Terms for armies

[d_Guy]

Or it could be, do cults of celtic Celts support the Celtics...

Scotch. A peat flavored fluid which lowers inhibitions and inspires poetry. The Scotch army summons to mind a gathering of the Methodist WCTU.

There is also the Welsh Guards and the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

[John Cook]

Scotch . . .

Nooooooo!  That's a drink! 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

Which proves the Welsh cant even spell their own name 

[Raider4]

Which proves the Welsh cant even spell their own name 

Sigh. Predictable. And tiresome. And sticking a smiley on the end does not make if funny

Can you just give it a rest please?

[Raider4]

Nooooooo!  That's a drink! 

As I understand it, up until ~19th century it was the usual term used, but was then gradually replaced by either Scots or Scottish. So, your usage depends on what - and when - you are describing.

[FierceKitty]

Dr Johnson always called them Scotch. But then, he always maintained he could move his upper jaw independently of his skull, so he may be an imperfect authority.

[John Cook]

As I understand it, up until ~19th century it was the usual term used, but was then gradually replaced by either Scots or Scottish. So, your usage depends on what - and when - you are describing.

I would like to scotch this right now.  When I say Scotch I mean Whisky, as opposed to Whiskey.

[Ithoriel]

As a very, very general principle I'd say Scots are a people, Scottish is a language, Scotch is a drink.

I fear my final piece of that list, pertaining to Scotland, would meet with the same censure as Leman's post.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

No - the term for the lowland Scots language is Scots, and its a very heavily dilected(sp) version of English. Galic seems to have been restricted to North of the Great Glen and the Isles.

[Ithoriel]

The term for Lowland Scots is actually Lallans, as opposed to The Doric, spoken in the North East .... and Gobbledigook, spoken in Glasgow

[FierceKitty]

Do Lowlanders really deserve a name?

[mmcv]

There's also an Ulster-Scots dialect, or "Ullans", spoken in the north of Ireland.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Do Lowlanders really deserve a name?

Well they are the majority.

[FierceKitty]

There are more beetles than any other multi-cellular animal on this planet, I believe.

[howayman]

Do they speak with a liverpudlian accent?

[steve_holmes_11]

Interestingly you would say the German did this or the Italian did that when talking of an individual. But you wouldn't say the English or French did that, you'd say Englishman or Frenchwoman. It's interesting that for some the singular is also the possessive and others the plural is the possessive.

Could be something to do with the sounds at the end of the word. -ish and -ench are softer than the hard -an. So the softer ending English, Danish, Spanish, French, Dutch, etc vs the harder* German, Russian, Italian, Belgian, American (and many many more)

Other soft endings tend to follow the same pattern, e.g. -ese as in Chinese, Japanese, Sudanese, Portuguese.

...10 minutes down the etymological rabbit hole later...

Seems the harder -an style endings tend to come from the Latin names into English while the softer endings tend to come from German (ish) or Italian (ese). Presumably in other languages they use different patterns for singular vs plural possession depending where they get the national names from.

In answer to d_guy my understanding is Scottish is generally the correct term for the people. Scots I've only really seen used in relation to the language/dialect and in some archaic uses. Scotch meanwhile tends to relate to inanimate objects related to Scotland. So the Scottish people speak the Scots dialect while drinking Scotch whisky.


*No dirty jokes, I know what you lot are like...

Just guessing here.
Germans, Italians (add in Indians and another example) are distinct plurals, ass opposed to English, Scots, Dutch, Chinese.

Could the plurals be because the geographic description existed before the areas became unitiary states?

Just guessing here, and I'll freely admit it's more likely to be an inconsistency inherent in any Frankenlanguage that's a mash-up of Old German, Norman French, with a high proportion of international loan words form our colonial past.

[steve_holmes_11]

Do they speak with a liverpudlian accent?

Dey do doh, don't deh.

[d_Guy]

There are more beetles than any other multi-cellular animal on this planet, I believe.

With new models coming out each year, seemingly.

[FierceKitty]

Do they speak with a liverpudlian accent?

The mind boggles.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Do they speak with a liverpudlian accent?

Nah - it be mostly Italian in Glasgee !