Quhilk infekkis the flesche, blude, and banys.
[§ 190]. In the way of orthography, the most characteristic difference between the English and Scotch is the use, on the part of the latter, of qu for wh; as quhen, quhare, quhat, for when, where, what. The substitution of sch for sh (as scho for she), and of z for the Old English ȝ (as zour for ȝeowr, your), is as much northern English as Scotch.
In pronunciation, the substitution of d for ð (if not a point of spelling), as in fader for father; of a for o, as báith for both; of s for sh, as sall for shall; and the use of the guttural sound of ch, as in loch, nocht, are the same.
The ejection of the n before t, or an allied sound, and the lengthening of the preceding vowel, by way of compensation, as in begouth for beginneth, seems truly Scotch. It is the same change that in Greek turns the radical syllable ὀδοντ into ὀδούς.
The formation of the plural of verbs in -s, rather than in -th (the Anglo-Saxon form), is Northern English as well as Scotch:—Scotch, slepys, lovys; Northern English, slepis, lovis; Old English, slepen, loven; Anglo-Saxon slepiað, lufiað.
The formation of the plural number of the genitive case by the addition of the syllable -is (blastis, birdis, bloomis), instead of the letter -s (blasts, birds, blooms), carries with it a metrical advantage, inasmuch as it gives a greater number of double rhymes.
The same may be said of the participial forms, affrayit, assurit, for affrayd, assured.
Concerning the comparative rate of change in the two languages no general assertion can be made. In the Scotch words sterand, slepand, &c., for steering, sleeping, the form is antiquated, and Anglo-Saxon rather than English. It is not so, however, with the words thai (they), thaim (them), thair (their), compared with the contemporary words in English, heo, hem, heora. In these it is the Scottish that is least, and the English that is most Anglo-Saxon.