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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Notice that three times the "Mc" is changed to "Mac". I had a Scots friend who told me it was a social error to confuse them. The Scots insist on "Mac".
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,475 |
There's also, M' or Mag. Anyway, it's an orthographic convention and as such probably is not much subject to reason. The real names would've been written in their Gaelic forms: e.g., macDhomhnaill for MacDonald or Macdonell (as in the famous Sanskritist, Arthur).
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Aha! Thanks, jheem--now when any of us get called down for spelling, we can just say, "Sorry if you don't like it, but it's an orthographic convention".
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
My Grandmother used to put a little squiggle under the c of Mc to indicate the missing a. Personally I think the abreviation squiggle would take as long to write as the a but who am I to argue logic against orthographic convention. I always wondered if some Mac's became Mc's through non-squigglement.
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