ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses translations from English into Scots as a contested form of intralingual translation. The status of English-Scots translation depends on whether the latter is considered a dialect of the former; if considered as independent languages, English-Scots translations would be “interlingual”. This chapter affirms the legitimate aspirations of many writers in Scots to accord their medium the status of independent language, while acknowledging that the historical and social development of Scots over the past 700 years means that English-Scots translation bears many of the characteristics of intralingual translation, namely shared origins in Old English, and high mutual intelligibility in the present day. However, the status of Scots as a separate language has been disputed historically, with the result that two strong motivations for translation from English into Scots have been to assert its autonomy and to raise literacy levels in Scots amongst the reading population.
