what does scottish people speak?
English Language
entailment
 Scotland has three officially recognised languages : English , Scots , and Scottish Gaelic . Scottish Standard English , a variety of English as spoken in Scotland , is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum , with broad Scots at the other . Scottish Standard English may have been influenced to varying degrees by Scots . The 2011 census indicated that 63 % of the population had " no skills in Scots " . Others speak Highland English . Gaelic is mostly spoken in the Western Isles , where a large proportion of people still speak it ; however , nationally its use is confined to just 1 % of the population . The number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland dropped from 250 @,@ 000 in 1881 to 60 @,@ 000 in 2008 . 

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 The Gaelic Language ( Scotland ) Act was enacted by the Scottish Parliament in 2005 to provide continuing support for the language . However , by 2011 the overall percentage of Gaelic speakers in the Outer Hebrides had fallen to 52 % . 

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 The population of Scotland in this period is unknown . The first reliable information in 1755 shows the inhabitants of Scotland as 1 @,@ 265 @,@ 380 . Best estimates put the Scottish population for earlier periods in the High Middle Ages between 500 @,@ 000 and 1 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 people , growing from a low point to a high point . Linguistically , the majority of people within Scotland throughout this period spoke the Gaelic language , then simply called Scottish , or in Latin , lingua Scotica . Other languages spoken throughout this period were Old Norse and English , with the Cumbric language disappearing somewhere between 900 and 1100 . Pictish may have survived into this period , but the evidence is weak . After the accession of David I , or perhaps before , Gaelic ceased to be the main language of the royal court . From his reign until the end of the period , the Scottish monarchs probably favoured the French language , as evidenced by reports from contemporary chronicles , literature and translations of administrative documents into the French language . English , with French and Flemish , became the main language of Scottish burghs . However , they were , in Barrow 's words , " scarcely more than villages ... numbered in hundreds rather than thousands " . 

entailment
 Scots is today considered a separate language from English , but it has its origins in early Northern Middle English and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources , particularly Scots Gaelic and Old Norse . Scots itself has a number of regional dialects . And in addition to Scots , Scottish English are the varieties of Standard English spoken in Scotland , most varieties are Northern English accents , with some influence from Scots . 

entailment
 By the early modern period Gaelic had been in geographical decline for three centuries and had begun to be a second class language , confined to the Highlands and Islands . It was gradually being replaced by Middle Scots , which became the language of both the nobility and the majority population . It was derived substantially from Old English , with Gaelic and French influences . It was called Inglyshe and was very close to the language spoken in northern England , but by the sixteenth century it had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England . From the mid sixteenth century , written Scots was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England . With the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England , most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion . Unlike many of his predecessors , James VI generally despised Gaelic culture . Having extolled the virtues of Scots " poesie " , after his accession to the English throne , he increasingly favoured the language of southern England . In 1611 the Kirk adopted the Authorized King James Version of the Bible . In 1617 interpreters were declared no longer necessary in the port of London because Scots and Englishmen were now " not so far different bot ane understandeth ane uther " . Jenny Wormald , describes James as creating a " three @-@ tier system , with Gaelic at the bottom and English at the top " . 
