Ian’s Reviews > James II > Status Update

Isn't it Stuart and not Stewart?
In America it is that.
My wifes DNA has been upped to 25% Scot. Her home state of Kentucky had a massive influx from there, mostly lowlanders and Scot-Irish I think..
Famous restless souls here in America are part of that heritage too. Daniel Boone, Sam Houston, probably Davy Crockett, Andy Jackson, my ex Son in Law, etc. Her Dad was related slightly to Abe Lincoln from his mothers second marriage to a guy named Sparrow. Hanks went away. George Clooney is kin to Abe in the same way. Tom Hanks thru the first Hanks marriage.

Davy wrote: "Isn't it Stuart and not Stewart?
In America it is that.
My wifes DNA has been upped to 25% Scot. Her home state of Kentucky had a massive influx from there, mostly lowlanders and Scot-Irish I think..."

The spelling "Stewart" was used up until the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots in the 16th century. She was taken away to France at the age of five, to protect her from falling into the clutches of Henry VIII, who wanted to marry her to his son Edward, and who launched an invasion of Scotland to try to secure this (it's known in Scottish history as "The Rough Wooing"). The French changed the spelling of Mary's surname to "Stuart," and that became the common use thereafter, at least for the royals. Both forms of spelling are used in Scotland today although "Stewart" is still more common as a surname.

As a royal name, it derives from the 14th century. Robert The Bruce became King of Scots after winning the Wars of Independence. His son, who became King David II, died childless. David II's sister Marjory had married a man called Walter the Great Steward - the latter referring to a senior post in the royal household. After David II died the throne passed to Marjory's son Robert, who became King Robert II, and who began the "Stewart" dynasty.

Going back to Mary Stuart, her father, James V, died in 1542 of an unknown illness, when she was a week old. There's a story that when James, on his deathbed, was told his wife had given birth to a daughter, he commented "Devil take it! It came in wi' a lass and it will go oot wi' a lass." Sadly, historians tend to think the story was invented a few decades later.

In the end the Stewart/Stuart dynasty did "go oot wi' a lass", but not until the death of Queen Anne in 1714. She had 18 pregnancies and gave birth to 11 children, but none survived into adulthood.

I am very interested in where our regional dialects come from. The wierd Boston accent is mostly from a certain region of England, kinda north I think. I pawked the caww in Hawvud (Harvard) Yawd. Etc.
In Virginia they say aboot for about. That sounds Scot like you depicted so I am a little confused because Virginia was more English.
There is a great book about Appalachian culture called Christy by Catherine Marshall. My wife loves that one, she sees parallels to her Moms 'country' Kentucky accent. The hillbilly culture. Some sayings in another great classic American Civil War era book Uncle Toms Cabin are like oddities she detected in her Mom and Grandma's speech. I think i may have touched with you on my own Scot angle.

I used to do biz on the northern neck of remote southern Virginia and you can still take a short boat ride to even more remote Tangier Island where most still speak with an English accent. That may be going away with internet usage etc..
I knew a guy from south Louisiana named Louviere. He said French visitors would often say that cajun dialect was like a stilted form of French that had not evolved from the 18th Century or so. Tangier Island may have been that, but I unfortunately never took that short very over from Reedville. Near Kilmarnock by the way. Pretty sure that is Scot.

Ferry not very

Davy wrote: "I am very interested in where our regional dialects come from. The wierd Boston accent is mostly from a certain region of England, kinda north I think. I pawked the caww in Hawvud (Harvard) Yawd. E..."

I don't know too many North American accents. I can tell a southerner from a Yankee, and I can tell a NYC/New Jersey accent. I can also tell a real Canuck from an American- they also have a particular way of saying "out" and "about". Not all Canadians have the accent, but I can spot them if they do.

You need to live in a country to really get to know the various accents.

I read a great collection of Kentucky hillbilly stories called "On Troublesome Creek," by James Still, originally published in 1941. The author is a different person from a US playwright of the same name. Actually your wife might be able to answer a question I had. One of the stories in that collection took place at a "stir-off". I hadn't known what that was but was able to look it up on the web - a traditional event in which communities gathered to make molasses. In that story there was several references to "candyjacks." The context suggested it was some sort of alcohol but I couldn't find out more. I asked another GR Friend (living in South Carolina). She thought it might be moonshine sweetened with molasses, but she wasn't sure. Any information gratefully accepted!

Davy wrote: "I used to do biz on the northern neck of remote southern Virginia and you can still take a short boat ride to even more remote Tangier Island where most still speak with an English accent. That may..."

Yeah Kilmarnock is in Scotland. The prefix is derived from cille - Scottish Gaelic for "church." I think there was an older spelling of "cill." There are a lot of place-names in Scotland that start with "Kil" and they pretty much all have that derivation.

We lived in a golfing community in SW Houston on Carnoustie.