Transactions. 49 



Along with these accounts there is a note or order which 

 shews the manner in which they were incurred. The order 

 is addressed for Brjce Blair and signed Ka. Douglas. 



" We like your wine so well that the Laird has ordered 

 me to desire you to send with the bearer half a dozen bottles. 

 Dispatch our man quickly. Being in haste, I am your very 

 real friend." 



Notes on the Scottish Language. By Jas. Starke, 

 F.S.A. Scot. 



An enquiry into the formation or development of the 

 Scottish language is beset with difficulties ; and any attempt 

 at its elucidation may be acceptable. 



In this view I have been induced to throw together some 

 notes on the subject ; and, assuming that the Scottish 

 language is affiliated with the English, my object in the pre- 

 sent paper will be, in the first place, to point out some ten- 

 dencies of pronunciation in the one which appear to be 

 largely developed in the other. 



What I more particularly refer to is the suppression of 

 .•some letters in utterance or pronunciation. And the first to 

 be here noticed is the suppression of the letter L. 



Mr Walker, the lexicographer and orthoepist, in his re- 

 marks on the different letters of the Alphabet, gives, under the 

 letter I, a short list of the words in which that letter is mute, 

 and then says the same letter is mute also between a and k in 

 the same syllable, and between a and w in the same S3-Ilalile ; 

 but in this 1; tter case he has qualifications and directions. 

 He then goes in to say that the letter I is always suppressed 

 in the auxiliary verbs could, would, and should. But that 

 to suppress it in the word fault is, he says, vulgar ; and to 

 call a soldier a soger, is far from being the most correct pro- 

 nunciation. 



