I have no idea where on the spectrum Scots lies, so I’ll confine my observation purely to the abstract point: specific-language variants of things seem like the awkward intersection of Metcalfe’s law and the fact that cultures that lack convenient amenities for want of popularity are unlikely to see their popularity problems solved before they become of purely historical interest.
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I admire such an ethos, yet, I have given up on anyone ever understanding me.
So- this story, it’s literally about the fact that this person is “no true Scotsman”, and has created a massive fallacy? The irony.
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This has me rethinking all of those swedish lessons I had as a kid…
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I tend to think of Scotts as a version of English that didn’t become all French-ified. Which… it more or less is.
The kid probably wasn’t trying to be an asshole (if they were, it’s one of the most committed bits of driving trollies I’ve ever seen). Rather, it was someone who was being “hlepful” (i.e. trying to be helpful, but their own ignorance/incompetence caused their influence to be the opposite).
Which tracks - the reason we can’t have nice things is partly due to assholes, partly due to people unaware of their own insufficiencies.
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Generations of Scottish people (And Welsh, Irish and people from certain parts of England) have been told that they don’t talk proper for generations. The language I think in is a combination of Cumbrian, Geordie and Scots, but I speak and write English because that’s what the schools wanted.
Any desire for a revival in dialects and languages requires that active work is put into sites like Wikipedia, which obviously didn’t happen in this case.
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Weird that the Auld Alliance didn’t leave an impact.
Oh, wait
Other links can be made with other languages, such as French, through words that exist in Scots but not in English. This reflects the Auld Alliance and the fact that there were links between the royal houses of both countries, rather than the effects of conquest or takeover. SCOTS FRENCH arles arles ashet assiette aumry armoire bien bien braw brave douce doux, douce dour dur fash facher gigot gigot tassie tasse.
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For those interested in the inside baseball aspect of this whole insanity:
From that page, here’s a comment by the actual editor in question:
Honestly, I don’t mind if you revert all of my edits, delete my articles, and ban me from the wiki for good. I’ve already found out that my “contributions” have angered countless people, and to me that’s all the devastation I can be given, after years of my thinking I was doing good (and yes, obsessively editing, I have OCD). I was only a 12-year-old kid when I started, and sometimes when you start something young, you can’t see that the habit you’ve developed is unhealthy and unhelpful as you get older. I don’t care about defending myself, I only want to stop being harassed on my social medias (and to stop my other friends who have nothing to do with the wiki from being harassed as well). Whether peace can by scowiki being kept like it is or extensively reformed to wipe my influence from it makes no difference to me now that I know that I’ve done no good anyway.
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Yeah, it’s interesting, there wasn’t the same degree of French-ification, but (some of) the French influence had a different impact than with the Norman-influenced English. Weird parallel, alternative influences… (And then, of course, Scots influenced English, and the other way around as well, so it all gets a bit muddled.)
“braw”
Hmm, I see claims that it’s a pronunciation of “brave” (and thus from French), but I’ve always assumed it’s another Germanic influence, as it has very similar meaning and usage to the modern Swedish/Norwegian word “bra.” Hard to believe that’s a coincidence. (Although knowing language, I suppose it could be derived from both…)
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They actually resemble each other. Not one resembles the other. Two related languages that evolved due to very similar, but not identical, influences. Scots has Gaelic , Doric and Norse influences as well as the Anglo Saxon germanic french norman latin and Friesian etc
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When I first read this story yesterday, some form of mental issue seemed the likely cause to me. It sounded way way too involved, sustained and solitary to be someone being a jerk.
I hope the person is ok.
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Indeed, in this case, self-reported and diagnosed. This is a mess all-around, but I agree, it doesn’t seem at all malicious.
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This is far and away the most fascinating thing to cross my cortices in the past couple hours. What, generally speaking, would give rise to that sort of assymmetry?
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I can’t really explain why.
But to add onto the point:
I have a hungarian friend who speaks romanian who says they can understand pretty decent fractions of european romance languages when they’re written, based on their knowledge of romanian. But she says none of her spanish and french speaking friends seem to understand romanian at all.
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Perhaps it has to do with the methods used to teach your friend Romanian. I learned more about the structure of the English language when I was taking German in high school than I ever did in the eight years before.
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What do you expect when the writers are not paid, the editors are not paid and anyone can upload content? Quality? Factuality? …or, even reality? Its shite for sure, but after seeing Wikipedia exploit workers for years now I cannot wait until its just a random fart in the wind.
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Voice recognition has issues with the Alabama accent as well…but… the Alabama accent is formed from 1600’s Scots rebels who flooded the area… 'leven, 'leven… 'lexa, 'lexa…pudon the Matlock.
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No true Scotsman…
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