Kill the Scotish Nation

2) Language =/= nation. You have maybe 5% of Irish Gaelic regular speakers in Eire, the rest of the country being largely english-speakers, and yet they're not British or English nationals.

I disagree very strongly here. The British Isles are pretty much the only place in Europe where language doesn't equal nation. Look at the Germans*, the Italians etc.


*Yes I'm aware that nowadays Austrians and Swiss Germans don't regard themselves as Germans, but prior to 1945 and especially during the peak of romantic nationalism in the 19th century they did. Though of course that doesn't mean they wanted to be ruled by the Hohenzollerns.
 
I disagree very strongly here. The British Isles are pretty much the only place in Europe where language doesn't equal nation. Look at the Germans*, the Italians etc.

Counter-exemples : Galician, Occitan, Breton, Alsatian, Sorabian, Asote's French, etc. . All of them being exemple of languages understood and spoken by the same or higer ration than Irish Gaelic.
While language can be a part of national identity (critically when state structure use linguistic feature to strengthen this same identity), it's certainly NOT equaling it.
 
I disagree : identity up to the XVIII isn't much made along language or "national" feature but more on relation towards power. The existance of a kingdom of Scotland since the XI and a line of kings, clans, etc. formed a structure that was recipient of identity.
Cornwall, at the contrary of Scotland or even Wales, didn't managed to form such structure and was soon absorbed entirely by its neighbors.
With such PoD, while you can have a scottish identity more close or less conflictual with England (a bit like Wales) you won't butterfly or get rid of it.

Annexation to England during the Wars of Independence can achieve this, surely? I get your point about the Highlands and Islands being more difficult to subdue, but it's the sort of area that can lose its identity late. If the central belt identifies as English, then the Highlanders are going to become like the Sorbs - so numerically overwhelmed, interbreeding and the changes of the industrial revolution will eliminate it.
 
Counter-exemples : Galician, Occitan, Breton, Alsatian, Sorabian, Asote's French, etc. . All of them being exemple of languages understood and spoken by the same or higer ration than Irish Gaelic.
While language can be a part of national identity (critically when state structure use linguistic feature to strengthen this same identity), it's certainly NOT equaling it.

I'm not sure those examples work in the British comparison. You'd need examples the other way: a strong national identity in the absence of local language, not a lack of a national identity despite a separate language. In this scenario, you'd have a land which wouldn't have its own language, church, legal system, state or local administrative system. Are there any situations where a national identity has emerged despite that?
 
I disagree very strongly here. The British Isles are pretty much the only place in Europe where language doesn't equal nation. Look at the Germans*, the Italians etc.


*Yes I'm aware that nowadays Austrians and Swiss Germans don't regard themselves as Germans, but prior to 1945 and especially during the peak of romantic nationalism in the 19th century they did. Though of course that doesn't mean they wanted to be ruled by the Hohenzollerns.

When you're talking about Austria, there's a distinction--especially before 1918--you have to remember to say that you're talking about "German Austria", as Imperial Austria considered itself a "multi-ethnic" empire.

--And I got that straight from native Austrian (and Hungarian) professors.
 
The Highlanders are an interesting case.
Their different language and different culture didn't at all help pull Scotland away from a general British identity but rather pushed them towards it- over the years the lowlanders gained more and more in common with the English and less and less with the Highlanders. This really helped the cause of British nationalism north of the border- lest we forget it was the Scots who were the main supporters of the union in the early days
 
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