Apparently A Huge Portion of Scots Wikipedia Articles Were Written As a Joke

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Aug 26, 2020 2:00 PM EDT

In what has been described as possibly more damage done to the Scots language than by anyone else in history, it turns out tens of thousands of Wikipedia articles supposedly in the Scots language were done by a random kid as a joke. It's wild that anyone would be so committed to this, but also insane that it could go on for so long. What a time to be alive.

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  • 01
    Text - dream song 4 @chickenpaprika It turns out an American teen who identifies as an "INTP brony" has singlehandedly written almost the entirety of Scots wikipedia despite not knowing the language at all. Scottish redditors suspect he may have done "more damage to the Scots language than anyone else in history." Robyn Speer @r_speer 2h Almost every article on Scots Wikipedia is written by one American teenager, who does not speak Scots and is just writing English in an "accent". If you have a
    via chickenpaprika
  • 02
    Text - sco.m.wikipedia.org WIKIPEDIA Telekinesis Telekinesis es a form of movnig ebjocts with yor maind. II
    via Wikipedia via Srajo101
  • 03
    Text - Newsins Coronavirus pandemic Disease · Virus · Timeline (Mairch - Apryle) · Bi location · Impact. Daiths Portal Vincent van Gogh's pentin The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen (pictured) is stolen frae The Parsonage Garden at the Singer Laren Nuenen museum in the Netherlands. • North Macedonie acomes a member o NATO. • The 2020 Simmer Olympics are postponed for ane year due tae the coronavirus pandemic. Recent daiths Mair current events...
    via Wikipedia via Srajo101
  • 04
    Text - EDid ye ken... Frae a collection o Wikipaedia's airticles: . that the hairst moose (picturt) is aboot half the weight o the hoose moose? •. that the attemptit murther o Shlomo Argov led tae the 1982 Lebanon War? . that the population o Naryn Region 99% Kyrgyz? that thare is a castle in Kuressaare? that Gabriel Loire wis a French stained gless artist o' th' twentieth century? Airchives – Nominate an airticle
    via Wikipedia via Srajo101
  • 05
    Text - 100 245 Warld War II 1939-1945 global war mainly atween the Allied an Axis Pouers Warld War II, or the Seicont Warld War (aften abbreviatit as WWII or WW2), wis a global war that began in 1939 an endit in 1945. It involved the vast majority o the warld's naitions-includin aw o the great pouers-eventually formin twa opponin military alliances: the Allies an the Axis, It wis the maist widespread war in history, an directly involved mair nor 100 million fowk frae ower 30 kintras. In a state
    via Wikipedia via Srajo101
  • 06
    Text - Unitit States Frae Wikipedia, the free beuk o knawledge For the landmass comprisin North an Sooth Americae, see America. For ither uisses, see America (disambiguation). The Unitit States o Americae (Inglis: United States of America), commonly referred tae as the Unitit States (Inglis: United States, U.S.) or Americae Unitit States o Americae (Inglis: America), is a constitutional federal republic componed o 50 states, a federal destrict, five major sel-govrening territories, an various In
    via Wikipedia via Srajo101
  • 07
    Text - Posted by u/Ultach 1 day ago I've discovered that almost every single article on the Scots version of Wikipedia is written by the same person - an American teenager who can't speak Scots EDIT : I've been told that the editor I've written about has received some harassment for what they've done. This should go without saying but I don't condone this at all. They screwed up and I'm sure they know that by now. They seem like a nice enough person who made a mistake when they were a young chil
    via Ultach
  • 08
    Text - The Scots language version of Wikipedia is legendarily bad. People embroiled in linguistic debates about Scots often use it as evidence that Scots isn't a language, and if it was an accurate representation, they'd probably be right. It uses almost no Scots vocabulary, what little it does use is usually incorrect, and the grammar always conforms to standard English, not Scots. I've been broadly aware of this over the years and I've just chalked it up to inexperienced amateurs. But I've rec
    via Ultach
  • 09
    Text - Even though their Wikipedia user page is public I don't want to be accused of doxxing. I've included a redacted version of their profile here just so you know I'm telling the truth O I'll just say that if you click on the edit history of pretty much any article on the Scots version of Wikipedia, this person will probably have created it and have been the majority of the edits, and you'll be able to view their user page from there. They are insanely prolific. They stopped updating their mi
    via Ultach
  • 10
    Text - Uiser: Frae Wikipedia (Scots) Hello! A'm an A Uiserboxes Wikipedia:Babel help mainteen this wiki! A hae been here This user is a native speaker of the English language. This uiser is an admeenistrator on syne Februar 2013, an syne late 2013 A the Scots Wikipaedia. (verify) en hae been the main active admeenistrator This uiser is an admeenistrator on This uiser can contreibute wi a here. A'm an aw active on the Inglis sco-3 Wikidata. (verify) heich level o Scots. Wikipaedia, as weel as Wik
    via Ultach
  • 11
    Text - The problem is that this person cannot speak Scots. I don't mean this in a mean spirited or gatekeeping way where they're trying their best but are making a few mistakes, I mean they don't seem to have any knowledge of the language at all. They misuse common elements of Scots that are even regularly found in Scots English like "syne" and "an aw", they invent words which look like phonetically written English words spoken in a Scottish accent like "knaw" (an actual Middle Scots word to be
    via Ultach
  • 12
    Text - Here are some examples: Blaise Pascal (19 Juin 1623 - 19 August 1662) wis a French mathematician, pheesicist, inventor, writer an Christian filosofer. He wis a child prodigy that wis eddicated bi his faither, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest wark wis in the naitural an applee'd sciences whaur he made important contreibutions tae the study o fluids, an clarified the concepts o pressur an vacuum bi generalisin the wark o Evangelista Torricelli. In Greek meethology, the Minotaur w
    via Ultach
  • 13
    Text - As you can see, there is almost no difference from standard English and very few Scots words and forms are employed. What they seem to have done is write out the article out in English, then look up each word individually using the Online Scots Dictionary (they mention this dictionary specifically on their talk page), then replace the English word with the first result, and if they couldn't find a word, they just let it be. The Online Scots Dictionary is quite poor compared to other Scots
    via Ultach
  • 14
    Text - Looking through their talk pages, they seemed to have a bit of a haughty attitude. They claimed that while they were only an American and just learning, mysterious 'native speakers' who never made an appearance approved of the way they were running things. On a few occasions, genuine Scots speakers did call them out on their badly spelled English masquerading as Scots, but a response was never given. a screenshot of that with the usernames redacted here This is going to sound incredibly h
    via Ultach
  • 15
    Text - Hi! Could you please translate the following phrases into Scottish so as to create a template? • Prehistoric Scotland • Scotland during the Roman Empire • Scotland in the Middle Ages • Scotland in the early modern period • Scotland in the modern era Thanks for your help. 09:27, 9 August 2016 (UTC) • Prehistoric Scotland • Scotland in the Roman Empire • Sotland in the Middle Ages • Sotland in the early modren period • Scotland in the modren era 16:51, 9 August 2016 (UTC) Sorry, but this is
    via Ultach
  • 16
    Text - Wikipedia could have been an invaluable resource for the struggling language. Instead, it's just become another source of ammunition for people wanting to disparage and mock it, all because of this one person and their bizarre fixation on Scots, which unfortunately never extended so far as wanting to properly learn it. 1 3 1 4 1 3 LO 2.
    via Ultach

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