Question to Scots about Scots Americans

That area gets a bit of a bad name about it because of the MOVIE “Deliverance”, let me stress, a MOVIE! I’d like to see these Giant Redwoods for myself one day, the sheer size of them is amazing. We have a Yew tree standing in an old graveyard here which some people claim is the oldest tree in Europe. Yew’s can grow to over 5,000 years old but these Giant Redwoods take my breath away. You must have a few lumberjacks in your family tree if your family lived in the woods for so long!

LOL, “little shit” is normally reserved for the “brats”. Said jokingly I might add. Here we’d call them weans or bairns. I’d say wean (pronounced wayne). It’s an abbreviation of “wee yin” – little one. Here we think all Americans are Yanks, would I be right in saying when you talk about yanks you mean people from the east coast?

I think our Irish friend has got a bit of a hard face on him coming on here and telling you what most Scottish people will think but it’s your own fault, you did mention them! LoL. Argue if you want but you’ll lose! LoL. The Vikings ruled all of the islands at one stage or another and even when the islands fell back into Scottish hands the Vikings mostly stayed and inter married with the locals. It’s a bit ironic that the last stronghold of Scots Gaelic is spoken today by the people who descend (at least in part) from the Vikings. In the Shetland Isles they hold an annual procession with a thousand torch carriers dressed as Vikings and they burn a Long boat. The procession is called “Up Helly Aa”. They clearly still cherish their Norse Culture. I’m reading about the origins of the Highland clans at the moment, you can read it here if you wish: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/genhist/hist2.html or here:http://www.electricscotland.com/history/highlanders/part1chap4.htm It doesn’t mention the Vikings as they hadn’t arrived yet but it’s interesting to read. It does refer to the Norse sagas for evidence though. Most people believe (rightly or wrongly) that the Scots brought the clan system with them to Scotland but according to this not so. It may be a lot more ancient than we think. I’m undecided one way or another but it puts a new perspective on things. I didn’t want to mention personal info on a public forum earlier (stupid I know) but my mother’s maiden name is McAlpine (That’s why I like reading about it). Kenneth MacAplin was known as “Rex Pictorum” (king of picts) even though he was only ‘pictish’ on his mother’s side. The more you read about the clan system the more you come to appreciate just how special and unique it was. Sadly, the hills are bare now You can travel for miles and miles and not encounter a soul. But that's part of the attraction to many people.

I still can’t get my speakers working I think I’m going to have to buy new ones. I’ve got a temporary email address at the moment which is (edit) If you mail me one or two of your favourites I’d be delighted to listen to them. I’ve been looking forward to having a listen for over a week now, but nevermind, good things come to those who wait


edit: You don't get any snow there at all? We shouldn't be getting it here either in April! A blizzard out of the blue, and we were on a single track road. We haven't had it too bad this year, hopefully that'll be the last of it for now.

 

Yeah, Deliverence made the deep woods of appalachia look bad, as do most movies. Movies and books about the south are never plesant, it has a lot to do with the lies the Union tells, and the stereotypes that the lead to.

And actually, my brother in law is a logger, so yeah, lumberjack lol. They tried to get me to do it, but im a tree hugger lol.

"you little shit" would be directed at a bratty child. We say "yungin" instead of weein. but "in" still means one. Bonnie has died out in all but the poetic, our flag during the confederacy was called the "bonnie blue". But it was there in use at once, but words like that die. Our culture isnt as isolated as it once was either, with lots of Northerners coming down, and mass communication, our dialect has changed.

Yanks are New Englanders, basically, but the term sometimes applies to the general north, but thats not accurate. From Virginia up is the Yankee territory. Its not a friendly term either. They write the books and history, and outlaw our history (to an extent) and they smear our name around to justify their aggressions.

No, it doesnt snow here at all, just a couple times im my 27 years. I live too far south. It is hot and humid here most of the year. Even in December it can get up to the 80s sometimes.

Cool that you are reading up on history, dont let anyone else know, they might call you silly! Knowing your history is apparently a bad thing now. Or maybe it is just silly for us, since americans have no culture or history right? And tell those Shetlanders that they cant celebrate their Norse culture because they dont live in Norway. Thats the rules! lol. I have a Shetland pony, btw. Well he is half Shetland, half Highland, and he is a short mean little shit.

MacAlpine is a good name, at least it comes with a lot of history, you know where it was and when it started ya know?

I will pick out a few songs, and send them today sometime.

 

I see, that’s what a Yank is, I was never sure. They definitely get snow in New England, don’t ask me how I know that because I have no idea! (I seen it on tv obviously – might have been while watching American football)



Shetland ponies are strange looking creatures. I think they only qualify as a Shetland pony if they are between 28”- 42” tall although I may be wrong about that. There was an American tourist got a sore one recently here when a Highland cow got him in the face. They’re not quite as cute as they look.


I don’t know much about the name that’s why I like reading up about it on the net. You can find out quite a lot on here. As I say it’s my mother’s maiden name and her side of the family came from NI/Ulster. They might have started off here or not I don’t know, I have family with that name living here as well as there. I saw a picture of a flag recently which looked like the Saltire only it had a red cross instead of white one and it had a Red hand in the middle as well. I’m not sure if it’s an American/Ulster-Scot flag or what. It was on an American website and that’s what gave me the impression that it might be an American flag.



I never thought I’d say this but living in that kind of humid heat all year round doesn’t appeal to me at all, it makes me glad for all the miserable wet weather we get here!





I look forward to listening to the mp3’s – when I can! No rush. I’m going away for a couple of days again so I won’t be able to hear them until I get back anyway. Thanks again

 

believe me, i would trade this miserable heat for a miserable cold and wet any day. We have a pretty chilly fall, but hot flashes pop in. Winter can get cold, but never snow cold. It starts to snow more in the more northern parts of the state, and throughout appalachia, but I live on the southern coast. I'm not built for this. Big beards and barrel chests were made for high altitude cold, not low altitude tropics lol.

My horse is about 25", he is a miniature. Still a grouchy little bastard. But i love him though, reminds me of me. His name is Hamish. I love the hairy cows, i want one. A local guy has one, last i saw it was a calf in a petting zoo. My sister raises cows, i keep telling her to get one. If i went into the cattle business, thats all I'd have. Too bad i couldnt get the barley mash and feed it to them like there. Makes the meat great I hear.

As to flags, the red hand is an old ulster symbol from the Ulster Cycle of Cuchullain. His were the red hand warriors. As to the blue with red saltire, that is the Ulster national independance flag, combo of Patrick and Andrews flags. Our saltire is the red field with blue saltire and stars. Look in my state's flag below. It is also called St Andrews Cross, but more commonly known as the "rebel flag". It was flown over a few regiments in the south. The more official flag was the stars and bars, or the Bonnie Blue.

 

I unreservedly apologies for my post the other day, I was hungover, grumpy and generally in the height of it. We all have our days where we act like dickheads and post stupid things.

Sorry again,
Rónán

 

no worries bro, the irish are dicks anyway! (joke )

 

Your sig is in Scottish Gaelic? It's practically the same in Gaelige

 

Don’t get me wrong I love the heat but I’m not too keen on the humidity. It’s a drier heat we get here (if we’re lucky enough in the summer!) if it does get humid you can rest assured that thunder and lightening is on it’s way and then that clears the air. At times I’m glad we’ve got wet miserable weather here because most ‘natural disasters’ occur in warm areas. Tsunami’s, hurricanes, twisters, famine drought etc. We don’t get anything like that here although can you believe in the summer there are sometimes water shortages! England in particular, they’ll be needing water from up here shortly. Ifv you go to Glasgow Tanning studios are ten a penny. Half the Glaswegians (ok that’s a bit of an exaggeration) are walking around thinking they have a nice tan when it’s actually orange! I don’t think it matters where people are they are never content. My 2 favourite places to visit would be Australia and Sweden, the two extremes! Believe it or not they have a hotel in Sweden which is made entirely (so i believe) out of ice.

You shouldn’t take my word as Gospel. 25” might qualify I’m not entirely sure. I’ve heard that the horses in Shetland shrunk through time because of the cold but that surely can’t be true? I’ve never been a keen horse rider myself, I’m very wary of animals. That’s another good thing about living in a cold climate we don’t get poisonous snakes insects or large carnivorours. The most dangerous animal here probably will be cows, they can make quite a mess of the car of you hit them..lol. ‘Heilan coos’ are actually docile creatures, it’s just they have dangerous horns so it’s wise to keep your distance. They make real good pets though. The most famous Highland cow in Scotland is called Hamish. He gets on well with the tourists and I’ll bet he’s had his picture taken more than you or i! Would you be able to get one over there in America? The cattle that make the best meat are Aberdeen Angus. You’ll see a picture here if you wish:

http://www.angusbeefdirect.co.uk/aberdeen_angus_beef.asp?cookiecheck=yes& Magnificant creatures. Their meat is highly sought after by all the big hotels/restaurants. Can’t say I blame them!

So it’s An Independence flag, I see. You’ll not be surprised to hear we that’s why we never see that particular flag being flown here (no matter their political stance, although I’m not dismissing that it might be something for the people there to consider). The only time you’ll see the Red Hand here is on the St George cross. I never understood that myself, seems odd that Ulster-Scots should fly the cross of St George. That said, you do see the N.I flag often, mainly at Rangers football games. Their rivals being Celtic, they fly the Irish tricolour. In fact, come to think on it Rangers fans sing a song “hello hello” which I think was a song first sung in your part of the world. Something about marching to or through Georgia if my memory serves me correctly. (not being an expert on the geography of the USA I’m banking on Georgia being in the south, I’m hoping I picked it up on tv correctly!) I know the flag you’re talking about, the “rebel flag”. I’ve seen it often enough. I think the first time I seen that flag was on Dukes of Hazzard! I really should do a quick search and have a look at the map to see which part of the country you're talking about here and maybe spare myself some embarrassment. You'll probably tell me Dukes of Hazzards was filmed somewhere else lol.

 

Originally Posted by Spacer
I unreservedly apologies for my post the other day, I was hungover, grumpy and generally in the height of it. We all have our days where we act like dickheads and post stupid things.

Sorry again,
Rónán


I can't argue with any of that, it happens to the best of us It's forgotten about.






Quote:
Originally Posted by Spacer
Your sig is in Scottish Gaelic? It's practically the same in Gaelige



Scots Ghaidlig and Irish Gaelige are two branches of the same language (Q variant). In Scotland we call it "gallic", i don't think i would be able to understand people who were talking in Irish Gaelic. Certainly not all of it. The trouble is i have never heard anyone speaking Irish Gaelic. Some Welsh words (P variant) are similar to Irish or Scots too. The Picts spoke mainly P-Gaelic, a similar language to what the Welsh speak but just like Irish and Scots Gaelic, i wouldn't imagine they'd have been able to communicate very well without an interpreter (edit: St Columba said they needed one).

 

LOL, have you noticed that with some of them too!!
































Of course, you do get dicks everywhere not just Irish

 

Actually, the short stockiness of the Shetland ponies does come from cold and harsh. It takes less energy to run their body, so less food can be eaten, which in the winter time it can be sparce. The short stocky body has the same body mass as a tall skinny one, but absorbs more sun and has less area to distribute the heat. Take short stocky people like me, barrel chested and wide, but not to tall. Its a mountain body style, where as people in the African Sahara are reeeaally tall and thin. They receive less heat from the sun, because they arent spread outm, but have the same amount of body mass.

My sister has a really big Black Angus bull, and yes the meat is great. As to "Hedy Coos", like I said, a guy locally has some, so i am sure i could if i wanted one.

Dunno about the Hello song, might be an old war tune from the War between the States. Union or Confederate i wouldnt know.

As to the Dukes of Hazzard, yes that is in Georgia, and i grew up with that show. I even had the general lee "hot wheel" car, it was great. The movie was pretty good too. I laughed at the part where he refered to themselves as "Appalachian American".

The song that the General Lee's horn blows, is "Dixie" the Southern National anthem. Will email that too.

Do you have a myspace account by any chance?

Wanted to post some pics to show you, the first two are from our Highland games, me competing and the Ceilidh that night, the last one is my wife and I when we renewed our vows a year ago. Just wanted to share.

 

Ok, you've got mail, but it has no subject line, but thats the one.

 

heron i dont believe you have any scottish :H american in you .....infacdy i think your full of shitty tryin e take a cheapi shot outdi britti .........you tell me ? . where did yer ancestors come from i ..........and please no one liner smart remarks .

 

I think Welsh is very different apart from certain words where as Gallic and Gaelige seem to have more grammatical similarities. To compare I'd say maybe the relationship between Gaelige and Gallic could be the same as Spanish and Portugese maybe.
I met a guy from Cornwall once who told me that Cornish had alot of similarities with Welsh.

What's the Gallic for Ireland? The Gaelige for Scotland is 'An Albain'.

 

So it's true enough then. I suppose it does make sense. I was reading up on them there it appears the modern day Shetland ponies have been influenced by some Scandanavian breed. You can read it here if you wish: http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/shet.html I didn't know that. It seems they have been around for a long time judging by the stone carvings. The Highland cattle are noted for their lean meat as well i should add, but you probably know that. Some say it's even better than Aberdeen Angus but i suppose it comes down to a matter of opinion.

Aye send it so i can get a listen. Dukes of Hazzard used to be one of my favourite tv programs too, i'm sure there was a film made recently? I haven't seen it if there was. I'd remember seeing Dasiy Duke I just did a quick search there for the Appalachian Mountains it's a stunning place that you live. I seen some pictures here:http://www.math.montana.edu/~nmp/materials/ess/mountain_environments/intermediate/appalachians/appalachian.html there's lots of good links there. It says most peaks are between 2,000-4,000 ft, just like here!

No i don't have a myspace account, i don't even know what it is or does? I'm new to this website and far from being an expert i really don't know what i'm doing. I like the pictures, how did you get on? I've never competed in a Highland games, closest i came to that was messing around as a boy. Do you compete often?

edit: Nice to meet your good lady wife, do say hello to her for me (i almost forgot about her there, too busy reading about cows - better not tell her that..lol), hello from a cold wet damp miserable , but forever Bonnie Scotland!

 

Apologies i mispelled Gaidhlig :$ "Eirinn" it would be. Alba for Scotland, Welsh is very different, it's only certain words which appear the same. Cornwall is the same variant as Welsh so there will be a lot of similarities i would imagine. To my knowledge Cornish Gaelic died out in the late 18th century. I could be wrong about that but i don't think anybody speaks it now. Welsh is probably the most widely used, i think 20% of them speak it there.

 

Warning, we have a scouser loose aboot this hoose

 

What kind of challege is that? They didnt all come from the same spot, so if you want a single place, of one line, then Isle of Skye. Also from Ulster, lots emmigrated from Liverpool, so actual places are not known. Most immigrated to North and South Carolina, and the way I wound up where I am is some moved to Georgia, then to Alabama, then to south Mississippi.

I have offered my sloinneadh before, or do you even know what that is?

Would you challenge me if I said i were English-American? And why would I lie? to be cool? If i wanted to be a trend monger, and "be cool" i would say I was Irish, god knows they have gotten popular in merchandise.

so, kindly, fuck off.

 

unfortunatly, i dont live up in the hills, but down on the coast. My family came from there though, i have visitied Kentucky and Tennessee, where most of my mountain ancestry is, and have considered moving there. Down here on the coast is nice, the forests are nice and the creeks are beautiful, but would like to live higher up in the hills. We have "hills" here, no mountains. They start in the north east part of my state. Our highest mountain in the state is like 800 feet.

I dont compete often, just for fun, but there is a serious circuit here. Some games are even invite only, for the best. I was games chief, over the games, but dont compete much. I have considered a serious training regiment, and make the circuit in the fall, but dont have the time. It worked out when I kept the equiptment at home, had all the access I needed, but it stays with our athletes now, so they can train. I may become involved with the organization again, but resigned due to some disagreements after Katrina.

I sent the songs, but got

The following addresses had delivery problems:

<Monday2@tiscali.co.uk>
Permanent Failure:
552_RCPT_TO:<Monday2@tiscali.co.uk>_Mailbox_disk_quota_exceeded
Delivery last attempted at Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:33:29 -0000

I assume that to mean your mailbox is full.

and here is a link to where I live.http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/ms.htm

and this is the creek I like to canoe http://www.blackcreekcanoe.com/images/!!framed-new.jpg

 

Island, thought you might enjoy this link http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/rednecks/rednecks.html