An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language / in which the words are explained in their different senses, authorized by the names of the writers by whom they are used, or the titles of the works in which they occur, and deduced from their originals

by John Jamieson

The letter A has, in the Scottish language, four different sounds:

1. A broad, as in E. all, wall. U is often added, as in cald, cold, written also cauld; and sometimes w; both as marks of the prolongation of the sound.

2. A short, in lak, mak, tak, S. as in last, past, E.

3. A open, in dad, daddie, a father, and some other words, S. as in E. read pret., ready adj.

4. A slender or close, in lane, alane, alone, mane, moan, S. like face, place, E. The monosyllables have generally, although not always, a final e quiescent.

A is used in many words instead of o in E.; as ane, bane, lang, sang, stane, for one, bone, long, song, stone. For the Scots preserve nearly the same orthography with the Anglo-Saxons, which the English have abandoned. Thus the words last mentioned were written in A. S. an, ban, lang, sang, stan. In some of the northern counties, as in Angus and Mearns, the sound of ee or ei prevails, instead of ai, in various words of this formation. Ane, bane, stane, &c. are pronounced ein, bein, stein, after the manner of the Germans, who use each of these terms in the same sense.

When this letter is written with an apostrophe, as a', it is meant to intimate that the double l is cut off, according to the pronunciation of Scotland. But this is merely of modern use.

A is sometimes prefixed to words, both in S. and old E., where it makes no alteration of the sense; as abade, delay, which has precisely the same meaning with bade. This seems to have been borrowed from the A.S., in which language abidan and bidan are perfectly synonymous, both simply signifying, to remain, to tarry.

A, in composition, sometimes signifies on; as agrufe, on the grufe or belly, S.; Isl. a grufu, cernuè, pronè. Johnson thinks that a, in the composition of such E. words as aside, afoot, asleep, is sometimes contracted from at. But these terms are unquestionably equivalent to on side, on foot, on sleep; on being used, in the room of a, by ancient writers.

A is used, by our oldest writers, in the sense of one. The signification is more forcible than that of the indefinite article in English; for it denotes, not merely an individual, where there may be many, or one in particular, but one exclusively of others, in the same sense in which ae is vulgarly used.