HISTORY AND PRESENT POSITION OF ENGLISH IN SCOTLAND.

The paper deals with a complex situation of English in Scotland. Basically, the English of Scotland is Scottish Standard English (SSE), just as Received Pronunciation might be assumed to be the English of England and General American the English of the USA. However, SSE forms just one end of a continuum at the other end of which lies Broad Scots. There is not a uniform view upon Scots; some claim it to be a separate language, others find it only a dialect of English. The paper seeks to describe the outlines of the situation in Scotland as the discussion has been very limited within English Studies in the Czech Republic. To be able to fully appreciate the problems concerned, a brief historical review is necessary. The present day matters, such as language planning, are discussed in the latter part of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]