Self-identifying as British (was: UKer)

Tue Feb 8 03:00:46 UTC 2011

I did my Ph. D. thesis work in the Borders (and a post-doc in Edinburgh) in a time where the political situation was very different.  The Scottish National Party  was just beginning to make headway, and the Scottish side was a Liberal stronghold.  It was before the first vote on Scottish Devolution, and straddled the Wilson/Callaghan/ and Thatcher years.  Then, in all five places I interviewed in, there were people who did identify as British.  It was a minority view.  In Edinburgh, they tended to be either, I suspect, politically Conservative, or of part or all English parentage.   Because of the clan- and later town-based history of the Scottish Borders, most people in the towns I interviewed in identified with their town first, as Scots second, and Britishers third. Across the Border, they weren't then all that keen to identify as English--they often had some interesting self-identifications, sometimes as Borderers, more frequently as Geordies (NE Northumberland) or as No!
 rthumbrians (Upper Tynedale).  Some actually said that England began not at the Tweed, but at the Tees or the Wear.  The rivalry between Scotland and England was alive and well--since I have a Scottish Borderer's last name, I'd get kidded about being a sheep-stealer in Northumberland.
It affects language too--or did.  One thing you learned early is that each area within the Borders--esp. the Scottish side---has its own dialect, even if they are closely related.  Or they did; Damien will know better what's going on now, but my first impression of the Scottish Borders anyway on my visits is that the whole place has been subsumed into the dialect of the Lothians (Edinburgh).

Paul Johnston

On Feb 7, 2011, at 7:52 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Self-identifying as British (was: UKer)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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)
>
>
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>> 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/
>>
>> Times Higher Education University of the Year 2010
>>
>> DISCLAIMER: http://www.york.ac.uk/docs/disclaimer/email.htm
>>
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