Scotticism

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Template:Short description A Scotticism is a phrase or word, used in English, which is characteristic of Scots.[1][2][3]

Overview

Scotticisms are generally divided into two types:[4] covert Scotticisms, which generally go unnoticed as being particularly Scottish by those using them, and overt Scotticisms, usually used for stylistic effect, with those using them aware of their Scottish nature. Perhaps the most common covert Scotticism is the use of wee (meaning small or unimportant) as in "I'll just have a wee drink...". This adjective is used frequently in speech at all levels of society.[5]

An archetypal example of an overt Scotticism is "Script error: No such module "Lang".", which translates as "Oh yes, just now". This phrase is often used in parody by non-Scots and although the phrases "Script error: No such module "Lang"." and "Script error: No such module "Lang"." are in common use by Scots separately, they are rarely used together.[6] Other phrases of this sort include:

  • Hoots mon!
  • Script error: No such module "Lang". ("There's a mouse loose about this house"), a standard cliché highlighting Scots-language pronunciation
  • Script error: No such module "Lang". (a phrase popularised by the music hall entertainer Harry Lauder)
  • Script error: No such module "Lang". literally translates to "Long may your chimney smoke!",[7][full citation needed] signifying "may you live long"[8][9][10][11]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang".[12][11] (well known from the comic strip character Oor Wullie)

Many leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, particularly David Hume, strove to excise Scotticisms from their writing in an attempt to make their work more accessible to an English and wider European audience. In the following passage, Hume's contemporary James Boswell pondered upon the reasons why the Scots and the English were not always mutually intelligible:[13]

It is thus that has arisen the greatest difference between English and Scots. Half the words are changed only a little, but the result of that is that a Scot is often not understood in England. I do not know the reason for it, but it is a matter of observation that although an Englishman often does not understand a Scot, it is rare that a Scot has trouble in understanding what an Englishman says... It is ridiculous to give the reason for it that a Scot is quicker than an Englishman and consequently cleverer in understanding everything. It is equally ridiculous to say that English is so musical that it charms the ears and lures men to understand it, while Scots shocks and disgusts by its harshness. I agree that English is much more agreeable than Scots, but I do not find that an acceptable solution for what we are trying to expound. The true reason for it is that books and public discourse in Scotland are in the English tongue.

Modern authorities agree that the Scots language was gradually eclipsed by English after the adoption of English-language Bibles during the Scottish Reformation and the use of English for administrative purposes following the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and the Act of Union in 1707.[14][15][16] Scots Law was a notable exception in retaining much of its traditional terminology such as Act of Sederunt, sheriff-substitute, procurator fiscal, sasine, pursuer, interlocutor (court order) and messenger-at-arms. There is now a strong move in some quarters to restore the use of Scots.

Examples

Examples of Scotticisms in everyday use include:

  • to stay or Script error: No such module "Lang". to mean "to live" or "to reside"[17][18][19]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "to know"[20][21][18][22]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., for example up the road, meaning "to accompany"[23]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "groceries" or "shopping" more generally[24][18]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning ashamed, embarrassed and offended[25]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "soaked" (usually from rain)[26]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "the same age" [27]
  • a shot, meaning to give temporary usage, to try something out[28]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning to move house[18][29]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "to do something vigorously"[30]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "gossip"[31][18][32]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "talking nonsense"[33][18]
  • to give someone Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning scolding, thrashing or punishment; also to Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning "to do something vigorously"[34]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning weary or exhausted[35][36][37]
  • (e.g. Monday) Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning "a week on (Monday)"[38]
  • to be after having done something, to indicate an action recently completed (Script error: No such module "Lang".)[39]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "armpits"[40][41][42]
  • Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning "to shiver"[43]

See also

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2008-04-21. An idiom or mode of expression characteristic of Scots; esp. as used by a writer of English.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Scotticism definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of SCOTTICISM". www.merriam-webster.com.
  4. ^ Aitken, A. J. "Scottish Accents and Dialects" in Trudgil, P. Language in the British Isles. 1984. p. 105–108
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Local Government and Regeneration Committee Benchmarking and Performance Measurement Seminar" (PDF). Scottish Parliament. 10 September 2012.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Betty Kirkpatrick (2006). The Concise Dictionary of Scottish Words and Phrase. Crombie Jardine. p. 94. ISBN 1-905102-88-7. often used humorously by non-Scots
  7. ^ Gordon Kenmuir, Scottish National
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.McAlpine, Fraser. "25 Scottish Sayings That Will Get You Through Life". BBC America.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kemsley, Roderick; Platt, Christopher (June 7, 2013). Dwelling with Architecture. Routledge. ISBN 978-1136260926 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Deveraux, Jude; Barnett, Jill; Dawson, Geralyn; Binder, Pam; Cabot, Patricia (December 28, 2000). A Season in the Highlands. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780743403412 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."16 forgotten phrases you'll only know if you're from Scotland". www.scotsman.com. 23 July 2019.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: help".
  13. ^ F A Pottle (ed.), Boswell In Holland, Heinemann 1952, pp.160-1
  14. ^ R McCrum, W Cran, R MacNeil, The Story of English, London 1986, pp.143-4
  15. ^ D Murison, The Guid Scots Tongue, Edinburgh 1977, pp.5-6
  16. ^ B Kay, The Mither Tongue, Collins 1988, Ch.5
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Stay definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  18. ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Chambers – Search Chambers".
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."STAY | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary".
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Ken definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of KEN". www.merriam-webster.com. 28 April 2024.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."KEN | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary".
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: get v".
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Message definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: affront v".
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: drouk".
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: snds101".
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: shot n1 v interj".
  29. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Flit definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: dinger".
  31. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Blether definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  32. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."blether | meaning of blether in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | LDOCE".
  33. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Haver definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
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  35. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: wabbit".
  36. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wabbit definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
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  38. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: next".
  39. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: efter prep adv conj".
  40. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."OXTER | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary".
  41. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Oxter definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary".
  42. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Definition of OXTERS". www.merriam-webster.com.
  43. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dictionaries of the Scots Language:: SND :: chitter v n1".
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