Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane is a translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone into the Scottish language known as Scots. It is the first novel by the record-breaking author J.K. Rowling to be translated into the Scots language.
Scots is spoken by more than one and a half million people in Scotland. It is spoken in almost every community by people of all ages. The most famous person ever to write in Scots was the poet Robert Burns who wrote Tam O Shanter and Auld Lang Syne.
When written down, Scots can look a bit like English because Scots and English are sister languages. But while many words are similar, a great deal of the vocabulary of Scots is very different from that of English. It means that anyone who speaks English can understand and read Scots - with a bit of practice and little bit of help.
To offer a helping hand to new readers of Scots, Itchy Coo has prepared a Scots Glossary for some but not all of the Scots words used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane.