How is Scots its own language and not just a dialect?
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An initial point is Scots is not the same as Scottish English. What you usually hear people speak in Scottland is Scottish English and it is a dialect of English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language is spoken by some where between 1.5 million and 100,000 depending on how you ask the question. This is out of 5.4 million people living in Scotland
You can hear example and see how it differs from English at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X5zX3yVoiQ
There is a saying that “A language is a dialect with an army and navy”. It shows that was is language or a dialect is quite arbitrary and is in large part a result of politics.
Scottland was an independent country. It merge with England with Acts of Union of 1707. So if people back then consider it a separate language it can continue to this day.
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