The Scottish Vowel Length Rule in Present-Day Scots and Scottish Standard English
Although there have been some dissenters (see Agutter 1988a, b), most commentators on Scots and SSE phonology, including Abercrombie (1979), McClure (1977), Aitken (1981), Lass (1974), Wells (1982) and Jones (1997b), assume SVLR to be operative in these varieties today. Lass (1974: 316), for instance, notes that `It is well known that most modern Scots (i.e. Scottish English ... ) dialects display a type of vocalic organization radically different from that of non-Scots dialects', while for Wells (1982: 398), `The Scottish vowel system is clearly distinct typologically from the vowel systems of all other accents of English (except the related Ulster) ... .There are no long-short oppositions of the kind found in other accents.'

Although there may be general agreement that SVLR applies in Modern Scots, it is less clear how, where, and to what it applies. The purpose is therefore to survey the experimental and theoretical literature on SVLR, and to provide as complete a statement as possible of its input, environment of operation, and interaction with other rules. We return to the history of SVLR, and the question of how it has come to be implemented as a lexical phonological rule in Modern Scots and SSE.