 3: jigsaws and animal dominoes