List of Abbreviations List of other symbols Acknowledgments Introduction: Scotland, Scottish English, Scots and SSE – a unique situation in the anglophone world. 1.1 Scottish Gaelic 1.2 Scots 1.3 (Scottish Standard) English 1.4 The relationship between Scots and (Scottish Standard) English 2. Vowel duration in English: Scotland and beyond. 2.1 Aitken’s Law and the VE 2.2 Segmental factors 2.3 Suprasegmental factors 2.4 Summary 3. Methodology: Investigating vowel duration in the 21st century 3.1 The sample. 3.2 Data preparation 3.2.1 Data preparation of ICE Scotland 3.2.2 Data preparation of self-collected datasets 3.3 Data analysis 3.3.1 Vowel selection 3.3.2 Variable selection 3.3.3 Statistical analysis 3.4 Summary 4. Findings: Vowel overview 4.1 Summary 5. Findings: The short monophthongs of contemporary Scottish Standard English 5.1 KIT 5.2 STRUT 5.3 DRESS 5.4 Summary 6. Findings: The long monophthongs of contemporary Scottish Standard English 6.1 GOOSE 6.2 FLEECE 6.3 THOUGHT 6.4 FACE 6.5 GOAT 6.6 CAT 6.7 Summary 7. Findings: The diphthongs of contemporary Scottish Standard English 7.1 MOUTH 7.2 PRICE 7.3 CHOICE 7.4 Summary 8. Widening the perspective on Scottish vowel duration patterns 8.1 Aitken’s Law and the VE in 21st century spoken SSE 8.2 Sociolinguistic variation 8.3 The influence of prosodic factors Conclusion: Aitken's Law in Contemporary Scotland: Current Findings and Future Directions References