The Scots Who Left

[Jock Scot]

This interesting stydy of language is helpful to the point at hand - maybe off topic, but helpful. It's a wonderful argument for the use of plain, clear, non-slang, language.

Steady on Bill, you can't do that, apparently! Just think we could upset all those thin skinned people out there and give them an excuse to run, post haste, back to their mother's apron strings. The age of courtesy is not dead in my book, which still allows for straight talking without all this political correctness stuff. I see nothing wrong with straight talking, if it gets the point across politely. But you have to be careful, you know, lest you get the label of being, er, well, "gasp", blunt!

[Father Bill]

Steady on Bill, you can't do that, apparently! Just think we could upset all those thin skinned people out there and give them an excuse to run, post haste, back to their mother's apron strings. The age of courtesy is not dead in my book, which still allows for straight talking without all this political correctness stuff. I see nothing wrong with straight talking, if it gets the point across politely. But you have to be careful, you know, lest you get the label of being, er, well, "gasp", blunt!

Hey Jock, I'm just suggesting that some of the slang terms make it even more obscure. The term "fanny pack" that was used as an example is actually just a small waist pack. The term "fanny" is the slang that can cause the problem.

Maybe.

[Jock Scot]

Hey Jock, I'm just suggesting that some of the slang terms make it even more obscure. The term "fanny pack" that was used as an example is actually just a small waist pack. The term "fanny" is the slang that can cause the problem.

Maybe.

It certainly does! Whilst I am no prude, I still cannot bring myself to use that description of a waist pack.

[Father Bill]

It certainly does! Whilst I am no prude, I still cannot bring myself to use that description of a waist pack.

Well, particularly as it was my Grandma's name!

[Jock Scot]

Well, particularly as it was my Grandma's name!

AH.

[MacSpadger]

Alistair Cooke, the BBC's former US correspondent, reported this conversation between an American and a British diplomat:

- Do you know Lord xxx by any chance?
- Yes, known him all my life. He was my fag at Eton
- Well! I'll say this for you British. You certainly are frank

[AN COIGREACH ALBANNACH]

This is certainly a rollicking discussion,images of barefooted Scots descendants howling the rebel yell competing with the hilariously named fanny pack,whilst we swap oddities of language!Yet it all ties to the subject of the Scots who left,and the sometimes large gaps of perceptions between thier descendants and present day Scots.Allow me to weigh in....

Never before I came to this forum had I heard tartan refered to as plaid.I always understood A plaid to be something a lowland Scot may throw over his shoulder in the more outdoorsy,agricultural past,or the large plaid now called belted plaid of the highlands,or offspring of both,the shoulder plaids of the full highland dress pipe bands etc.

This forum has entertained me with talk of toories,which I always have known as pom poms.

I often,growing up,used to wonder at the whole idea of the Irish kilt.Is the kilt Irish as well? I would ask my family.No it's not,I was told.It's interesting how the mind can work,but I saw the choice of safron colour for the 'Irish kilt'as a sort of nod to the fact that it was not Scottish,sort of like saying
"o.k,we know we are pushing it to jump in on the Scottish bandwagon here,but how about as a pay off,we at least stay away from tartans"

These views of the whole 'irish kilt' idea were spawned by my families Scottish views,and when I read the most interesting article on the 'Irish kilt' to be found on this forum,it only served to underline my views.Yet the whole idea that the kilt is also connected to Ireland,and now,that the tartan is also,though historicly completely incorrect,seems to be surging on,full steam ahead!

When I was younger,and there was still many Scots and Irish to be found in the various industries,it was well known that to mistake a Scot for an Irishman,or vice versa,was a faux pa to be avoided!

[Joshua]

After working for an English company for several years, I made the mistake of telling half a dozen Northen English coworkers that "I need a nap" on a conference call, after several minutes of belly ache laughs from anyone on the call from the otherside of the pond, the response "Wots wrong Joshwar, not toilet trained yet?"

Learning later that a "nap" was slang for a baby wipe or diaper, i.e. "nappy".

[Dale Seago]

Never before I came to this forum had I heard tartan refered to as plaid.I always understood A plaid to be something a lowland Scot may throw over his shoulder in the more outdoorsy,agricultural past,or the large plaid now called belted plaid of the highlands,or offspring of both,the shoulder plaids of the full highland dress pipe bands etc.

There's something interesting about that in a footnote to one of the chapters in Part II of George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets having to due with the use of tartan in the Lowlands and Borders. Not sure exactly when the quote (I just did a search and found it, my actual book copy is at home) is from, but it's late 1500s to early 1600s:

The lower sort of citizen's wives and the women of the country wore cloaks made of a coarse stuff of two or three colors in checker work vulgarly called pladden.

That's the last sentence of Footnote 28 on this page: http://books.google.com/books?id=yYW...page&q&f=false

[AN COIGREACH ALBANNACH]

Thank you Dale Seago!
I will chase that up.With Hay and Anderson in my background as well as more northerly family names,I'm definately interested.Appreciate it.