The origins of tartan are inextricably linked with the origins of the Scottish nation. Evidence suggests that striped and checked materials were used for hundreds of years by the Celtic peoples who lived in what would become modern Scotland. But tartan really emerges from the shadows with the arrival on these shores from Ireland of the Scoti tribe in the fifth century. Not only would they give Scotland its name, but they would also bequeath tartan as an everyday garment and as a symbol of identity.
格子呢的起源不可避免地与苏格兰民族的起源密切相关。有证据显示，几百年来，现代苏格兰人的祖先凯尔特人就一直使用着条纹与格子花纹的材料。事实上，格子呢真正出现在人们面前是公元5世纪，由来自爱尔兰的斯科蒂部落带来。他们不仅命名了苏格兰，还将格子呢作为日常服装以及民族的象征一代一代传下来。
The check used by the Scoti was very basic. But as time evolved, so did the intricacies of clan tartan. The number of stripes on the cloth came to indicate rank and the weave became associated with different clans in different parts of the country, especially the Highlands and Islands. Variations of pattern, even within the same clan, continued until the beginning of the seventeenth century when these patterns or setts became standardised.
方格图案是斯科蒂人生活中最基础的一部分。但随着时代的进步，部落花纹格子呢也在不断变化中。衣服面料上的条纹数量来显示级别，不同的织法暗示不同区域里的不同部落，尤其是苏格兰高地和岛屿地区。即使在同一个部落里，格子呢样式也不尽相同，直到17世纪初，这些样式才逐渐统一。
Tartan is recognized the world over as being associated with Scotland. Though people across the globe have woven material with a striped pattern running warp and weft , only in Scotland has it taken on such a strong cultural significance , to the point where a system has developed of wearing tartans to represent one's clan, family, or place of origin.
格子呢被全世界公认为苏格兰的代表物。尽管全世界的人们都在使用横竖交叉的条纹编织面料，但是只在苏格兰，这种面料才具有重大的文化意义。在苏格兰，格子呢服装可以展现出一个人的宗族、家族或是起源地。
The Scottish dress is called kilt in Scottish. The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, mostly often made of woolen cloth in a tartan pattern, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly.
苏格兰裙在苏格兰当地被称之为“基尔特”。“基尔特”由带有格子的呢子制成，长度及膝，后部有褶皱。它是16世纪苏格兰高地男性的传统服饰。自19世纪以来，人们将它与广泛的苏格兰文化，甚至更广义上的凯尔特文化遗产联系起来。
The kilt first appeared as the great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak draped over the shoulder, or brought up over the head. The small kilt, also known as the walking kilt was invented by Thomas Rawlinson from Lancashire sometime in the 1720s for the use of the Highlanders he employed in logging, charcoal manufacture and iron smelting, for which the belted plaid was "cumbersome and unwieldy".
基尔特最早是以大基尔特形式出现的，即长裙，裙子的上半部分可以作为斗篷披在肩上或盖在头上。小基尔特，也叫行走基尔特，由兰开夏郡的托马斯·罗林森在18世纪20年代发明，供他雇用的苏格兰高地人使用，他们从事伐木、煤矿生产、生铁冶炼工作。因为工人们穿着带束带的大基尔特工作起来非常的“笨重与不便”。
