A few more malapropisms and eggcorns

[cimorene]

• felt like he had known them for years, down to their littlest kirks


• efforts he makes to steal himself


• a wreck, all nervous ticks


• Handsome, confident and striding towards him, a beam running across his face


• dramatically clamped a hand over his heart

Comments

[daegaer]

I feel the first one is someone with a deep knowledge of the history of Scottish Presbyterianism.

[cimorene]

Is kirk only Scottish, or is it used elsewhere too in, idk, rural or regional speech from different places if you go back far enough? Not used in Ireland at all? It means church in Swedish too, is why I ask, so possibly a borrow (but then again, sometimes old norse and anglo-saxon already had similar terms).

[daegaer]

I think it's just Scots - and I'm not sure that Northern Irish people who use Ulster Scots use it (there's a lot of political stuff going on in the name Ulster Scots, and many Northern Irish people - including people who speak in that manner - aren't in favour of the term. I recently read an argument, from a Northern Irish geographer, that the dialect in question is more connected with/descended from Elizabethan English than Scots). the term isn't used in mainstream Hiberno-English - my mother's grandfather, born in 19th century Scotland in a Scots and Scottish-English speaking environment, did use it, specifically to mean "going to a Presbyterian church." I'd imagine it went directly into Scots from either an Old Norse influence or if it was similar in anglo-saxon stayed in the old form in Scots while changing to "church" in English. (Obviously you're right and it's a Germanic word, like many in Scots).

[cimorene]

Ooh, Ulster Scots, that's interesting. I'd never heard that term before. I knew there were Scottish transplants to Northern Ireland - my 7th great-grandfather was one before he went to America - but I didn't realize there was still a distinct surviving Scottish language (dialect?) in Northern Ireland. That must be great fun for linguists!

[daegaer]

Ulster Scots is plagued by politics, alas! Forget the "Is Scots a dialect of English?" debate, there's a whole "Is US a dialect of English or Scots or does it even exist at all outside of sectarian politics?" debate.

Someone who would be expected to be PRO-Ulster Scots, saying it's not a language

An argument that it's a variant of Scots

An informational leaflet from the British-Irish Council, suggesting that words like kirk exist in place names. (Many of the words and some of the phrases it gives as Ulster-Scots are straightforward Hiberno-English, though!)

[princessofgeeks]

I myself have had occasion to steal myself occasionally.

[cimorene]

How would you illustrate it in cartoon fashion, though? That was preoccupying me last night as I made this post.

[princessofgeeks]

No idea but it's an intriguing thought.