Writing the history of any language is a daunting task. The question is often not what should be placed in the work as what needs to be left out. This task becomes more daunting when dealing with a language, like Scots, which is patchily recorded at times and is used by all speakers alongside a much more overtly prestigious and closely related language. As I say below, therefore, I made the decision early on that I would separate (wherever this is possible) the sociolinguistic from the linguistic history of Scots. It may be that readers find this unwieldy; at times at least they are likely to be right. In my view, however, to attempt to provide a single (and apparently seamless) narrative for both aspects of change may be factitious on this occasion.
