Talk:Erse

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Now archaic and/or derogatory!" ??? Hmmm... is Erse an ethnic slur ? -- PFHLai 05:16, 2004 Aug 21 (UTC)

In Fife, Scotland - "an erse" means "an arse" in slang (an arsehole / anal)

Airse isna slang ye numptie its juist the guid Scots cognate o arse.

I believe Erse is actually a Norse form of the word Irish and was not originally derogatory. But later, in a language still called Inglis, it was used to characterise the Gaelic of Alba, previously called Scottis, as foreign to Britain and Scotland. The name Scottis then became available as a name for the language which had been called Inglis and is now called Scots. The early Inglis/English-speaking state had great difficulty establishing its feudal laws in Gaelic speaking areas, not least because, in the minds of its users, Gaelic preserved much older laws, 'tribal' laws which had acquired written form before the creation of the Inglis-speaking state. And allowing Gaelic to be known as Scottis/sh really did not suit the interests of a state which itself claimed to be Scottis/sh, while using a different language. Laurel Bush 13:24, 11 May 2005 (UTC).

The Gaels had the same problem (I believe, but like you offer know evidence for this belief) when they came over from Irleland and replaced the Cumric and Brythonic languages with their own.80.192.59.202 04:31, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

I have always known the Irish-Gaelic language by the name of 'Erse', as to refer to the Irish tongue as 'Gaelic' only confuses it with Scots-Gaelic. (Aidan Work)