Scots/Scotch

[Genevra Gerhart]

And especially not a (expletive deleted) foreigner.

Genevra Gerhart
 
ggerhart at comcast.net
 
www.genevragerhart.com
www.russiancommonknowledge.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of William Ryan
Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 10:11 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] 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?
>   

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