I stumbled across this site and thought some of you might find it interesting:
http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/rednecks/rednecks.html

Wow. I had no idea. I had guessed that redneck was an insult aimed at manual labourers (sunburn on the neck) and developed to mean any uneducated person.
Thanks for that gem.

Whoah, that was really interesting Gael, my girlfriends doing an english degree and if really into history of language, that page made her day. :)

Originally posted by gael
I stumbled across this site and thought some of you might find it interesting:
http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/rednecks/rednecks.html

Yes, admittedly the Scotd and their Ulster brothers did much to shape that aspect of the USA. Note also, the Confederate flag, which is based upon the St Andrews Cross flag of Scotland; and notice the similarity in Southern and Scots folk music.

At Edinburgh University, one can do a degree in Scottish Ethnology. One of the courses that can be taken is "TRADITIONS OF APPALACHIA".

Words like critter, pinkie, cosy, eerie and others went from Scots or Ulster-Scots into southerrn N.American English but do not exist, or did not exist until recently, in say, "British" English. The language of the Deep South also has an earthy quality which it inherited, and could only have inherited from, the Scots dialects.

I might say more of this topic later.

This link has lots of material on the subject in general:

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/scot/index.htm

Originally posted by calgacus
This link has lots of material on the subject in general:

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/scot/index.htm
This is a great site. I love this picture:

http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/chief_clans.jpg