escargot
Disciple of Marduk
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2001
- Messages
- 43,131
- Location
- HM The Tower of London
Now you're getting personal.Is a Lard marred-arse a fat cry baby?
Now you're getting personal.Is a Lard marred-arse a fat cry baby?
'Quagmire' is a fairly normal word. I think it's just that most people don't live near really boggy areas, so don't need to use it. It's in use a lot around here at the moment. Sigh.
I have had to pull the odd duck out of mud if that helps!My family version was quackmire. Which I believed until it was corrected in a second year essay
Oh no! If this forum has taught me one thing it's; "Don't mess with the Mollusc".Now you're getting personal.
Apparently there is a whole world outwith this board. Apparently.Is there a Scottish word 'outwith', as in comes from without?
[Glances at the world outwith. Shudders.]Apparently there is a whole world outwith this board. Apparently.
(cf 'hoopernacky')I've no idea if this is a some Scots dialect word, but it's a good one.
Just a thought. Could it have been supernacky with a breath out on the s, so shoopernacky. Think Sean Connery. Still no idea what supernacky is though!There was an old ad on the radio, for what, I can't remember.
A scottish voice was describing a new doohickey as so technologically advanced it was described as "hoopernacky".
I've no idea if this is a some Scots dialect word, but it's a good one.
if I was to guess further, what about Appalachian
For better and worse, Wikipedia is one of the places most of us go to when we want definitive information on a topic. But a recent scandal is highlighting one of the major pitfalls of the platform: not every Wikipedia editor is an expert in their field.
Earlier in the week, a Reddit user named Ultach detailed a discovery they made about the Scots language version of Wikipedia (via The Guardian). Alongside Gaelic, Scots is one of the indigenous languages of Scotland. The thousands of Wikipedia entries written in it make up one of the largest collections of the Scots language you can access online for free. The problem is an American teenager from North Carolina — who can't speak the language — wrote 49 percent of all the entries.
Before Ultach discovered the teen, who had gone by the username AmaryllisGardner, they had been prolific. By 2018, the 19-year-old had written more than 20,000 entries and committed approximately 200,000 edits. They were able to write so much by starting at the age of 12. The majority of entries AmaryllisGardner penned feature the occasional Scots word, often misspelled, and they include no Scots grammatical constructions. It seems AmaryllisGardner used an online translator to graft Scots words onto sentences written in American English.
Scottish People Are Enraged After Finding Out That A Large Part Of Scots Wikipedia Is Written By An American Teen Using A Fake Scottish “Accent”
Scots is a West Germanic language variety that has been spoken in Scotland for several centuries. According to Scots Language Centre, “Scots is one of three native languages spoken in Scotland today, the other two being English and Scottish Gaelic.”
Since there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect, people often disagree about the status of Scots and its relationship to the English language. Despite that, Scots is recognized as an indigenous language of Scotland, a regional or minority language of Europe, and as a vulnerable language by UNESCO. Since Scots is considered to be vulnerable, people have been looking for ways to preserve the language and keep it alive. For instance, there’s a Scots language version of Wikipedia where all the articles are written in this particular language. Or so people thought…
Recently, Scots Wikipedia has become a center of concern on the internet after someone noticed that almost every single article on this page is written by one American teenager, AmaryllisGardener.
“This is going to sound incredibly hyperbolic and hysterical but I think this person has possibly done more damage to the Scots language than anyone else in history,” the Reddit user contemplates. “They engaged in cultural vandalism on a hitherto unprecedented scale. Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world. Potentially tens of millions of people now think that Scots is a horribly mangled rendering of English rather than being a language or dialect of its own, all because they were exposed to a mangled rendering of English being called Scots by this person and by this person alone.”
Best not to glance at it at all if possible. You'll feel better for it. I know I do.[Glances at the world outwith. Shudders.]
Best not to glance at it at all if possible
As you'll know, Harold Pinter's 1988 play Mountain Language deals with the proscribing of a native language as a method of oppression.In state schools of the 1960s across Scotland, any use whatsoever of Scots Language in the classroom was absolutely forbidden (vocabulary, grammar, spelling) on pain of a good thrashing with 'the tawse' (a thick leather belt in the form of a short whip) and that had been the case for well-over a century or two.
I received that punishment many times, from the age of 5 to 13, for a range of petty misdemeanours (not specifically or always due to speaking in Scots, that was something we all rapidly learnt to keep just for the playground). "Getting the belt" was something we never questioned- it was like bad weather, something you coped with, but would've been crazy to argue against.
I can only remember seeing a girl ever getting the belt a couple of times (they were more often hit by the teachers with rulers, or just slapped on the back) whereas boys were belted mercilessly on the hands/wrists/bare legs (or for capital crimes, across the partially-exposed buttocks, whilst bent over a desk).
All highly-effective mechanisms to ensure context codeswitching was observed 98% of the time in respect of dialect and language (I don't resent it, because it was very bad at the time: but I probably should)
ps I only discovered recently that the word "shortleet" or the expression "to be short-leeted" was Scots, rather than standard English. I had self-interpreted it to mean a corporate/HR-context version of the words 'shortlist' or 'short-listed'. In fact, I still can't believe it's not a standard universal English language word.
But "tawse" is a Scots word!In state schools of the 1960s across Scotland, any use whatsoever of Scots Language in the classroom was absolutely forbidden (vocabulary, grammar, spelling) on pain of a good thrashing with 'the tawse' (a thick leather belt in the form of a short whip) and that had been the case for well-over a century or two.
But "tawse" is a Scots word!
I suppose so, but with the additional massive complication that Scots Language & English Language are close linguistic cousins, and that the majority of Scots (even in the 60s) spoke/speak a creole of Scots & English (or perhaps: of English with some Scots)When you were a child Scots was like the Mountain Language.
And the best thing about the word 'outwith' is that most Scots are genuinely perplexed when we realise that others aren't familiar with the word!Apparently there is a whole world outwith this board. Apparently.
And the best thing about the word 'outwith' is that most Scots are genuinely perplexed when we realise that others aren't familiar with the word!
Indeed. I'll never stop being perplexed by it!Every. Single. Time.
It sounds like it's outwith your ken!Indeed. I'll never stop being perplexed by it!
...rendered as:so technologically advanced it was described as "hoopernacky".
...could this have been 'super-techy'?supernacky
There's definitely outwith. It's a fabulous word! Also furth is very useful! And not the same as firth...
No, alas not....rendered as:
...could this have been 'super-techy'?
But wait: the mists are clearing...I've just had a Eureka movement!
The semi-archaic English word 'natty' (as in "he was a natty dresser", smart). With definition as follows:
View attachment 62532
I think we may have a winner! My firm contender for the word you thought you heard was/is, therefore, 'super-natty'..!
I'm not going to wager my smallholding, but I will bet a keg of Red Bull that this is the correct answer, and therefore claim my prize (which is 15 seconds of insufferable smugness followed by a cup of tea served to me by Helena Bonham-Carter)
...'Without' a city wall puzzled me until it was explained that it here means 'outside of'. 'Outwith' would have made more sense.
I've wondered since if Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895) who wrote it had meant to use 'outwith', although she was Irish and not Scottish...