Originally Posted by
Siestita
A possible explanation--Twelve hundred years ago many people in both England and lowland Scotland spoke what is now called "Old English". That is the language, unintelligible to people now, in which the poem Beowulf was originally written. Since then "English" and "Scottish" (which is not Gaelic) have diverged from their common "Old English" origin, developing into two different, albeit closely related, languages. During the late 1700s the poet Robert Burns wrote poetry in Scottish, including the poem Old Lang Sine (Old Long Since in English). Old Lang Sine is now sung in Scottish, English, and many other languages.