Supporters of Scots dialects could push for a more distinct national language from the rest of the UK if Scotland becomes independent, linguistic experts have claimed.

The new report, which aims to predict linguistic trends in the UK over the next fifty years, suggested that Scots is presently on the wane, with dialects spoken across the UK becoming more homogenous.

Urban Scots words such as "bampot", "glaikit" and "clarty" are in decline, the study added, which was co-written by Dr Dominic Watt, a lecturer in forensic speech at the University of York, and dialogue and dialect coach Brendan Gunn.

But the report also claimed that if Scotland became a new state it could see a resurgence in Scots, speculating that "the Scots language lobby would step their efforts up a few gears" to highlight "the separateness of Scotland's culture and heritage".

It noted that Norway developed a more distinctive language in the wake of its breakaway from Denmark in 1814.

The report said: "It seems clear... that the urban Scots spoken in Glasgow is on the wane.

"Surveys of Scottish schoolchildren show that they aren't familiar with many of the Scots words and phrases that their parents and grandparents would use (bampot, clarty, glaikit, stooshie, and thousands of others).

"Some of the dialect words will remain, though it's impossible to say which will survive. Pronunciations like 'gless' (glass),' hame' (home), 'bane' (bone), or 'fit' (foot) may soon come to seem too old-fashioned for young people to use."

It went on: "On the other hand, if a second independence referendum were to go in favour of Scotland's separation from the UK, the picture could be very different in the Glasgow of 2066.

"Because language and identity are so closely tied together, it might be that the Scots language lobby would step their efforts up a few gears, as a way of highlighting the separateness of Scotland's culture and heritage.

"Making the language of the new state seem as distinctive as possible is exactly what the Norwegians did when they split from Denmark a hundred or so years ago."

The researchers added: "One of the big unknowns when trying to map out how languages will develop in the future is the effect of political upheavals."

Other theories in the report on how language will change in the UK between now and 2066 include the general shortening of words and simplification of pronunciations as people strive to make talking easier.

It speculates that "tex" could replace "text", "vexed" could become "vex" and that "think" is becoming "fink".

The report also predicts speech will replace the keyboard as the main way to interact with computers and digital devices, and suggests computers will become so intelligent they could begin introducing words to us.

HSBC commissioned the study to mark the introduction of their voice biometrics security technology for banking.