LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 10.JAN.2001 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 10.JAN.2001 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Etymology

Chambers Dictionary takes "keek" back to a ME form "kyke".

Sandy wrote:
>It's important to understand that Scots "keek" is _not_ a cognate of the
Dutch "kijken", ie it doesn't mean "look".<

That doesn't mean it isn't a cognate, just that the words now have different
meanings.

I would pronounce "gucken" as "kucken", though I have never been to Northern
Germany. I vaguely remember some German-speaker laughing at the first
pronunciation, so I switched. I did once work with a man from North Germany
in a laboratory near Fulda. He was rather short and had migrated south to
find shorter women. Has the "kucken" pronunciation also moved south?

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Etymology"

> From: Margaret Tarbet [oneko at mindspring.com]
> Subject: "Etymology"
>
> Sandy argues that 'keik' doesn't map onto 'kijken' and I wouldn't
> presume to gainsay.  But, as I learned the word, 'keik' certainly
> seems to map well onto 'look' and 'kiek' in the sense of 'take a
> look'.  'kiek mal', 'have a look', 'hae a wee keik'.

Yes, but in the "hae a keek" and "tak a keek" constructions the
word is being used as a noun, so the question of duration is
avoided. You can't use the verb "tae keek" as the equivalent of
"look" because the duration is wrong.

Scots writers who are deficient in native Scots idiom tend to
overuse the "tak/hae a (wee) keek" constructions in order to
try and sound "more Scots" by avoiding the word "look" (or its
Scots equivalent, "leuk"), which is "too English" (really
meaning that if they don't avoid as much English as possible
their Scots will soon look like English written with Scots
words). This results in the stiff, repetitive sort of Scots
that's often seen these days.

It's a shame because Scots has plenty of other words which could
stand in place of the noun form of "keek": "skance", "glint",
"went" &c. (though all with their own shades of meaning), and
the expressiveness of the more natural verb form of "keek" tends
to get lost. "Glint" is particularly worthy of consideration by
writers because it has a common diminutuve form "glintie" which
doesn't work so well with the other words, hence the
preponderance of constructions like "a wee keek", where "a
glintie" would be more succint.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
They should hae fand it, an kent that that black nicht wis the
foreglint o brichter days ti come.
                          - D. Gibb Mitchell,
                        'Sermons in Braid Scots'

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