The idea of this work first occurred to one of the authors, Dr James Main Dixon, in the course of his experience in lecturing on Scottish Literature to his students in the University of Southern California. He felt the need of a book to which he could refer them for details of Scottish Grammar and Pronunciation, which he could employ, in class, for the recitation of our literary masterpieces, and which the students themselves, after they left the University, could use either for purposes of declamation or teaching.
The book is divided into three parts.
Part I - Grammar - describes the sounds of Modern Scots with examples of their use written in the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association.
Part II - Grammar - contrasts Scots Grammar with Standard English usage and gives copious illustrations from Modern Scottish Literature.
Part III - Works consists of a series of extracts from Modern Scots writers and a selection of ballads and songswith phonetic transcriptions. Most of these transcriptions are in Standard Scottish Speech (see Introduction, p. xxi); Extracts XIIA, XIIIA, XVIA, XVIIA, IXB, XIVB, may be described as Standard Scottish with local colour; Extracts VII A, XIVA, XXA, XXIIA, XXIVA, are intended to represent the exact speech of definite sub-dialects.
December, 1920