TRANSACTIONS OF THE GLASGOW ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. No. XXVIII. FRENCH INFLUENCE IN SCOTTISH SPEECH, BY DAVID MACRITCHIE, F.S.A.SCOT. [Read at a Meeting of the Society held on 21st February, 1895.] It was remarked by an English officer, who spent some time in Scotland during the latter part of last century, that "a man who visits this country, "after having been in France, will find, in a thousand instances, the "resemblance which there is betwixt these two nations."1 And for this resemblance history affords a sufficient reason. "The close political and "social ties that bound Scotland to France," observes the late Francisque Michel, "form a very striking feature in the history of both countries, "especially in that of the former. The Ancient League, traditionally dating "from the days of King Achaius and the Emperor Charlemagne, became "in the fourteenth century an undoubted fact, when both countries had "a common interest in resisting the ambition of the Plantagenet kings. "The frequent royal alliances, the steady intercourse, and the consequent "mutual change of ideas between the two kingdoms during the Stuart "era, could not fail to leave recognisable marks upon both nations. On "Scotland, as the more backward of the two countries, French influence "made a deep impression, its language, its social customs, its 1 Edinburgh Life 100 Years Ago (William Brown, Edinburgh, 1886); being a selection from "Captain Topham's Letters." Page 18. In the Preface to his "Critical Inquiry into the Scottish Language." Blackwood & Sons, 1882. business, its pastimes, were all more or less modified by the French "connection." It is of one of these phases of the question that I wish specially to speak the impression which this long-continued alliance left upon the speech of the Scottish people. That such an impression must have been made is obvious when one considers how very intimate the connection between the two countries was so intimate that, for a considerable time, they formed rather one country than two; Scottish merchants, and eventually the whole Scottish people, being made naturalized Frenchmen during the sixteenth century. One cause alone, the existence of the famous Scots Guard in France, would have contributed to the modification of Scottish speech. Readers of Quentin Durward will remember how Scott refers to "the well-known sound of the Scottish-French" in the taverns near Plessis-les-Tours during the fifteenth century. He uses the term Scottish-French advisedly; for it is not to be supposed that the majority of our countrymen spoke French as perfectly as the French themselves. This is clearly shown by many chaffing allusions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, current among Frenchmen, and quoted by Michel.2 No doubt the success of the Scottish cavaliers in France gave rise to some little heart-burnings among the French; nevertheless, it appears quite evident that our worthy kinsmen gave a very peculiar Scottish twist to their French. Beaucoup they pronounced as "boucou," auprès as "awprès," madame as "mawdam," and so on. At this time, also, several proverbial expressions came into being in France; one of which, "to swear like a Scot," does not say much for the piety of our ancestors. Even the saying "as proud "as a Scot" did not exclusively denote that kind of pride which is the extreme of self-respect. This may be seen from a sketch given by Andrew Borde, an English writer of the sixteenth century, whose "Boke of the "Introduction of Knowledge "3 contains quaint descriptions of the various 1 See, for example, "Memoirs concerning the Ancient Alliance between the French and Scots, and the Privileges of the Scots in France." Edinburgh, 1751. 2 Les Ecossais en France: Les Français en Ecosse. Paris, 1862. Vol. ii. pp. 2-9. Completed by him at Montpellier on 3rd May, 1542: reprinted at London in 1814. nations of Europe. In that chapter which "treateth of Scotland, and the "natural disposicion of a Scotyshe man," he makes the representative Scot thus announce himself: "I am a Scotyshe man and trew I am to fraunce In euery countrey, myselfe I do auaunce I wyll boost my selfe, I wyll crake and face But although this hits off very neatly the weak points of our national pride, yet the proverb, "fier comme un Ecossais," indicated above everything the noblest kind of pride, that spirit which, to quote a French writer, made the Scot choose rather to die with honour than to live under the reproach of cowardice. One result, then, of this familiarity with French people and the French language was that the speech not only of the gentry but of the general population of Lowland Scotland became to a certain extent Gallicised. As is well known, many traces of this influence yet survive; and a great many examples are found in the pages of Michel's work on the Scottish language. Nevertheless, Michel does not sufficiently discriminate between French words which presumably entered Scotland in comparatively recent times, and those which almost certainly are an inheritance from the Norman Conquest. Another Frenchman, of quite a different calibre, the popular writer known as Max O'Rell, has, in this respect, been more exact. After giving a list of French words existing in modern Scotch, he correctly observes "These are not words borrowed from our milliners and dress"makers, nor are they such as those relating to political economy, to commerce and navigation, or to sport, such as we have borrowed from "the English, and which are unknown to the masses. They are popular "words denoting the necessary things of life, and even yet in use among "the goodwives of Scotland."1 Some examples of these words, then, as given by Michel, are the following:-In the kitchen there is the word backet, as applied to a wooden 1L'Ami MacDonald, pp. 286-7. box for holding salt, and to another used for carrying coals and ashes,1 which is quite obviously the French baquet. He also derives the word dresser, meaning a kitchen sideboard, from the French dressoir, and no doubt he is correct in doing so. But as this word is used in England also, in exactly the same way, it cannot be held to belong to the class of words introduced into Scotland direct from France three or four centuries ago. The same objection probably applies to several other kitchen words. named by Michel; for although they are now obsolete in England, and I think also in Scotland, yet it is very likely that they came in with the Normans. Coming to the dining table, Michel gives us servet, a napkin (the French serviette), jiggot (French gigot), and ashet or asset, undoubtedly the French assiette; although it is to be noted that in Scotland the term is applied only to what Jamieson describes as "a large flat plate on which "meat is brought to the table."2 Curiously enough, although Max O'Rell has no hesitation in identifying caraff, a decanter, with the French carafe, Michel thinks it necessary to say (op. cit., p. 52) that "that word may "have come directly from the Italian caraffa, such vessel being formerly "of Venetian glass." But, had this been the case, one would have expected the word to retain the Italian and not the French sound. It further appears that certain small cakes, formerly sold in the streets of Edinburgh under the name of "petticoat-tails" were really petits gatelles (an old form of gâteaux), i.e., "little cakes." Gean, the name given by us to the wild cherry, is simply the French guigne; and groset or grozel (a gooseberry) is the French groseille. The mention of "petticoat-tails" as an old 3 Also, in Fife and the Lothians, "for carrying lime and mortar to masons. Michel, Critical Inquiry, p. 64, note. 2 Michel, however, quotes also Sinclair's definition of ashet or asset as "a small dish or plate"; but I do not think this definition will find many supporters. I should also be inclined to derive from the French the name paip, given by Scotch boys to a cherry-stone. The word is used in connection with a game (styled paips or paipie), played at the time when cherries are in season; and a curious feature of this game is that the number of cherry-stones owned by the players is not stated in the usual way, but is always reckoned by fours-each four being called "a caddle." No doubt, paip is connected with English pip; but it appears to me much nearer the French pépie and pépin. The word caddle (four) is moreover strongly suggestive of the French quatre. Edinburgh street-cry recalls another cry of a more unpleasant characterthe once-familiar "gardy-loo" (gardez l'eau), " beware of the water"; but this is one of the expressions which, being now obsolete, is of less interest than those still surviving. I may, however, notice the interesting plural word "fyancells" for "betrothal ceremonies," of which Michel gives an instance in the reign of James IV.;1 and I have myself an example 2 of the plural word "funeralls" which, denoting as it does the obsequies of a single individual, is clearly a Scotticised form of the French funérailles. Another plural derived, as I believe, from the French, and still in use among old-fashioned people, is the word "severals," employed as a substantive and signifying several people. This, I think, is clearly a translation of the French adjective-noun, plusieurs, which has exactly the same signification. The last example, it will be noticed, was not an instance of a French word Scotticised, but of a translation from the French. Michel has referred to such translations, whether of words or of idioms. For example, he points out that, while an Englishman would speak of "going to church," or of "saying grace," a Scotchman would speak of "going to the church" and "saying the grace"; the introduction of the definite article being a purely French idiom. He also cites a phrase, which I confess is unknown to me, "to have a good stomach," used in Scotland as signifying "to have a good "appetite"; and this also he regards as an importation from France. Some other expressions that have occurred to me as having a like origin are these:"To be colded," an everyday Scotch expression signifying "to have "a cold," and an exact translation of the French reflective verb "s'enrhumer." "Je suis enrhumé" could not be better translated than by "I am colded." Another reflective French verb that I believe has been translated by our forefathers is se douter. If one asks a Scotch rustic whether he thinks it will rain, and if he answers "I doot it will," he means that he has little doubt about the matter and is strongly convinced that it will rain. This, 1 Op. cit., p. 51, note 2. 2 The date is March 1742. 3 Op. cit., p. 66. |