{"id":9522,"date":"2021-04-11T17:33:56","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T17:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=9522"},"modified":"2021-04-12T11:59:25","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T11:59:25","slug":"a-scots-terminology-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=9522","title":{"rendered":"A Scots terminology question"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

One Twitter account I follow is Miss PunnyMany for her insights into Scots English. She’s just asked a very important question of manners and terminology in this tweet<\/a>, as shown below.<\/p>\r\n

\"Tweet<\/p>\r\n

Well, is “hen<\/em>” rude?<\/p>\r\n

Let us see.<\/p>\r\n

An accurate definition would be a good place to start.<\/p>\r\n

A general glossary of Scots vocabulary<\/a> posted on Stirling University’s website provides the following definition:<\/p>\r\n

hen: vocative term for a woman (e.g. \u2018It’s aw richt, hen\u2019), or a general term of endearment for anyone.<\/blockquote>\r\n

Note the phrase “general term of endearment<\/em>“. That’s a big clue, indicating that its use is confined to close friends and acquaintances.<\/p>\r\n

This view is largely borne out by the tone of the responses to Miss PunnyMany’s tweet.<\/p>\r\n

Furthermore, a few respondents rightly point out that, like “pal<\/em>” south of the Border, “hen<\/em>” may be used in a pejorative or threatening manner to people outside one’s immediate social circle.<\/p>\r\n

\"Mhairi
You don’t talk shite, hen!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

An example of this can be found in a place a fair way from Scotland, namely the chamber of the House of Commons in Westminster.<\/p>\r\n

Back in March 2017, SNP<\/acronym> Member of Parliament Mhairi Black<\/a> gave rise to comment in the media and on social media<\/a> when appearing to mouth the words “You talk shite, hen<\/em>” to a response by Tory minister Caroline Nokes<\/a>, then the Under Secretary of State in the Department for Work and Pensions.<\/p>\r\n

Ms Black had just made an impassioned speech that criticised a Government proposal to withdraw housing benefits for 18-21-year-olds. Her silent, but lip-read comment denoting her clear displeasure came during Ms Nokes’ reply which naturally defended the government’s cruel proposal.<\/p>\r\n

So there you have it, use “hen” sensibly and restrict it to family, close friends and acquaintances, you shouldn’t go too wrong.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One Twitter account I follow is Miss PunnyMany for her insights into Scots English. She’s just asked a very important question of manners and terminology in this tweet, as shown below. Well, is “hen” rude? Let us see. An accurate definition would be a good place to start. A general glossary of Scots vocabulary posted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,32,15,34],"tags":[14,16,22,33,20,35],"class_list":["post-9522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-media","category-politics","category-social-media","tag-dialect","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-media-2","tag-politics-2","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9522"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9545,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9522\/revisions\/9545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}