Scots is the
Germanic language variety spoken in
Lowland Scotland and parts of
Ulster (where the local dialect is known as
Ulster Scots). It is sometimes called
Lowland Scots to distinguish it from
Scottish Gaelic, the
Celtic language spoken in most of the western
Highlands and in the
Hebrides.
Since there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing
languages from
dialects, scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots. Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects do exist, these often render contradictory results. Focused broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum, with
Scottish Standard English at the other. Consequently, Scots is generally regarded as one of the ancient varieties of
English, yet it has its own distinct dialects. Alternatively, Scots is sometimes treated as a distinct
Germanic language, in the way
Norwegian is closely linked to, yet distinct from,
Danish.
A 2010
Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards the Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals being a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", but it also found that "the most frequent speakers are least likely to agree that it is not a language (58%) and those never speaking Scots most likely to do so (72%)". In the 2011 Scottish census, a question on Scots language ability was featured.