Self-identifying as British (was: UKer)

[Robin Hamilton]

Thanks for this clarification, Damien.  I went to your project website as
you suggested, and zeroed in on what seemed most pertinent to the issues you
raise in your post -- http://www.socresonline.org.uk/5/2/kiely.html --
though I haven't managed to read it yet.  The whole idea of such a focused
study of the Borders sounds great.

I suppose it isn't that surprising that citizens (not subjects) of the
Debatable Lands should still have identity problems when it comes to the
country whose laws bind them.  Johnny Armstrong tried to play that card lo
these many years ago, and much good it did him.

Robin

(No longer, apparently, subject to Elizabeth the I and II)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Damien Hall" <damien.hall at YORK.AC.UK>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2011 4:27 PM
Subject: Self-identifying as British (was: UKer)


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Damien Hall <damien.hall at YORK.AC.UK>
> Subject:      Self-identifying as British (was: UKer)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's not quite true that the only UKers to self-identify as British are
> the
> Northern Irish.
>
> That's actually an important question in the project I currently work on,
> Accent and Identity on the Scottish-English Border (our website is in my
> signature, the one ending in 'aiseb', if you're interested). We are
> working
> in four towns on the English-Scottish border, two on each side, and at one
> point ask interviewees about their personal identity, and give them a list
> of adjectives to choose between and rank according to how they feel about
> themselves: 'Scottish' or 'English' depending on the town, 'British',
> 'European', 'Borderer', an adjective describing origin from that town
> ('Berwicker' etc), and an adjective describing origin from their part of
> their nation ('Northerner' etc). People can choose any of these that are
> important to them, and have to place them along a line from 'Most
> important' to 'Least important'. We find that a significant number of
> people don't include 'British', but by no means all of them - so a good
> number of English and Scottish people on the border do self-identify as
> British these days.
>
> Alas, it's also no longer true that citizens of the UK are referred to as
> 'UK subjects' - not since 1983:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_subject#After_1983
>
> There is one very restricted category of people who are still subjects,
> but
> the mere fact of being a citizen of this particular monarchy doesn't make
> one a subject any more, as once it did.
>
> Damien
>
> --
> Damien Hall
>
> Accent and Identity on the Scottish-English Border
> Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York
>
> Tel. +44 (0)1904 322665
> Fax  +44 (0)1904 322673
>
> http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb
> http://www.york.ac.uk/language/staff/academic-research/damien-hall/
> http://www.york.ac.uk/hrc/
>
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