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Scottish people

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Scottish people

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Also known as Scots

Celtic-Germanic ethnic group native to Scotland

AI overview

Scottish people are an ethnic group native to Scotland with Celtic and Germanic heritage. They are significant because Scotland is a distinct nation with its own culture, history, and identity within the United Kingdom.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of
ethnic group
Languages spoken
Scottish Gaelic
Image
Massed bands.jpg
Show 3 more facts
Commons category
People of Scotland
topic's main category
Category:Scottish people
ancestral home
Scotland
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~39 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Scottish people or Scots (Scots: Scots fowk; Scottish Gaelic: Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or Alba) in the 9th century. In the following two centuries, Celtic-speaking Cumbrians of Strathclyde and Germanic-speaking Angles of Northumbria became part of Scotland. In the High Middle Ages, during the 12th-century Davidian Revolution, small numbers of Norman nobles migrated to the Lowlands. In the 13th century, the Norse-Gaels of the Western Isles became part of Scotland, followed by the Norse of the Northern Isles in the 15th century.

In modern usage, "Scottish people" or "Scots" refers to anyone whose linguistic, cultural, family ancestral or genetic origins are from Scotland. The Latin word Scoti originally referred to the Gaels, but came to describe all inhabitants of Scotland. Considered pejorative by some, the term Scotch has also been used for Scottish people, now primarily outwith Scotland.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Scottish people” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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