Sociolinguistic Parallels across Europe

Comparisons of the linguistic situation established by English and Scots in Lowland Scotland with other situations constituted by pairs of closely cognate languages has become a popular approach in the field of Scots studies. Closely cognate East Slavic languages, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, can provide abundant material for observation in this respect. Four chapters of this book focus on the major historical and sociolinguistic parallels between Scots on the one hand and Ukrainian and Belarusian on the other, and compare the key stages and trends in their social history from the Middle Ages to the present day. Two other chapters deal with the Russian toponyms derived from Scottish personal names in the territory of the former Russian Empire. Such place-names constitute a noteworthy part of the Scottish legacy in Russia. The final chapter considers a striking example of parallel lexical development in Shetland Norn and Old Russian which may shed more light on the universally recognized etymologies.