The fourth of the main Scots dialects is known as Southern Scots. The region covers much of the traditional Scottish Borders. It also has the peculiarity of being both a main and sub dialect at the same time and is one of the smallest dialects.

At a basic level it is readily distinguished from all the other dialects by its vowel sounds, some of which are sometimes considered more like English than Scots. In other ways, though, it has much to distinguish it. Until the 17th century the people of this region were in many ways a society apart from the rest of Scotland and home to the culture of the Border Reivers.