As initial _sk_, corresponding to O.N. _sk_, O.E. _sc_, is due to Scand. influence, so, in general, medial and final _sk_ may be also so regarded: cp. here Sco. _harsk_, "harsh," _bask_ (adj.), _mensk_, _forjeskit_, etc. The guttural character of _g_ and _k_ in Sco. is not to be regarded as due to Scand. influence. Thus _mirk_, _reek_, _steek_, _streek_, _breek_, _dik, rike_, _sark_, _kirn_, _lig_, _brig_, _rig_, etc., are to be derived from the corresponding O. Nhb. words, not from O.N. There is something of uncertainty in these words, however, as they all could come from the O.N. O.N. _hryggr_, for instance, would become _rig_ in Sco., just as would O. Nhb. _rycg_ (_rygg_). O.N. _bryggia_ would become _brig_, just as well as O. Nhb. _brycg_ (_brygg_). The _i_ after _g_ in _bryggia_ does not hinder this, since, as we know, the O.N. word was pronounced _brygg-ia_, not _bryddja_, as a later form would be. 14. OLD AND MIDDLE SCOTCH. After Chaucer, Northumbrian English became a mere popular dialect no longer represented in literature. But the form of Northumbrian spoken north of the Tweed, Lowland Scotch, has during the next three hundred years quite a different history. From the Scottish war of Independence to the Union of the Crowns, Scotland had its own literary language. It is customary to speak of three periods of Scottish language and literature as Old, Middle and New: Old Scotch extending down to about 1450; Middle Scotch to the Union of the Crowns; and New Scotch covering the period after the Union. This is, of course, simply a Northern and later form of the Northumbrian we have discussed above. 15. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF SCOTCH. O.E. _ă_, _ā_. There are no monuments in O.Sco. dating back to the 13th or first half of the 14th Century. The first of any importance that we have is "The Bruce" of 1375. By this time the language of Scotland had already undergone many changes that made its general character quite different from literary or Midland English. None of these changes tended so much to differentiate the two as the very different development of O.E. long and short _a_. In the south O.E. _a_ > _ē_ (_name_ > _nę̄m_ > _nēm_); but O.E. _ā_ > _ǭ_, later _ō_ (_stān_ > _stǭn_ > _stōne_, _hām_ > _hǭm_ > _hōme_). The change of _ā_ to _ǭ_ (probably about 1200) took place before that of _ă_ to _ā_, else they would have coincided and both developed to _ō_ or _ē_. The last is precisely what took place in Scotland. O. Nhb. _ă_ > _ā_ and early coincided with original _ā_, and along with it developed to later _ē_, as only short _a_ did in the south. The two appear together in rhyme in Barbour. Their graphic representation is _a_, _ai_, _ay_. The sound in Barbour is probably _ǣ_ or _ę̄_. In "Wallace" Fr. _entré_ is also written _entray_, _entra_. Fr. _a_ and _ei_ and Eng. diphthong _ai_ (< _æg_) rhyme regularly with Sco. _a_, _ay_, _ai_, from O.E. _ā_. On O.E. and O.N. _ā_- and M. Sco. _ē_-sounds in general see Curtis, §§1-165.