Scots/Scotch/Irish

[Deborah Hoffman]

I know I'm going to regret asking this, but what does Irish as a pejorative mean? And how might one use it? 
 
I'm thinking of the "certain ethnic" jokes I grew up with, most of which are now irrelevant due to assimilation rather than political correctness and wondering whether Irish was not in there because the assimilation had occurred earlier.
 
Incidentally in the Cleveland area the group that was designated to carry the "cheap" stereotype (besides, of course, the Jews) are the Slovenians, for some inexplicable reason. I suppose everywhere there is this need to split up human characteristics and associate them with some "other" group.
 
 
------------------------------
>Date:    Sun, 7 Dec 2008 18:10:54 +0000
>From:    William Ryan <wfr at SAS.AC.UK>
>Subject: Re: Scots/Scotch
>
>A nice point, but not really an analogy since it is a matter of regional 
>preferences within a single language (more or less). Whether or not you 
>would risk referring to a Scot as Scotch to his face might depend on how 
>much Scotch you both had taken. My own feeling is that in the UK Scotch 
>is actually a little archaic nowadays and Scot, Scottish are more 
>common. I am not sure why the Scots dislike Scotch as a word - there is 
>no obvious connection with the stinginess reputation, which also applies 
>to Yorkshiremen. Perhaps the verb 'to scotch' is part of it but even 
>that is not as potentially offensive as the verb 'to welsh', which 
>caused a rumpus in Parliament a year or two ago, but has not forced the 
>equally sensitive Welsh to seek a distinctive form of their name. Nor 
>has 'Irish' as pejorative adjective made the Irish call themselves 
>anything different, although I have on occasion felt obliged to make 
>sarcastic rejoinders.
>Who is master over English terminology? No one yet, thank God.
>Will Ryan
>>E Wayles Browne wrote:
>> This is, of course, a Slavic discussion list, but there is a similar
>> case of competing terms in the English language, which it might be
>> instructive to consider.
>>
>> A traditional term for a person from Scotland is Scotch (pl. and adj.),
>> Scotchman (masc. sg.). Many people from Scotland nowadays urge other
>> English-speakers to use Scots (pl. and adj)., Scot or Scotsman (masc.
sg.),
>> and even say that Scotch is archaic except when applied to whiskey and
>> in some other fixed phrases.
>>
>> It doesn't seem archaic to me. But one reason the people themselves
>might
>>  take exception to "Scotch(man)" is the traditional derogatory
association
>> that other English-speakers have between Scotch people and stinginess.
>>
>> Who, then, is to be master over English terminology? Shall I defer to
>> the preferences of a person who would rather be called a Scot or a
>> Scotsman, or shall I regard such deference as unnecessary political
>> correctness, and still refer to him as Scotch if I feel like it?
>>   

Deborah Hoffman
M.A. Program in Russian > English Translation
Modern and Classical Language Studies
Kent State University

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