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From:  Ingo Duckerschein <ingo_d@y...>
Ingo Duckerschein <ingo_d@y...>
Date:  Mon Nov 20, 2000  1:08 pm
Subject:  Re: OFF: Scots/English (was Teaching rolled Rs)


Hm, as some one who grew up on the continent (yes, that big land mass
to the South and West of the British Isles with which it forms Europe
(side rant -- I hate it when I hear/see the phrase "UK and Europe".
The UK is a geographically, historically, culturally, and politically a
part of Europe, like it or not.)), I have always wondered why the
English, Scottish, and Welsh were so intent on maintaining their
independence from one another.

Wales has been a part of the UK since the 1300s, Scottland since the
1600s, that's a fairly long time to develop a single national identity.
I suppose the same could be said for the Spanish and Catalans.

Germany, by comparison managed to integrate much faster. I wonder why
that is. Granted, there wasn't nearly as much animosity historically
between Saxony, Bavaria, and Prussia as say between England and
Scottland, but today a German would say they are German first, then
Bavarian, etc. (at least the ones I know). It seems like a Welshman
and Englishman would be Welsh, respectively English, first and then
British (leaving out Ireland to avoid defining an adjective for United
Kingdom). It almost seems like a confederation at times. Why is that?
I'd love any insights/thoughts as I'm really curious about this.

Ingo

P.S. I excluded the Irish from the examples above since the history
between Ireland and England since the history of the two countries is
relatively more troubled and the Republic of Ireland is independent of
the United Kingdom.

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  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
6646 Re: OFF: Scots/English (was Teaching rolled Rs) Sheila Graham   Mon  11/20/2000   4 KB

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