The famous "why do you wear a kilt? You are not Scottish"

**Jackson** · 7th May 13, 04:48 PM

All very good suggestions. I really like because "my wife asked me to". However, in my own case it usually comes out as "because my wife says I bought'm, so I'm gonna wear'm." My other favorite is "because this is America and I can." That always works.

Enjoy your kilt. I do.

Jackson

**Carlo** · 7th May 13, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by McClef

Robert Amyot might prefer the translation that is his username Ancienne Alliance rather than Vieille Alliance.

That would be former forum moderator and husband of Lady Crystel. How I checked my bing results, wiki... From what I read vieille alliance is the franco-scottish alliance. Ancienne Alliance means the old testament as far as I understood the sites I looked on.

**TheOfficialBren** · 7th May 13, 05:19 PM

Isn't it a tanslation into the Swiss dialect of French? I had a Swiss friend from Lucerne. Although he was a German-speaker there were several words that were either different or preferred in the Swiss dialect versus the German (or even Austrian) dialects. Is this not the case with French?

I could be totally wrong.

**Downunder Kilt** · 7th May 13, 05:25 PM

Anciennne in the French/English dictionary means: ancient, old or former.
Alliance means: a close association of nations or other groups, formed to advance common interests or causes

**Carlo** · 7th May 13, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by TheOfficialBren

Isn't it a tanslation into the Swiss dialect of French? I had a Swiss friend from Lucerne. Although he was a German-speaker there were several words that were either different or preferred in the Swiss dialect versus the German (or even Austrian) dialects. Is this not the case with French?

I could be totally wrong.

I'm a Swiss german speaker so any difference between french-french and swiss-french would be lost on me. Surely there are differences the only one I remember at the moment is that ninety in one country is nononte and in the other it's quatre-vingt dix.

I actually checked the french wikipedia and other sites or better I checked google.ch and google.fr and they all point towards the old testament relation of ancienne alliance.

Lucerne is quite close to were I am, only 20km away

.

**Carlo** · 7th May 13, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Downunder Kilt

Anciennne in the French/English dictionary means: ancient, old or former.
Alliance means: a close association of nations or other groups, formed to advance common interests or causes

From what I learnt and how I understand it I would say:
Ancienne = Ancient = really old
vieille = old = long lasting

**CDNSushi** · 7th May 13, 06:05 PM

Well... You COULD go a bit more abstract...

"They allow non-Mexicans to eat at Taco Bell.... And I'm also not Chinese, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying Kung Pao chicken..."

**jeanfor** · 7th May 13, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by McClef

Robert Amyot might prefer the translation that is his username Ancienne Alliance rather than Vieille Alliance.

Yes Ancienne Alliance!

**jeanfor** · 7th May 13, 06:12 PM

Thanks a lot for the feedback.... I already feel better!

**jeanfor** · 7th May 13, 07:08 PM

Here what I found. But it is not completely true. Even French people have different opinions about the two words and when to use them.

The word ancien is used when it doesnt exist anymore
the word vieux means aged.

Example : un vieux professeur means an aged teacher but un ancien professeur means that this person was teacher before. This is about a period that is old and doesnt exist anymore.

Un ancien immeuble : its not a building anymore
un vieil immeuble : it is still there but very old.