The Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics (AMC) draws on, and seeks to continue, a long and distinguished history of over sixty years.

Its roots lie in its immediate predecessor the Institute for Historical Dialectology (IHD), originally founded in 1952 by Angus McIntosh (then the University’s Forbes Professor of English Language and General Linguistics) as the Middle English Dialect Project.

The transition from the IHD to the AMC toward the end of 2013 represents a major initiative intended to increase the visibility of Edinburgh’s contribution to historical linguistics in the research community locally, nationally and internationally.

It implies a broadening of scope, and the transformation of a relatively small research unit into a hub of research activity into any aspect of historical linguistics as well as the study of language change.

In the current, initial phase of the Centre’s research activity the history of Scots figures prominently. In anticipation of this new direction of research, Associated Institution status was awarded to the Scottish Language Dictionaries in 2013.