Scotch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Scotch (disambiguation), Scottish (disambiguation), or Scots (disambiguation).
Scotch is an adjective meaning "of Scotland", now usually considered pejorative by some Scottish people.[citation needed] Common contemporary usage is Scottish or Scots, but 'Scotch' is still in contemporary use outside Scotland without being considered archaic or pejorative. Many Scots consider that the word "Scotch" should only be applied to specific products, usually food or drink, such as scotch whisky, scotch pie, scotch broth or scotch eggs.
[edit] Decline in usage
The adjective or noun Scotch is an early modern English (16th century) contraction of the English word Scottish which was later adopted into the Scots language. It more or less replaced Scottish as the prevailing term in England. Scots (the modern Scots language form of early Scots Scottis[1]) predominated in Scotland until the 18th century when anglicisation became fashionable and Scotch was used in both England and Scotland.[2] Welch (for Welsh) is a similarly anglicised analogue of Scotch.
From the early 19th century Scots or Scottish increasingly became the preferred usages among educated Scottish people, Scotch being regarded as an anglicised affectation. In modern usage in Scotland, "Scotch" is never used, other than as described in the following paragraph for a short list of articles; it has gathered patronising and faintly offensive connotations ("frugal with one's money"),[3] and a non-Scot who uses the word in conversation with Scots as a description of them may find this a good test of their courtesy. The use of "Scots" and "Scottish" is not altogether consistent; but in many words and phrases one or the other is normally used: there is a certain tendency for "Scottish" to be used in more formal contexts.
In modern current English usage the general term for things from or pertaining to Scotland is Scottish. Scots is used for the Scots language and Scots law, although one increasingly hears it used of people and organisations, especially in newspaper articles. Scotch remains in use only for phrases like Scotch broth, Scotch beef, Scotch egg, etc[citation needed] . One cynical joke is that Scotch can be used only for things which can be bought, such as whisky, eggs and politicians. Scotch terrier was once one of these legacy uses, but has increasingly been replaced with Scottish terrier.
Scotland was one of the first countries in the world to introduce compulsory education for all children in 1872 (England introduced it in 1880). The Scottish school system was placed under a "Scotch Education Department" with offices in London. In 1918, as a result of objections from within Scotland, the department was moved to Edinburgh and renamed the Scottish Education Department. This reflects the linguistic preferences of modern Scotland.
John Kenneth Galbraith in his book The Scotch (Toronto: MacMillan, 1964) documents how the descendants of 19th century pioneers from Scotland who settled in Southwestern Ontario affectionately referred to themselves as Scotch. He states the book was meant to give a true picture of life in the Scotch-Canadian community in the early decades of the 20th century.
Galbraith's use of the term Scotch is telling.He is a "Scotch Canadian" speaking about his own community and certainly his use of the term is not pejorative. This is an example of how older uses of words and forms continue in communities of expatriates broken off from their original roots, and could well indicate that it is the native Scots who have changed the usage. Use of terms such as "Fall" in North America echoes the English use of "Fall of leaf" now displaced by "Autumn." That the use of "Scots" in "polite society" in Scotland is the modern preferred use is not in doubt but use of "Scotch" in versions of the "Leid"(the Scots/Scotch language) i.e Lallans and Ullans. continues with terms such as Scotch and English(a game),Scotch fiddle(Itchiness),Scotch mile and ell(measures) and many other examples(see the Scots Dialect Dictionary compiled by Alexander Warrack M.A. published by Waverley Books 2000). There are other good indicators that the use of "Scotch" has been "whitewashed out" and become a shibboleth.Early versions of dictionaries produced in Burns' wake in the 19th century had titles such as "A Dictionary of the Scotch Dialect of the Lowlands" and modern place names now written as "Scots" e.g.Scostarvit and Scotscalder existed in previous incarnations as "Scotch".
It is well to remember that Boswell who gave voice to Dr.Johnson was a Lowland Scot and scaled the heights in his reporting of Johnson's view of the "rude Scotch". So, the idea that "Scots" is a derivation of "Scottis" and is therefore preferable to English usage "Scotch" is probably a piece of sophistry which was a tiny but significant part of the entire framework of support built up as Scotland moved to reclaim her nationhood in the later part of the nineteenth and on into the twentieth centuries. The use of the two variants Scotch and Scots in Scottish law where language is frozen in time is interesting.In a reminiscence on his early training as an advocate under Scottish Law,Sir Walter Scot describes the law as "Scotch Law" some 4 times and as "Scots Law" just once.By the 1840's other writers are using "Scots Law" referring back to an earlier point above on the use of language by expatriate communities it is interesting to note that the term used by American lawyers is still uniquely Scotch Law.
